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The movie gives Berry an opportunity to shine and is also a must-watch for all viewers who enjoy stories about fighters who faced difficulties in their lives. Those who enjoyed Bruised can then take a look at multiple movies working with a similar story that have a lot to offer.
6 Rocky (1976)
One of the best movies about fighters that popularized this genre to a certain degree and made Sylvester Stallone a legend is Rocky. A lot of viewers saw the first movie about a young man who trains hard and goes to face the dangerous Apollo Creed. However, not everybody watched the subsequent sequels which there are five of, the last from 2006.
And if that wasn’t enough, Stallone appeared as Rocky Balboa once again in two movies called Creed which focus on Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis Johnson who happens to be the son of Rocky’s old rival Apollo Creed. The whole series is a classic today and if anybody wants to see how Rocky’s boxing transformed over time, they have a lot of interesting stories to watch.
5 Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Fighting and martial arts are a common topic but it’s less usual to see women in the main role. Other than Bruised or the series Glow, Million Dollar Baby is the most obvious example, and an excellent one. Hilary Swank stars as a young boxer Maggie who finally persuades a trainer, Frankie (Clint Eastwood), to train her. And while her fame rises, a disaster looms on the horizon.
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The movie is cruel to its main heroine in the end but that doesn’t change the fact it’s a captivating story with excellent boxing scenes as well as brilliant actors. Clint Eastwood both directed the movie and acted in it, and other than him, other three Oscars went to the movie itself, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman.
4 Wrestler (2008)
Darren Aronofsky is one of the filmmakers with a unique style that makes his movies different from most of the current production. In one of the director’s more civil movies, Mickey Rourke stars as Randy Robinson, a former wrestler who was a big name in the 1980s. But two decades later, he’s not doing so well. He then gets the chance to come back to fighting and take on his old rival. The only question is whether it’s worth risking his health and the relationships with his loved ones.
The movie doesn’t spare its heroes and portrays wrestling as an activity that takes a toll on the human body. The movie quickly draws the audience in and makes them feel invested in Randy’s fate. It helps that the actors give excellent performances, both Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei were nominated for Oscars for their parts in Wrestler and Rourke won the Golden Globe for it. Just like Bruised, Wrestler is the story of a comeback but it’s even less kind to its hero than Bruised is to Halle Berry’s Jackie.
3 Warrior (2011)
Even though Warrior focuses on two brothers, it works with the same sport - MMA - and a story of a comeback that might not turn out well. Tommy (Tom Hardy) and Brendan (Joel Edgerton) stopped talking to each other and it’s only a fight against each other that brings their paths together.
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The movie not only offers impressive fighting scenes but also includes a personal line that adds another dimension to it. Both Hardy and Edgerton are excellent in it and Nick Nolte, who plays their father, even got an Academy Award nomination for his performance. Warrior often appears among the best-rated movies, so all fans of Bruised shouldn’t miss out on watching it.
2 Brothers (2015)
The American movie Warriors became such a hit that it got an Indian remake, even though it’s often the other way around. The Indian version of the movie has a similar story but also contains scenes that weren’t in the original, making it over 150 minutes long.
All fans of Warrior then have the unique opportunity to compare both versions and the different approaches they choose. But even those who haven’t seen the original movie might enjoy Brothers because it has both memorable fighting scenes and great acting performances, with Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra playing the leading roles.
1 Sultan (2016)
Combining romance and MMA isn’t a usual recipe in movies but the Indian gem Sultan manages it. Salman Khan plays Sultan, a man who once became a fighter to get the woman of his dreams Aarfu (Anushka Sharma). But even though they got together, he lost her, and later, he comes back into the arena as a wrestler to get Aarfu back.
The movie features multiple songs and mixes them with fighting scenes as well as touching romance. The main duo is excellent and even though Sultan lasts almost three hours, it keeps a fast pace.
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