this comment be intend a a guide to help people who have time to see only one movie about a die grizzled athlete way past his prime to decide if they want to spend 94 minute with nick nolte or 111 minute with mickey rourke . ( this be sort of like the late comedian george carlin famous routine compare baseball to football while be warn and i still pick baseball . ) on the basis of sport action and off the black be limit to one pitch ball the title pitch while the wrestler have many scene of body slam and chair bash excitement . in term of sex and nick nolte character ( ray cook ) have prostate cancer and presumably the cuddling and kissing he do with his old high school sweetheart marianne ( a thankfully fully clothe sally kirkland ) be about all he up to and while mickey rourke randy the ram robinson get to spend a lot of screen time with topless marisa tomei ( play his exotic dancer lover cassidy ) . in regard to substance abuse and ray pretty much limit himself to a refrigerator full of beer and plus dinner wine and the occasional bottle of whiskey ( contribute to the delinquency of a minor through promote under age drinking with his 11th grader surrogate son dave tibbel and play by trevor morgan ) and while the ram seem to keep his life in shamble through over medicate himself with every drug know to mankind . poignant and bittersweet aptly describe both film and but the producer of off the black very obviously throw in a few crudity to obtain their desired r rating for a movie which could have just a easily be pg13 and while the wrestler be definitely a very hard r. for what it worth and i rat the latter story one notch high than bang the umpire slowly and at 9 .