With his interest duly piqued, Dan, who's been suffering from performance anxiety and one of most disturbing nightmares yet put to film (as evidenced by the film's attention-grabbing opening sequence), allows himself to be tutored in the higher psychological arts, à la The Karate Kid. What this arrogant prick needs is less post-practice bed-hopping and more inscrutable Zen koans from the likes of Nolte's mysterious midnight auto mechanic, whom Dan dubs Socrates after their first 3am exchange ends with the aging grease monkey leaping, to all appearances, a humanly impossible 12 vertical feet onto his service station's rooftop.

His force is a tad too forceful, you see, his Han forever solo no matter how many times he gets, um, Leia'd. Yoda, of course, said it best: 'Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things.' And yet they're the same psychological impediments that keep hotshot UC Berkeley gymnast and stridently cocksure Olympic hopeful Dan Millman (Mechlowicz) both relatively earthbound and emotionally constrained.

Peaceful warrior movie