The Fighters (2008)

The Fighters: Directed by Jeff Wadlow. With Sean Faris, Amber Heard, Cam Gigandet, Evan Peters. A frustrated and conflicted teenager arrives at a new high school to discover an underground fight club and meet a classmate who begins to coerce him into fighting.

“J. Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer) was the richest man in the world when his grandson (Charlie Plummer) was kidnapped in 1973. He refused to pay a dime of the $17 million dollar, saying he couldnu0026#39;t afford it and it would set a bad precedent. The boyu0026#39;s mother (Michelle Williams) is left with only the aid of the Italian police and a former CIA operative who works for Getty (Mark Wahlberg) to help recover her son. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film unfolds in a tense drama that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. Michelle Williams is fantastic as a desperate mother willing to do anything to save her child, but having to fight Getty just as much as the kidnappers. Wahlberg is also surprisingly good as the former CIA man that is really a negotiator, not a super spy. The real star is Christopher Plummeru0026#39;s Getty. He is outstanding as an old frail man who built an empire through ruthless negotiations and frugality and refuses to deviate from that even to save his own grandson. His misguided priorities are perfectly displayed by him claiming to not be able to afford the ransom and then spending millions on a new painting. Plummeru0026#39;s performance is all the more impressive considering he stepped in at the last minute and shot all of his scenes in just 8 days.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRidley Scott blends the experiences of the hostage Paul Getty with the worry of his mother and the indifference of his grandfather beautifully. There is very little wasted movement and my biggest complaints are just the occasionally confusing decisions by some characters, but those decisions are all the ones made by real people at the time, so I can hardly fault Scott.”