I'm 48 years old and so I got to see the Von Erich's in what was my own personal "hey day" of wrestling. Absolutely loved them...especially Kevin and Kerry and their feuds with the Freebirds, Gino Hernandez, etc.... As I got older, and with the subsequent invention of the internet, I was able to dive into their story much more so I was very familiar with the details around this tragic family.
The good: 1. Casting was outstanding. I really thought they found believable people to play the boys and Fritz was outstanding. I hated him by the end of the movie, which I think was the intent. It was cool to see the Freebirds, Bruiser Brody, and Harley Race in small roles.
2. Wrestling scenes were good, I just thought they could have had a couple more of them. They did show a piece the memorable match with Flair and Kerry right after David passed in the background of one scene and thought they really could have shown way more actual footage or some kind of montage because they were all very entertaining.
3. The afterlife scene after Kerry passes was outstanding and was the only moment of the movie where I truly evoked emotion and thought to myself "wow, that was a really touching scene".
The bad: 1. As someone accurately posted, it was hard to tell if it was supposed to be more focused on Kevin or the family. The movie seemed to bounce between the 2 things.
2. There was absolutely 0 depth to any part of the movie with the exception of Kevin. With so many main characters, I thought it may be hard to get any deep insight into any of their personal stories and this proved to be true. They hit on the main points (David's death in Japan, Kerry's amputated foot, Mike never being the same after he got really sick...etc...)
3. There were 5 brothers (they literally left the lesser known one out). If you're going to gloss over so much, why couldn't you have just added the brother who couldn't wrestle due to his medical conditions.
4. I felt they completely glossed over the drug use, especially by Kerry. At one point you see him stick a needle in himself, but that's really about it. There was no other context around it. It was well known Kerry was in drug-related trouble and was probably looking at jail time when he committed suicide.
5. Ric Flair...they completely blew it on casting for this character. Ric Flair has become a part of current pop-culture and so there was a real opportunity here and he just flat out sucked. They couldn't find some actual old promos Flair did and play a little montage of some of those? Flair was the best to ever be on the microphone and the guy they had play Flair just wasn't good.
Overall it was a decent movie, mainly because the true story is so compelling and if you're not familiar with the story then you'll probably think it was a better than it really was. I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know about the Von Erich's. I was hoping it would be something that I'd enjoy watching again, but I probably won't.
The good: 1. Casting was outstanding. I really thought they found believable people to play the boys and Fritz was outstanding. I hated him by the end of the movie, which I think was the intent. It was cool to see the Freebirds, Bruiser Brody, and Harley Race in small roles.
2. Wrestling scenes were good, I just thought they could have had a couple more of them. They did show a piece the memorable match with Flair and Kerry right after David passed in the background of one scene and thought they really could have shown way more actual footage or some kind of montage because they were all very entertaining.
3. The afterlife scene after Kerry passes was outstanding and was the only moment of the movie where I truly evoked emotion and thought to myself "wow, that was a really touching scene".
The bad: 1. As someone accurately posted, it was hard to tell if it was supposed to be more focused on Kevin or the family. The movie seemed to bounce between the 2 things.
2. There was absolutely 0 depth to any part of the movie with the exception of Kevin. With so many main characters, I thought it may be hard to get any deep insight into any of their personal stories and this proved to be true. They hit on the main points (David's death in Japan, Kerry's amputated foot, Mike never being the same after he got really sick...etc...)
3. There were 5 brothers (they literally left the lesser known one out). If you're going to gloss over so much, why couldn't you have just added the brother who couldn't wrestle due to his medical conditions.
4. I felt they completely glossed over the drug use, especially by Kerry. At one point you see him stick a needle in himself, but that's really about it. There was no other context around it. It was well known Kerry was in drug-related trouble and was probably looking at jail time when he committed suicide.
5. Ric Flair...they completely blew it on casting for this character. Ric Flair has become a part of current pop-culture and so there was a real opportunity here and he just flat out sucked. They couldn't find some actual old promos Flair did and play a little montage of some of those? Flair was the best to ever be on the microphone and the guy they had play Flair just wasn't good.
Overall it was a decent movie, mainly because the true story is so compelling and if you're not familiar with the story then you'll probably think it was a better than it really was. I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know about the Von Erich's. I was hoping it would be something that I'd enjoy watching again, but I probably won't.