The Bronze

I want to start out by saying this film is fantastic..! It starts out REALLY slow & I almost made the mistake by turning it off but I stuck with it & boy am I glad.. Melissa Rauch who I'd never heard of before watching this film is hilarious.. She plays a mean foul mouthed former Olympian bronze medalist who is still living off that fame 12 yrs later & plays the part like a BOSS..! *******WARNING******* This film isn't for everyone it is filled with cuss words, sexual innuendos, nudity & a whole bunch of funny so if you like any or all of the above you'll love this film.. 7.5/10

"I had no control of what people talk about. Take that up with the God of gymnastics." Hope (Rauch) is the darling of her little town after winning bronze in the 1984 Olympics. Since that time she has made a living just being her and making sure everyone knows who she is. When her former coach dies she is asked to train America's greatest hope at a gold, Maggie (Richardson). Hope must now make a choice, train her to be better than she was, or give up the chance to collect $500,000. This is a hilarious movie, just flat out hilarious. Offensive, over the top and so laugh out loud funny that I had to rewind this a few times to catch the jokes I was missing. Rauch is incredible in this and almost everything she says is comedy gold. If you offend easy this is a movie you should probably avoid, but if you are a fan of R rated comedies this is one of the best ones I have seen in a long time. This is the type of movie I could watch over and over and still laugh every time. Overall, not a movie that will win awards but much like Idiocracy and Office Space its a movie with tremendous re-watchability and quotable lines that you will be saying over and over. I loved this and easily give this an A.

Melissa Rauch, Gary Cole, and Sebastian Stan are excellent, but what ties this film together are all of the other players that you won't recognize. (Like Twitchy, for instance.) Hope's is a character we rarely get to see, an unashamedly crude (and hilarious) and strong woman, and her vulgarity isn't without purpose. It strengthens the impact of her character development later in the film. This works well within the story as she watches her protégé' live out the dream that she herself was denied. If you like anything Judd Apatow's ever made, you'll like The Bronze! Crude humor with heart!

I have never heard so much cussing in my life. Way over the top. There was absolutely nothing likable about the lead actress. Nothing. I kept waiting thinking there would be some redeeming quality about her. But nothing. And if younger people watch this and think it is normal, no wonder the country is in trouble. I just wanted her father to slap her and kick her out. But no, he was a total punching bag for her. And her "boy friend" must have been really hard up for female companionship. Why anyone would put up with her was the question of the movie. Calling "The Bronze" a comedy is a joke in itself. A couple funny spots in an otherwise terribly dark film doesn't make it a comedy. A sad excuse of a movie.

A loving single parent father fails to use tough love to help his daughter get past her failed chance "to be somebody" in the gymnastics world and she desperately tries to hold on to her past fame in her small home town community. She slowly learns to move on and think about and appreciate others. Melissa effectively spewed her anger and bitterness at everybody. The other actors around her also did great jobs. Gary Cole played a great role as the loving father who felt guilty for pushing his daughter too hard and then made the mistake of not being hard enough. Haley Lu Richardson played a gorgeous bubbly teen whose innocent enthusiasm was perfect. Thomas Middleditch did an effective job as a humble sensitive admirer who hoped for more.

"The Bronze" (2016 release; 108 min.) brings the story of Hope Ann Greggory. As the movie opens, we see footage of her at a young age trying to do cartwheels and other gymnastic related things. It's not long before we see her competing at the 2004 Rome Olympics, where, at age 17 and despite a severe foot injury, she manages, very much Kerri Strug-like in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, to complete her final landing to salvage a bronze medal and instantly becoming America's sweetheart, most of all to her home town of Amherst, Ohio. Now, 12 years later, Hope has become an insufferable woman, obsessed with her moment of glory. But then, she gets an opportunity to coach up-and-coming gymnast Maggie Townsend, also from Amherst. At this point we're 15 min. into the movie, but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. Couple of comments: while directed by Bryan Buckley and this is a Duplass Brothers Production, this is a Melissa Rauch movie all the way. Best known for her long-running role on TV's The Big Bang Theory. she stars as Hope, and she co-wrote the scripts (with her husband Winston Rauch). Almost from the get-go, the Hope character is so unlikeable, self-absorbed and rude that it frankly affects the way one can enjoy the movie. "I'm not a coach, I'm a star, I was in Dancing with the Stars, not Dancing with the Coaches!", Hope yells at her dad when the idea of her coaching initially comes up. What really surprised me what how raunchy the movie turned out to be. There is almost non-stop cussing and crude language. It's a shame that the movie isn't nearly as funny as it is raunchy. I will admit that there is one sex scene that is quite hilarious. It seems to me this movie is one big missed opportunity. You can see the potential, but it rarely materializes. There is some great song placements in the movie, including Britney Spears' "Work B**ch", Ace of Base, and others. And check out the song that plays over the movie's end titles, performed by Melissa Rauch herself and at her raunchiest yet... You may have heard that "The Bronze", which opened wide (defined as over 1,000 screens) last weekend, completely bombed at the box office, and then some. It was one of the worst openings EVER for a wide release, and it's easy to see why. I had seen the trailer and was intrigued. The weekday evening screening where I saw this at here in Cincinnati turned out to be a private screening: I was literally the only person in the theater. I must say that the potential shown in the trailer never materialized in the movie itself. A darn shame.

I was just expecting your run-of-the-mill comedy, but this film surpassed expectations. Hope, the main character is a foul-mouthed and sometimes downright mean person, but once you get over the fact that she wouldn't be your best friend, she really is the star of the show. If you mind dirty jokes or off-beat humor, this might not be your movie, but I found it utterly hilarious. And I must give praise to Haley Lu Richardson as Maggie Townsend. She is always upbeat despite the constant criticism thrown her way by Hope. She matures over the course of the film and you can really see the bond between an aspiration gymnast and her reluctant coach. Gary Cole is great as the loving father trying to push his daughter to do better. The plot does have a slightly ridiculous way of setting up Hope to be the coach, but it works. The film had surprisingly good cinematography and great choices of music to great comedic effect. It's a funny movie and actually made me care about gymnastics. It also contains one of the funniest sex scenes in recent memory (that's all I'll say on that)

This is the story of a a strong willed supremely selfish foul mouthed Olympic athlete who gets over herself. (Or does she?) It's got Gymnastic lovin', gymnastic swearing, jabs at men's gymnastics (which, let's face it, no one gives a rat's gluteus about) secret handshakes, and an authentic small- town feel. What's not to love? Also, it has Bernadette. Sure, the characters could have been fleshed out a little more (heh heh) but this ain't a period drama, it's a feel good comedy about winning, selfishness, maturity and being a stubborn but excellent human. And when was the last time you saw a movie casting gymnastics in a positive light?