Gavin O'Connor
151 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
Rain Man (1988)
Directed by Barry Levinson
influenced The Accountant² (2025), The Accountant (2016)
Themes
O’Connor calls this Rain Man on steroids, and maybe it raises awareness of autism, but it also celebrates it as a super-power.
…an adventure tonally akin to Rain Man by way of The Bourne Identity…
A un tris de haber sido (ojalá) el remake de ‘Rain Man’ con el que nos habrían deleitado los Farrelly de ‘Dos tontos muy tontos’…
Thanks to films like Rain Man and The Black Balloon, numerous stereotypes still persist, such as a complete lack of empathy and understanding of social cues…
…referring to it as "Rain Man on steroids."
O'Connor himself has referred to it as "Rain Man" on steroids, and he's not entirely wrong.
John Wick (2014)
Directed by Chad Stahelski
influenced The Accountant² (2025), The Accountant (2016)
Visuals Themes
(This movie has some of the best stunt work outside of a "John Wick" flick — too bad that new stunt Oscar category doesn't kick in until 2028.)
…marrying its methodical John Wick-ish action with the very levity its borderline-preposterous scenario demands…
The shoot-outs aren’t at a John Wick chaotic level, but no other action film can compete with that franchise either so that shouldn’t be held against The Accountant 2 either.
“The Accountant” franchise is just getting started and feels like the next realistic mash up of “John Wick” meets the MCU with a dash of Batman except it is the sweetest action movie ever.
…the lore in, say, the latter John Wick series feels mostly like empty calories and slightly sweaty…
It also, rather refreshingly, isn't just trying to be the next "John Wick."
Hoosiers (1986)
Directed by David Anspaugh
influenced The Way Back (2020), Miracle (2004)
Plot Themes
Is it kind of like Hoosiers ?
The scrappy high school underdog basketball tale in the style of “Hoosiers,” or “The Mighty Ducks,” directed by “Warrior” helmer Gavin O’Connor bears the weight of our parasocial relationship with star Ben Affleck.
In some ways it reminded me of “Hoosiers” but it is not as much about basketball as it is the return journey of an alcoholic to re-enter his life and reconnect with his family.
A couple of relatively subtle tips of the hat to Hoosiers notwithstanding, and a pivotal last-second buzzer-beater aside, Brad Ingelsby’s script doesn’t spend much time concerning itself with the on-court antics of the Bishop Hayes High School Varsity Basketball Team for much of its 108-minute running time.
There are moments where “The Way Back” simply feels like O’Connor and co-writer Brad Inglesby watched “Hoosiers” one night and alit on the idea of combining the Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper roles into one character.
That you can more or less fill in the blanks of what happens next means that “The Way Back” is an addiction drama that is also a genre movie — it’s like “Hoosiers” seen through a shot glass darkly.
Rocky (1976)
Directed by John G. Avildsen
influenced Warrior (2011), The Accountant² (2025)
Plot Themes
…or a seventh Rocky nine years after the sixth?
But, this is a fantasy rags-to-riches, brothers-in-competition saga that bargains on its “Rocky” and “The Fighter” influences, but tries to be more intense, and less inspirational, than its predecessors.
…aking an unusually respectful approach to the new sport of mixed martial arts (MMA), "Warrior" refurbishes material we've seen in the "Rocky" films and a thousand other populist dramas about ordinary people making their mark.
As the film works its way toward the pivotal fight, unlike the Rocky movies, Warrior has two combatants to embrace and cheer for.
A double-barreled " Rocky " for the mixed martial arts generations, the practically epic fight film " Warrior " is one of the most exhilarating surprises of this summer movie season.
Like Rocky (1976), the patron saint of all gritty underdog sports movies, Warrior has its roots in the working class milieu of Philadelphia.
For the sequel, Dubuque decided to inject humor into the story and turn the movie into a buddy/cop action thriller in the vein of the Lethal Weapon films. In fact, the tone of this sequel is very similar to the first two of that 80s action franchise, where the first movie is dark and serious, and the sequel is much more lighthearted, as is the case with Lethal Weapon 1 and 2.
…letting the movie operate as a buddy action comedy in the vein of 48 Hrs. or Lethal Weapon…
It’s almost as if we were mixing CSI: [Insert City Here] and Lethal Weapon.
…resembling classics of the genre like Midnight Run or Lethal Weapon…
One thing you likely would have never anticipated after seeing The Accountant was probably…well, a sequel…but also a pivot to an action buddy comedy of the Lethal Weapon variety.
…la de las llamadas buddy movies -como lo fue la saga Arma mortal…
That they’re not outfitted in X-Me n-style costumes almost feels like a missed opportunity…
…the positioning of the in-universe Harbor Neuroscience institute as some sort of school for neurodivergent savants has more in common with X‑Men than reality.
…a school of autistic kids exposing government secrets like Professor X’s “gifted youngsters” in the X-Men movies…
…would start to make sense only if the filmmakers are trying to set up Wolff and his shadow network of savants as their own “X-Men” cohort…
…a team of high-functioning superhackers that resemble nothing so much as the X-Men to Affleck’s Professor X.
I think the film intends these youngsters to be a semirealistic gang of X-Men…
…letting the movie operate as a buddy action comedy in the vein of 48 Hrs. or Lethal Weapon…
…la de 48 horas iniciada por Walter Hill…
In “The Accountant 2,” however, you might feel like you’re watching a mashup of “48 Hours” and “Rush Hour,” thanks to the rapid-fire jokes and cheeky banter between Affleck and Bernthal (who plays Wolff’s brother).
While some of the humors didn’t work, the two brothers kind of reminded me of the action duos in Lethal Weapon and 48 Hrs.
Imagine 48 Hrs (1982) or Lethal Weapon (1987) but with a brotherly twist.
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Directed by Doug Liman
influenced The Accountant² (2025), The Accountant (2016)
Themes Characters Plot
…an adventure tonally akin to Rain Man by way of The Bourne Identity…
He plays marvelously off of Affleck and the two turn the movie into a cross between THE BOURNE IDENTITY and THE ODD COUPLE.
…an increasingly common feature in many action thrillers since the Bourne films…
There’s not an ounce of originality besides the idea that Rain Man can moonlight as Jason Bourne.
This could have been the most original and emotionally engaging action movie since “The Bourne Identity,” but it doesn’t quite add up to the sum of its parts.
Nothing wrong with that, but this is the stale stuff bagged and resold over the course of a slow week at the theater – a soft, over-salted, lukewarm mix of “A Beautiful Mind,” “Good Will Hunting,” “The Bourne Identity” and “John Wick” with none of the flavor profiles.
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Directed by Kenneth Lonergan
influenced The Way Back (2020)
Themes Plot
Con una mesura emocional que se equipara a la de Manchester by the Sea , el otro hermano Affleck demuestra que bajo el mando de un talentoso director como lo es Gavin O’Connor, éste es capaz de brindarnos una excelente y compleja interpretación.
In that way, this is closer to a “Manchester by the Sea” than a “Hoosiers.”
The Way Back wants to be Manchester by the Sea on the hardwood, but it’s more like Hoosiers with a hangover.
It plays out a little like a cross between Hoosiers and Manchester by the Sea.
The arc is heavy-handed and predictable, and we’ve seen it all before and with more nuance in richer films such as Casey Affleck’s Manchester by the Sea .
As it becomes more overtly melodramatic, the film becomes less emotionally effective, straining for massive moments as if Affleck had gotten jealous of kid brother Casey’s “Manchester By The Sea.”
And its fondest fans can point to exceptions — “Body and Soul,” “The Set-Up,” “The Harder They Fall,” “Raging Bull” and even the first “Rocky.”
It may not be MMA’s “Raging Bull,” but it’s good enough to compare to “Rocky” or “Body and Soul” and not embarrass itself or its sport.
But, this is a fantasy rags-to-riches, brothers-in-competition saga that bargains on its “Rocky” and “The Fighter” influences, but tries to be more intense, and less inspirational, than its predecessors.
Like last year's “The Fighter” (to which it will inevitably be compared), “Warrior” serves up a solid rebuttal to anyone who would argue that a “fight movie” can’t be intelligent, impressively acted and multi-faceted.
The easiest way to describe The Warrior is to imagine The Fighter with more kicking and less crack.
As with last year's Oscar-winner The Fighter , Warrior uses a very physical sport as a means to bring two brothers together.
But for all of its supposed realism and reflection of hard times in America, the movie plays out as complete fairy-tale nonsense—exactly the kind of thing that “The Fighter” was fighting to get away from (even as it partially embraced it).
Shamelessly ripping off “The Fighter,” “Warrior” is also about professional brawlers, inept parenting, overcoming substance abuse and sibling rivalry: Estranged years ago by an alcoholic father (Nick Nolte) now in recovery, the two Conlon brothers, Brendan ( Joel Edgerton ) and Tommy ( Tom Hardy ), will almost inevitably meet again in an Atlantic City mixed-martial-arts cage-match event called Sparta.
To which I can only say, name me one boxing film, besides " Raging Bull ," whose story line isn't somehow a welter of clichés.
It's as if "Raging Bull" suddenly morphed into "Rocky."
And its fondest fans can point to exceptions — “Body and Soul,” “The Set-Up,” “The Harder They Fall,” “Raging Bull” and even the first “Rocky.”
Still, Warrior is closer kin to Raging Bull , Million Dollar Baby , and The Fighter than to Rocky and its ilk.
It may not be MMA’s “Raging Bull,” but it’s good enough to compare to “Rocky” or “Body and Soul” and not embarrass itself or its sport.
The characters of Warrior don’t fight in a ring, but a cage, as the film is something of a Rocky/Raging Bull hybrid set within in the more distinctly current world of mixed martial arts.
…a plot about human trafficking that would fit nicely into the Sicario universe…
The convoluted plot involves human traffickers, a nameless assassin and a compound in Juarez, as if The Accountant 2 borrowed from a script that was intended to be Sicario 3.
…a plot more in line with Sicario, as if the plan was to double down on being borderline offensive for the sake of watching a white guy on the spectrum blasting brown people to save children…
The Accountant 2 turns into Sicario in its third act, for an elaborate shootout south of the border.
…the movie takes the premise of Rain Man (Reunited Brothers, One Charming, One a Troubled Genius) and the bloody border intrigue of Sicario and asks: Why not both?
As a Mexican cop whose home life is glimpsed along the way, Maximiliano Hernández ("Warrior") is a symbol of the cost of the drug war.
The Terminator (1984)
Directed by James Cameron
influenced The Accountant² (2025), The Accountant (2016)
Characters
In 1984, “The Terminator” became one of the pop-culture touchstones of its decade, though it’s almost hard to remember that when Arnold Schwarzenegger was first tapped to portray that glowering cybernetic killer…
…yet another deadly assassin (Daniella Pineda plays Anaïs, essentially a human Terminator)…
The Terminator — not the most fleet-footed franchise — managed to churn out a new movie every six years on average.
The relationship between the two features reminds me of how The Terminator (1984) was a straightforward affair, while Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) turned the original on its head, injecting humor and heart into an almost self-parodying sequel.
He is a combination of Rain Man and James Bond with all the social graces of Schwarzenegger's cyborg in The Terminator .
Jungleland echos a number of other works, from something like Warrior to even the songs of Bruce Springsteen.
This may inevitably recall the fairly recent likes of “The Fighter” and “Warrior,” excellent movies with other fine lead actors that likewise tipped hat to the gritty ’70s cinema of “Fat City” and “Rocky” — which in turn cast a critical yet longing gaze back to palooka dramas from Hollywood’s golden age.
It’s a bit rusty at the start and suffers from stilted dialogue, but it soon finds its footing and adds up to being a solid companion piece to 2011’s Warrior , also about the emotional scars exchanged between brothers.
The underdog narrative will seem overly familiar to anyone that’s recently watched “Warrior” or “The Fighter” follows two brothers - one a talented on-the-rise boxer and the other his screwed up trainer – as they end up in the small textile town of Fall River, Massachusetts barely making enough cash influx to fuel their next big trek.
And it could find a moderate audience theatrically, although the surface similarities with pictures that deal with fraternal relationships and boxing (Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior and David O’Russell’s The Fighter are recent examples) means that it might not be distinctive enough to break out commercially.
Forrest Gump (1994)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
influenced The Accountant² (2025)
Visuals Characters
And he can make Forrest Gump shoes look hot, which may not be something you want to think about, until you actually see it.
Moments before, his wardrobe is described as "Forrest Gump" style.
Affleck’s more pronounced comedy schtick (which goes a little more Forrest Gump in places)…
This particular sequence, with Affleck dancing in, as Braxton calls them, “Forrest Gump shoes,” feels like an entirely different movie than we bargained for, and not in a good way.
His character is partial to an audiobook of Moby Dick, constantly chasing what he may never get, and nearly every scene with Nolte in it is akin to Mickey Rourkeâ??s turn in The Wrestler, tapping into a sense of shame so potent that the result is heartbreaking more often than not.
Nick Nolte’s turn in Warrior echoed the kind of career revitalising performance that Mickey Rourke delivered in The Wrestler.
One part “Rocky,” one part “The Wrestler,” “Warrior,” in the wrong hands, could be your average ESPN movie of the week.
Gavin O'Conner's Warrior is a working-class, kitchen-sink sports picture that will remind most young viewers of The Fighter and The Wrestler.
Earlier in the year, The Fighter brought the family-based boxing drama back to prominence, although that followed Darren Aronofsky’s subversion of the familiar formula, The Wrestler , which instead chose to focus on wrestling.
Friday Night Lights (2004)
Directed by Peter Berg
influenced The Way Back (2020), Warrior (2011)
Visuals Themes
He's ably aided by the gritty cinematography of Eduard Grau (Boy Erased), brisk editing of David Rosenbloom (Friday Night Lights), and moody score by Rob Simonsen (Foxcatcher).
Even the shaky-cam, natural-lighting shooting style — which gives the games a lived-in, organic feel — is straight out of Friday Night Lights .
Like all the best sports movies—from Friday Night Lights to Hoosiers to Field of Dreams—this one has more on its mind than the game clock and the scoreboard.
The Way Back borrows conventions from such jock uplift films as Remember the Titans and Friday Night Lights but violates inspirational movie principles.
Small-town football may be a far cry from the world of professional mixed martial arts, but memories of the vivid, authentic, heartbreaking eloquence found on television series "Friday Night Lights" week after weeka drama deep and attentive enough to truly be about people rather than a game only serves to put the soppy, pandering, threadbare "Warrior" to even greater shame.
Like "Friday Night Lights," "Warrior" is a quiet character study so heart-wrenching it doesn't matter whether you have any interest in the sport at its center.
His character is partial to an audiobook of Moby Dick, constantly chasing what he may never get, and nearly every scene with Nolte in it is akin to Mickey Rourkeâ??s turn in The Wrestler, tapping into a sense of shame so potent that the result is heartbreaking more often than not.
He’s obsessed with righting old wrongs, which may be why he is absorbed by Captain Ahab’s pursuit of the elusive monster whale in “Moby Dick”; he listens to the audio version of the novel at every opportunity.
Warrior is narrated by the audiobook that Nolte’s character is constantly listening to, Moby Dick.
In classic narrative style, the patriarch, (Nick Nolte in a solid outing that begins with real promise—drinking coffee and reading John Steinbeck, quoting from Moby Dick no less—before he’s pushed back far beyond the ropes) is nearing his 1000th day of sobriety only to be offered a home-coming gift of scotch from his recently returned son, Tommy.
When “Warrior” begins with Nolte listening to the book-on-tape of “Moby Dick,” it is clear the kind of movie we’re in for.
The movie's script risks drawing its conflicts out too plainly: The brothers' contrasting training regimens (Brendan listens to Beethoven in a pristine gym, while Tommy is out in the muck) get a little too much emphasis, and viewers would understand the weight of Paddy's personal demons even if he weren't always listening to a "Moby Dick" audiobook.
Jack Reacher (2012)
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
influenced The Accountant² (2025), The Accountant (2016)
Themes Plot
Like so many action films of the last 15 years — not to mention all iterations of the Jack Reacher franchise — the Accountant movies are superhero films for audiences who can’t take capes and spandex seriously.
…the rest of the film is fairly decent and much as one would expect from an Equalizer or Reacher.
We’ve had five Bourne s, three Taken s, and we’re only a week away from a second beating by Jack Reacher .