Hardy's range is impressive, and he makes Refn's latest an arresting spectacle, if not a particularly enlightening one.
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11/08/09
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Bronson (2009)
76
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:55
Fresh:42
Rotten:13
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Undeniably gripping, Bronson forces the viewer to make some hard decisions about where the line between art and exploitation lies.
Rated: R [See Full Rating]
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Oct 9, 2009 Limited
Synopsis: In 1974, a hot-headed 19 year old named Michael Peterson decided he wanted to make a name for himself and so, with a homemade sawn-off shotgun and a head full of dreams he attempted to rob a post... [More]
Starring: Tom Hardy, Hugh Ross, Juliet Oldfield, Jonny Philips
Director: Nicholas Winding Refn
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Reviews for Bronson
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11/06/09
Top Critic“Nuffin’ wonky about my upbringing,” Bronson says, early on. Nothing wonky about Hardy’s performance, either.
11/05/09
Top Critic[Tom Hardy gives] one of the best performances of the year, maybe. It is certainly one of the most committed.
11/04/09
Charles Bronson seems like a bit of a sweetheart, when he's not trying to gouge someone's eyes out.
10/30/09
A pointless exercise in morbidity.
10/30/09
Top CriticBronson is one of those “based on a true story” dramatizations where the theatrically staged drama only gets in the way of the more interesting truth.
10/30/09
Top CriticRefn presents this jolly madman in a variety of showbiz fantasies (wearing clown makeup, addressing a packed theater) to tease out the weird disjuncture between his penal isolation and his tabloid fame in the UK.
10/30/09
Top CriticIt's impossible to deny Hardy's astounding performance, which partially redeems the picture. Looking like a mad circus strongman, his moustache seeming to twirl all by itself, he's so fully immersed in his character, you fear for his sanity.
10/30/09
Top CriticHe's spent 34 years behind bars, mostly in solitary. When the movie ends, you'll feel you've done hard time yourself.
10/30/09
Top CriticThe movie takes on a fearsome purity, refusing to find reasons, indifferent to motives, not even finding causes and effects. It is 92 minutes of rage, acted by Tom Hardy.
10/29/09
Top CriticThe film does a good job of presenting in bloody detail the misdeeds of a misanthrope while italicizing his underdeveloped artistic abilities, but it is obtuse when it comes to character development.
10/29/09
Top CriticBronson just keeps coming, straight ahead, like a bull charging through the slaughterhouse door.
10/28/09
Stylish kick ass sympathetic but revealing biopic of the notorious and pitiful British felon Michael Gordon Peterson.
10/25/09
Writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn uses some inventive theatrical interludes and soliloquies to diversify what might have otherwise been a rather one-note depiction of prison life.
10/23/09
Refn directs as a series of episodes, each set up for maximum weirdness and black humor, always emphasizing large, blocky spaces and fluid motion.
10/23/09
The tone is surreal, at once visceral and clinical, making Bronson an unsettling experience: savage, disturbing, and yet somehow fascinating.
10/22/09
Top CriticTom Hardy gives a disgustingly excellent performance.
10/19/09
Hardy chomps down on his once-in-a-career role with stunning ferocity and never lets go. He's extraordinary.
10/16/09
Top CriticTom Hardy proves more than ready for his close-up, cackling, snarling and head-butting his way through Pusher director Nicolas Winding Refn’s mercifully unconventional biopic.
10/15/09
Latest News for Bronson
October 08, 2009:
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This week at the movies brings only one wide release: Couples Retreat, starring Vince Vaughn and Kristen Bell in a comedy about a group of friends in marriage counseling in a... More...
September 29, 2009:
New: Brand New Trailer and Poster. 
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September 13, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review
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January 27, 2009:
click for trailer and trailer review
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