Queen of the Ring Review

 

I saw Queen of the Ring, and here are my thoughts…

The story tells the rise and career of the first female million-dollar-paid athlete, a wrestler named Mildred Burke.

This movie is directed by Ash Avildsen, son of John Avildsen, who directed Rocky and The Karate Kid, and this movie has a similar feel, a no-name underdog who fights their way to the top and gets the love and adoration of the people.

Emily Brett Rickards is very charismatic in the role; she has the charm and heart and sass that make the character very likable, plus she very much buffed up for the role so the fight scenes feel very tough and fun to watch.

Josh Lucas plays a very complicated character; at some points he’s very funny and charming, at other points he’s very despicable and shady, and at other points he’s very caring and sticks up for little people. Definitely an obstacle the main character has to overcome, but the actor brings a lot of dimension to a guy that had a lot of layers to him and what he accomplished.

The supporting cast is great, many wonderful actresses and actors (Tyler Posey, Walton Goggins, Francesca Eastwood, Marie Avgeropoulos, Deborah Ann Woll, Cara Buono, Kailey Farmer, Gavin Casalsgno, Adam Demos, and Kelli Berglund), all of whom give very likable, realistic, and entertaining performances that you enjoy watching. I would say the performances are the standout of this film… like when it’s hard for me to pick a favorite character, you know you have a great cast.

The story is a very straightforward, by-the-books biofilm and all the cliché that comes with it, and you’ll be watching the film and be able to anticipate the beats of the film before the characters do.

They try and fit a lot of information about these people's lives into a short amount of time, so it can feel a bit like whiplash as they try and hit all the big bullet points, but it was never too much that it took me out of the movie too much.

So for an almost 2 1/2-hour film, it works for the most part, but in some cases, it feels a bit scattershot.

The film takes place in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, and on a rather low budget, they were able to capture the feel of the time very well, and the direction has an almost Goodfellas Scorsese-type feel with the editing and pacing, which I enjoyed since that’s a personal favor of mine.

I have mixed feelings on how they show the passage of time, like the main character has a son in this film who, throughout the course of the movie, goes from like 2 to 18, but the other characters look like they hardly aged a day, maybe a couple years. On the one hand, I’ve seen films where people age, and they apply makeup on them, and they try and act older, and it could be a little distracting, so letting the actors just be the characters helps you emerge in the story, but you’ll be watching a scene, and then another character comes back or a title card pops up and it’s ten years later, and it’s like, “Wait, how much time has passed?”

The movie can be kind of sappy at moments, nothing too bad, and honestly, that’s a personal thing with me; I’ve never really been a sappy movie guy, but the actors really sell it with good acting, so I was able to go along with it in the story.

Overall, what could’ve been a generic biopic is elevated by the performances of the cast, the style, and historical context. Plus you can tell the cast must of had a fun time making the movie. I give it three stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️. It’s hard to go wrong with beautiful babes with big bulging muscles lol.