Review of Legendary (2010) by Lee T — 28 Sep 2010

"I told their father I'd watch out for them if anything ever happened to him ?" That sounds a lot like a line you'd here in a war movie doesn't it ? Legendary isn't a war movie though, it's about high school wrestling. Yet, when Cal Chetley (Devon Graye) reveals to his mother Sharon (Patricia Clarkson) that he wants to join the wrestling team, she reacts as if he said he wants to join the marines.

Cal's brother Mike (John Cena) and his father were so into wrestling that the father died in a car accident on the way to scope out one of Mike's opponents. So Mike is now a drunk bar fighting loner that keeps himself as far away from his family as possible. When Cal needs to get better at wrestling, he goes see Mike behind his mother's back. Mike is hard to convince at first, but of course Cal eventually gets his help.

Cal becomes more confident, gets a girlfriend and takes on his bullies, no this isn't the Karate Kid. The film is over the top sentimental, but it won me over anyway due to Graye and yes John Cena having chemistry.

While Madeleine Martin was adorable as Cal's girlfriend. Cena, I found surprisingly solid in the first half. I bought that he was a troubled man and he was better than usual and I almost believed that he could act. In the second half when he becomes nicer and a role model, he just phones in his performance and is about as wooden as he usually is. Legendary may not be original but compared to all the other WWE films it's the best. It's a good family film.