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Lee (2222 KP) rated Fighting with My Family (2019) in Movies
Mar 1, 2019
It's been many years since I last watched any wrestling, and I certainly haven't seen anything of the WWE Divas, or more specifically Paige - the wrestling name of the young British girl whose story is featured in Fighting With My Family. I first got into WWE wrestling, or WWF as it was known back then, sometime during 1986 - just in time for Wrestlemania 3 and the classic main event of Hulk Hogan Vs André the Giant in front of a crowd of over 93,000. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before, and I was hooked. Following that, I used to have to wake up my younger brothers at around midnight whenever there was a major wrestling event on TV, so that we would be able to watch it live from the US. And then eventually, in 1992, they brought Summerslam to Wembley Stadium, and we were able to finally attend an event a little bit closer to home.
Fighting With My Family begins with a young Paige, real name Saraya-Jade, enjoying the WWF wrestling on TV with brother Zak and trying out some of the moves and holds on each other, similar to how I managed to perfect the figure four leglock on my younger brother.... But, that's where the similarities end as Saraya-Jade and Zak are positively encouraged by their parents to beat the crap out of each other, whereas I would probably have been grounded for making my brother cry or something. Their parents, Patrick ‘Rowdy Ricky Knight’ and Julia ‘Sweet Saraya’ are former wrestlers themselves who now run World Association of Wrestling (WAW), where grown up Saraya-Jade (Florence Pugh) and Zak (Jack Lowden) now fight each other for money in regular evening shows. Each day they head out in their WAW van to pick up a bunch of local kids, who would otherwise be headed down a path of criminality, and head to the gym to train them in the ring. Elder brother Roy was also a wrestler, but is currently in prison. It's a simple, close-knit working class family - all looking out for each other, highly passionate about wrestling and each having (or had at one point) a dream to one day make it big in the WWE.
One day that dream has a chance of becoming reality when tryouts for the WWE come to The O2 in London and Zak and Raya are selected to come along. WWE Coach Hutch (Vince Vaughn) puts them through their paces but only Raya is selected to move onto the next stage in Florida. While she heads out to continue her dream, a rejected Zak resigns himself to the fact that he's only ever going to be a small time wrestler. Raya becomes Paige and sets about trying to prove herself as the ordinary Brit girl in among all the dancers, models and cheerleaders who are also with her at boot camp. She's resentful of the others, as they were 'only selected for their tits and ass' and are without any kind of wrestling background. She's lonely, angry and lacking the self confidence she needs to really make it happen. Meanwhile, Zak is struggling with missing out on heading to Florida - disinterested in his new born baby, undertaking grueling matches in front of small crowds, and picking fights in bars just for the hell of it.
Fighting With My Family boasts some real laugh out loud moments, but there is also a lot of relatable family drama and emotion. The cast are all incredible, particularly Florence Pugh as Raya/Paige. Vince Vaughn is a lot of fun as the coach and The Rock also brings a lot of comedy to the few scenes he's in. I absolutely loved everything about this movie and couldn't really fault it at all. Despite knowing beforehand the outcome for Paige, the whole movie just has you wondering throughout if she's going to make it or if she's going to quit, which makes the ending all the more enjoyable. And when you see clips during the credits of her real life family, you appreciate just how spot on some of the casting and acting is too!
Fighting With My Family begins with a young Paige, real name Saraya-Jade, enjoying the WWF wrestling on TV with brother Zak and trying out some of the moves and holds on each other, similar to how I managed to perfect the figure four leglock on my younger brother.... But, that's where the similarities end as Saraya-Jade and Zak are positively encouraged by their parents to beat the crap out of each other, whereas I would probably have been grounded for making my brother cry or something. Their parents, Patrick ‘Rowdy Ricky Knight’ and Julia ‘Sweet Saraya’ are former wrestlers themselves who now run World Association of Wrestling (WAW), where grown up Saraya-Jade (Florence Pugh) and Zak (Jack Lowden) now fight each other for money in regular evening shows. Each day they head out in their WAW van to pick up a bunch of local kids, who would otherwise be headed down a path of criminality, and head to the gym to train them in the ring. Elder brother Roy was also a wrestler, but is currently in prison. It's a simple, close-knit working class family - all looking out for each other, highly passionate about wrestling and each having (or had at one point) a dream to one day make it big in the WWE.
One day that dream has a chance of becoming reality when tryouts for the WWE come to The O2 in London and Zak and Raya are selected to come along. WWE Coach Hutch (Vince Vaughn) puts them through their paces but only Raya is selected to move onto the next stage in Florida. While she heads out to continue her dream, a rejected Zak resigns himself to the fact that he's only ever going to be a small time wrestler. Raya becomes Paige and sets about trying to prove herself as the ordinary Brit girl in among all the dancers, models and cheerleaders who are also with her at boot camp. She's resentful of the others, as they were 'only selected for their tits and ass' and are without any kind of wrestling background. She's lonely, angry and lacking the self confidence she needs to really make it happen. Meanwhile, Zak is struggling with missing out on heading to Florida - disinterested in his new born baby, undertaking grueling matches in front of small crowds, and picking fights in bars just for the hell of it.
Fighting With My Family boasts some real laugh out loud moments, but there is also a lot of relatable family drama and emotion. The cast are all incredible, particularly Florence Pugh as Raya/Paige. Vince Vaughn is a lot of fun as the coach and The Rock also brings a lot of comedy to the few scenes he's in. I absolutely loved everything about this movie and couldn't really fault it at all. Despite knowing beforehand the outcome for Paige, the whole movie just has you wondering throughout if she's going to make it or if she's going to quit, which makes the ending all the more enjoyable. And when you see clips during the credits of her real life family, you appreciate just how spot on some of the casting and acting is too!