Age of The Nerd
The Bronze is a comedy about a former Olympic medalists (Melissa Rauch) who reluctantly gets back into the gym to coach an aspiring gymnast in hopes of making it to the Olympics. The film stars Melissa Rauch, Sebastian Stan, Gary Cole, Thomas Middleditch and Cecily Strong. The film has been described as “the new Napoleon Dynamite” but see it more as if Talladega Nights and Hot Rod had a drunken one night stand, which in other words means, it’s hilarious!
Melissa Rauch runs the show as Hope Ann Gregory, a former bronze medalist who cusses like a sailor, who relives her glory days of when she came in third place in the world’s biggest games. After her former coach dies, a new and younger gymnast (Janice) needs her help to become the next Hope Ann Gregory or even better. One of the things that makes this story funny is the relationship between Hope and Janice. Hope tries to sabotage Janice’s opportunity at potentially becoming the next medalist in their small town and one of the main reasons why she wants to sabotage Janice is because she’s afraid that she will lose her free-food privileges at Sbarros pizza. But the comedy isn’t only their relationship but it’s also with every relationship that Hope has with each character in the film.
Captain America‘s Sebastian Stan was the one in this film that surprised me the most, mainly because he’s known more for serious roles in film and television. Sebastian Stan was surprisingly funny. He plays Lance, a former gold medalist, who was also Hope’s first (you know what) and is also a complete d-bag. Hope and Lance constantly trash each other throughout the film. The two also have the funniest, most acrobatic sex scene in all of film history, I’m sure that’s a must-watch in itself.
As for the special features on this DVD, there are some deleted scenes and the Red Band trailer of the film. It’s not a whole lot of special features but they are extremely hilarious.
There’s nothing too special about the packaging. It’s just the standard DVD case with some nice box art. The disc is pretty plain but I wish they would have made it look like a bronze medal. I’m not sure if that’s how the Blu-ray disc is but I hope so because I think it’s a great way to capitalize on the title of the film.
The Bronze was surpassed my expectations. I knew it was going to be funny but I didn’t know it would be that funny. I feel as the years go by, it will be a cult classic but as of now, I feel it was under-the-radar for many and underrated as well. I highly recommend you watch this movie. And just throwing this out there, taking a shot or chugging a beer for each f-bomb Melissa Rauch drops would probably make for the perfect drinking game.
I give The Bronze a solid 4 out of 5, and a 3 out of 5 for the DVD as a whole. The film definitely hits the landing and is deserving of at least a silver medal.
The Bronze is available on Blu-ray and DVD Aug. 2.
