Ever elusive, it always keeps you off balance enough to make you want to see more.
Peaceful Warrior (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:71
Fresh:17
Rotten:54
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: Based on a best-selling memoir, Peaceful Warrior loses something in the transition from page to screen. It hits the viewer over the head with philosophical jargon, and ultimately fails to live up to its source material.
Synopsis: Arrogant, talented Dan Millman seems to have the perfect college life: a stunning gymnast's body of incredible strength, handsome looks, good grades, plenty of money and a shot at the Olympic... Arrogant, talented Dan Millman seems to have the perfect college life: a stunning gymnast's body of incredible strength, handsome looks, good grades, plenty of money and a shot at the Olympic qualifiers in men's gymnastics. Still, Dan wakes up almost nightly from terrifying nightmares and odd visions he can't explain or dismiss. One night, awakened by yet another nightmare, Dan goes for a run through his foggy neighborhood and comes upon a well-lit service station. Behind the counter, an old man seemingly moves without regard for space or time. One moment, Dan is paying for his snacks, the next the old man is on the roof of the station. Stunned by this impossibility, Dan begs the old man, whom he instinctually names Socrates, to share the secret of his abilities in order to achieve his goal of Olympic Gold. The old man puts him through a regimen that changes his diet, training, and lifestyle. Before long, his life is ruined, and he loses his friends, his girls, and is almost thrown off his Gymnastics squad. Thus begins a journey of discovery for Dan that will shatter every preconceived notion he has about academics, athletics, and achievement. Guided by Socrates, Dan will consider a whole new ideology-one that values consciousness over intelligence, strength in spirit over strength in body. But in order to succeed, Dan must somehow let go of all of his expectations - and simply live in the now... Based on The Way of Peaceful Warrior, Dan Millman's best-selling spiritual memoir, PEACEFUL WARRIOR explores the highly competitive world of men's gymnastics, while introducing an astonishing philosophy that awakens the human spirit. A celebration of the achievements made possible by an open mind, PEACEFUL WARRIOR is a sports movie not about imagined perfection or victory - but about heart. --© Official Site [More]
Starring: Ashton Holmes, Nick Nolte, Scott Mechlowicz, Amy Smart
Starring: Ashton Holmes, Nick Nolte, Scott Mechlowicz, Amy Smart, Agnes Bruckner
Director: Victor Salva
Director: Victor Salva
Screenwriter: Kevin Bernhardt
Producer: Mark Amin, Robin Schorr, Cami Winikoff
Studio: Lions Gate Films
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Reviews for Peaceful Warrior
Peaceful Warrior is meant to empower and enlighten. But it tries so hard, it's more like inspiration overkill: 121 torturous minutes of long-winded lectures about living in the moment.
The sometimes dreamy pace of Peaceful Warrior is offset by good rapport among Nolte, co-star Scott Mechlowicz and an engaging ensemble cast.
Maybe there are worthy films buried in collections of spiritual homilies, but Peaceful Warrior is not one of them.
The What The Bleep Do We Know? crowd may well receive the film's wisdom like communion, but the rest of us are free to gag when Salva tries to jam it down our throats.
It has deep things to say and a hilariously ponderous way of saying them.
In a Hollywood of leading boy-men, Nolte's commanding performance is a throwback to a time when movie virility wasn't an anomaly.
The filmmakers can't be faulted for trying; it's a decent effort, but nevertheless misses out in both the mind and body categories, and rather overdoes the spirit.
Only in filmmaker Victor Salva's world are impossibly chiseled, Abercrombie-ready gymnasts worshipped by their peers on college campuses and in adjoining dive bars.
The story arc of Peaceful Warrior is so familiar that in addition to being inspired by fact, it is inspired by at least two-thirds of all the sports movies ever made.
Peaceful Warrior, which is basically The Karate Kid with a bigger kid and a bigger mentor, represents a journey of predictability, rather than a destination worth the trouble.
This woozily uplifting saga is big on homilies and deficient in just about everything else.
It's the director's willingness to toughen conventions through personal idiosyncrasies that sets the film apart.
This 'wake up and smell the roses' philosophy is sweet, but in Warrior, it comes across as trite and manipulative.
By turns a riveting study of the world of competitive gymnastics, a parable for an alternative vision for today's society, and a study in the psychology of mentoring, 'Peaceful Warrior' is a satisfying movie-going experience, with or without 'the message.
Dan's transformation hits the kinds of snags that might occur in real life but spell doom for narrative momentum.
...a powerful tale of enlightenment and redemption that conveys emotional uplift even if it's unlikely to win many spiritual converts.
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