Playlist: Bronson

Why? I was impressed by Tom Hardy in Inception. Plus, it looked badass cool.

If I hadn't known this was the same actor going in, I would not have pieced it together. Seriously, take a look:

Pretty, ain't he? Hardy is the whole show here. He is completely taken over Raging Bull-style by the character, the real-life Charlie Bronson, aka "the most violent prisoner in Britain". Bronson is an absolute nutbag who has only been out of jail for four months since 1974. The movie is a very loose depiction of his life, choosing to brush over facts for visuals. Mainly, scenes of Hardy beating the snot out of people. A lot of which he is completely naked. We're talking full-frontal, ladies.

Director Nicolas Winding Refn does a lot of good things here, including framing the story around a stage monologue by Bronson. But the thing is that for all Bronson's nutbagery, he's basically just a thug. There's no character arc, no climax. And he's never actually killed anyone, which, yes, is a good thing, but lowers the stakes a bit. The DVD cover boasts that it's "A Clockwork Orange for the 21st Century" (a quote from some magazine called Zoo). It's not. It looks good and Hardy is excellent, but it ultimately comes up a little on the dull side. Disappointingly so.