Peaceful Warrior

Peaceful Warrior **1/2

As much as I didn't mind "Peaceful Warrior," there was something about it that made me unable to recommend it to people. It's inspirational and insightful, and it has a great preformance by Nick Nolte, but it ends up becoming your typical "come from behind" sports movie, in the end. Don't let the fancy inspirational message fool you. There is nothing original in "Peaceful Warrior" what soever. First the story:

Dan Millman is a good gymnist. No, he is a fantasic gymnist. He is so great, that he was even given the nickname "Lord of the Rings" by his fellow teammates. And the rest of his life seems pretty great as well. He gets good grades in school, he has alot of friends, and he's always spending the night with some girl or the other. However, every night he is haunted by the same dream. He is doing his sporting act, and he lands on the ground, and his foot shatters apart like glass. And then he sees somebody sweeping the floor of the pieces of his broken flesh. And this person, whoever it is, is wearing two different shoes. And then one day, Dan is talking a walk to cure his insomia, and he walks into a gas station, where he sees an old man that is wearing the same shoes as the ones that he sees in his dream every night. And then, somehow, the old man jumps from the cement to the roof of the gas station in a matter of seconds. Dan is drawn back to this station, to understand how the man did this. Not only can he make leaps that nobody can make, but someone can also throw a wrench at him, and he'll end up catching it without even looking. Dan decides that he wants this man, who he dubs Socrates, to train him. And so it begins. It has to chance his lifestyle. No more drinking, no more eating alot of meat, and no more having sex. It seems a little drastic t Dan, but he decides to do whatever he can to be able to preform like that. Socrates begins to teach him to stay in the moment, to clear his head of the past and the future, and to only concentrate on this moment, that is happening right now. And Dan works hard, and yet he still has a cocky attitude towards everyone around him. And he learns his lesson when he is in a horrible car accident, which leaves him inmobile. The doctors tell him that he will never be able to play again. Dan doesn't see how his life could be worth living anymore, and Socrates must convince him otherwise.

Without giving anything away, you can probably end up figuring how what happens. I have the same thing to say about "Peaceful Warrior" that I do about "My Super Ex-Girlfriend," and these are two very different films. They all start out good, with great characters and a refreshing story, but then they turn into typical formula films. In the case of "Super Ex," it was romance, and with this one it's inspirational sports stories. Dan will end up working harder and harder, defying all odds, leading up to the moment where he ends up proving everybody wrong. I mean, come on! The faces of all the people that thought he could never do it when he does just makes me want to roll my eyes again. So once again, the problem lays in the script, and not in the preformances. In fact, the preformances are quite top notch. Nick Nolte is on a clear streak here, giving amazing preformances with both this and "Clean." And Scott Mechlowicz showed promise with "Mean Creek," and he delivers here. "Peaceful Warrior" is worth seeing for those two actors, but not for the predictable ending, and the less than steller screenplay. Maybe the book is better. They say it's "inspired" by a true story. . . or maybe every other sports movie ever made is better. But that doesn't look good at the beginning of the credits.