Bigger

Pretty bad writing and pacing. Pretty dry movie. Great acting by the actors tho. Except Calum, he straight up sucked.

As a biography, Bigger hearkens back to the days when Hollywood biopics cranked out knights in shining armor using whatever mixture of fact and fiction they thought would fill the seats and send everybody home happy. Joe Weider is a presented as a blemish-free altruist who only wants to help the world become a fitter place; various inconvenient aspects of Joe's private and professional lives - including the timing of his two marriages and the existence of his daughter, legal difficulties stemming from highly exaggerated claims of his products' effectiveness, questionable treatment of business partners, and strong presence in the gay-oriented "beefcake magazine" market of the 1950s and early 60s with titles like Adonis and Body Beautiful - are either glossed over or ignored completely. Meanwhile, the villainous foil "Bill Hauk", officially claimed to be a composite of several real-life characters but pretty clearly a representation of U.S. Olympic weightlifting coach and rival muscle mag publisher Bob Hoffman, is a cartoonishly evil, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, violent thug. Exec produced by nephew Eric Weider, the film plays like the Weider Empire's bid for Joe's sainthood.

Historical inaccuracies and omissions aside, as a movie it just isn't very satisfying. The years flip by so quickly it's difficult to build up much momentum, and we're often left wondering exactly how last year's big dilemma played out. Tyler Hoechlin as Joe does a capable job mimicking Weider's distinctive Polish/Yiddish/Quebecois accent but tacks on an awkwardly stilted manner of speech; oddly, both of these are absent in the always-classy Robert Forster's portrayal of Joe as an old man. The labored delivery combined with Joe's single-minded obsession with fitness makes him appear to be a sort of Rain Man of bodybuilding, and only succeeds in distancing the audience from the character. Repeated anti-Semitic attacks and accusations of homosexuality fail to build the viewer's sympathy after the first few instances, with a mounting array of epithets not heard for a while in a non-Tarentino movie.

The film tries hard to present Joe Weider's life story as a classic David-versus-Goliath struggle. But given the ending we already know, it's pretty clear that this David's goal all along was to become an even bigger Goliath.

BIGGER is essentially the video biography of the grandfather of bodybuilding/nutrition, Joe Weider.

Perhaps best known for his weights (WEIDER across a set of plates or barbells at your local gym), Joe and his brother Ben arguably brought bodybuilding and the need for balanced nutrition to the forefront of western culture, some 60 years ago. The billion dollar market that exists today, is based on the template that Weider created with his magazines, equipment, pro competitions and the creation of the IFBB.

The film portrayal is loyal to his life, vision and clearly conveys the passion Joe obviously felt from a very young age without any outside influence in being drawn to the sport of bodybuilding (before he had it recognized as a sport).

To me, the firl was very entertaining beginning to end; some of the acting was a little wooden at times and downright awful at others (Calum Von Moger, looking at you) but it can be forgiven for these moments, since the goal of showing Arnold in his prime at a competition were achieved/believable, which obviously outweighed the requirement to have him be a good actor to boot. With that said, I really hope Calum pursues acting (after some good lessons) because it would be a lot of fun to see him throw people around in roles like Arnie used to do, coupled with memorable one-liners ( "Crush ya' enemies, see dem driven befo' you...")

All in all, a great movie which I recommend checking out. Solid 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Huge bb fan and in the industry so I was excited for this movie. Just felt like there was no crescendo. Interesting story however accurate it actually is. Would have been fun to see more of the Arnold/frank/Sergio competition. It was just a blip in the movie. I know it's about Weider but still that time was defined by the Oak.

I'm not so much into bodybuilding, though I do believe it's not a bad thing to keep in shape in general. Now I reckon some might have been aware of the story of the two brothers that are being highlighted here. I knew nothing about them and even though I am probably not the biggest draw this movie is trying to get, I was more than entertained.

Add to that a very well known figure coming into this very late in the game. That episode almost seems comical ... but the movie overall has a lot of comedic overtones. It actually plays between comedy and drama and walks that fine line quite neatly and with quite the confidence. The pacing is good, but some may find it a bit too slow and predictable. Still overall more than a decent effort and movie, even for those not in tune with what this is about .. because in the end, it is about believing in ones dreams and passions ...