The Wrestler (2008)

This is THE movie of 2008. Not only did it bring Mickey Rourke back into the mainstream, but it is an all-around terrific movie. It shows everything. It has emotion, it has heartbreak, it has triumphs and it has let-downs.

Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Rourke) is a down and out wrestler who is constantly trying to relive his glory days from the 1980s. Think Hulk Hogan and Jake "the Snake" Roberts individual stories combined and you have Randy. Shot in a grainy, almost documentary style, the movie follows Randy as he lives his bare-bones lifestyle of working part time at a grocery store and wrestling on the weekends in half-filled YMCAs and high school gymnasiums. He is definitely passed his prime, but can't do anything else with his life. A great complement is Marisa Tomei playing Cassidy/Pam, the stripper who is also passed her prime. With his assumed relationship with Cassidy and his painfully broken one with his daughter, played by Evan Rachel Wood, Randy has only one thing he knows he does right, and that is wrestling.

This movie also got pro wrestling just right and finally makes it appear legitimate in film. Between the painkillers, the steroids, but especially the backstage camaraderie. This movie should be the end all, be all of wrestling movies and deserves a spot as one of the greatest sports movies ever made.