Tag Archive for 'Christian Bale'

The Dark Knight

Published
by
Chalupa
on August 4, 2008
in Action, Based on a comic, Black Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sequel and Thriller
. 0 Comments

Liz and I were able to catch the latest installment in the Batman series over the weekend.  We’re both glad we were able to catch it on the big screen.  After all the buildup, hype, and raving reviews, we finally got to see what everyone was talking about.


I was very impressed with Batman Begins and I wasn’t in any way disappointed with The Dark Knight.  I’m already looking forward to the next one.  Heath Ledger did an amazing job with The Joker.  I was reading someone’s comments somewhere and they were talking about how they’ve never been a Ledger fan until now.  They also never realized how menacing and diabolical the Joker could actually be, and after thinking about Jack Nicholson’s portrayal from 1989, they realized that Nicholson was just delivering the same role he had been for the previous 20 years or so.  You may or may not agree with that, but it was a little mind blowing to me.  Maybe I haven’t seen enough of Nicholson’s films, but I’ve never quite understood why people are so enamored by him.  Yeah, he has some good films out there with great performances, but I’ve never been that impressed.  It’s really too bad Ledger isn’t with us anymore for any follow-up films.

Often times in sequels, it’s hard to make something that lives up to the original.  I think Christopher Nolan did a good job in raising the bar by bringing in the Joker, but there’s always room for some improvements.  I don’t think Christian Bale had to really act that much this time around.  The gutteral “batman voice” got a little annoying and old, but it makes sense he was talking differently to try and hide his identity.  Aaron Eckhart did a decent job.  I’ll always remember him as Nick Naylor from Thank You for Smoking.  It’ll be interesting to see if he makes a comeback in the future.

I think Gary Oldman had a much more active role this time around.  He’s such a great actor and it’s nice to see him able to spread his wings a bit.  I liked Maggie Gyllenhaal more than Katie Holmes in the role of Rachel Dawes.  She also fit in pretty well.  It wasn’t like some films where actors change for a particular character and the whole time you’re confused as to who exactly that person is.  Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman were wonderful as usual.  Some friends of mine complained after the first film that they were grossly underutilized.  I kind of agreed, however, it was nice to actually have a “real” actor play the role of Alfred for a change.  I was just happy to have a live body in the role.

Some of the scenes with the Joker are a bit disturbing, but this is rated PG-13, so there’s not a whole lot to worry about.  They cut away at just the right moments in certain scenes.  Liz and I both said we got a little bored in the middle, but overall we thoroughly enjoyed it.  I would highly suggest getting out and seeing this one before it leaves the theaters.  You won’t be sorry.

Rating: ★★★★½

3:10 to Yuma

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 24, 2007
in Crime, Drama, Remake and Western
. 0 Comments

If you’re into Westerns I think you’ll like this movie. If you’re not into Westerns, you might still like this movie. I’ve always thought of myself as a big fan of the Western genre. I think when push comes to shove I’m really just a big fan of Clint Eastwood. It’s always fun to see good vs bad…and even the ugly sometimes.

One of my fellow co-workers is considered an expert on the Western genre. He even has a book titled Westerns and American Culture, 1930-1955. This guy knows his stuff. One day I was talking to him about movies and to my horror the man hates Spaghetti Westerns and he HATES Clint Eastwood. The guy loves John Wayne. To me, John Wayne is the Jackie Chan of Kung Fu movies. If you couldn’t tell, I’m more partial to the likes of Jet Li and Bruce Lee. Anyways, I’ve kind of guessed that my co-worker isn’t a fan of the bad guys winning, little character development and little morality. Well, I think he just might like this movie because it’s not lacking in those areas.

I haven’t seen the original, but I read that it has a different ending. I’ll have to Netflix-it and see what I think. If you’re not familiar with the plot, it’s about a man who lost most of one leg in the Civil War and is trying to earn some money so his family doesn’t lose their land to the railroad. In order to earn $200, he volunteers to help escort a hardened criminal to a train station to put that man on the 3:10pm train to Yuma Prison.

I’m sure you can guess that everything doesn’t really just run smoothly. What kind of movies do? This terrible menace to society starts off by being all nice and polite. He even tries to befriend almost everybody. Don’t let him fool you though, he’s still a cold-blooded murderer. However, he doesn’t just kill on a whim. He does things for a reason. On the way to the train, the first man we see Ben Wade kill pretty much deserved it. In fact, before this little trip, he had recently burned down Dan Evans, the volunteer’s, barn. It was still a smoking pile of timbers when the group left town. Ben figured this guy deserved it, and he did. As the group treks across the open country, more and more of them don’t make it to the end, but you see a friendship growing between Ben and Dan.

This is where the character development happens. Dan is a good man, plain and simple. Dan does the right things for the right reasons. Ben notices he doesn’t belong on this trip. Dan has a family to take care of and not much to take care of them with. Ben knows that Dan is just doing what he can to take care of his wife and kids. I think that’s why you start to see a deep respect grow between them. I’m not going to tell much more about what happens because I can’t give too much away.

So you may be wondering who’s in this. Ben is played by Russell Crowe. Personally, I can’t think of a single movie this man has been in that I didn’t like. Dan is played by Christian Bale. Some other highlights are Ben Foster, Alan Tudyk, and Peter Fonda and Luke Wilson. Definitely a great group of actors. I’m continually impressed by Crowe, Bale and Foster in just about everything they do.

I’m so glad I saw this in the theater. It was an experience worth every dollar I paid to see it. This will be making its way into my top 10 for the year. I highly suggest you give it a chance if you are able.

The Prestige

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 15, 2007
in Based on a novel, Drama, England, Fantasy, Mystery, Revenge, Sci-fi, Suicide, Thriller and Twist
. 0 Comments

Back in September there were commercials and previews out for two movies about magicians: The Illusionist and The Prestige. Trying to keep them separated in my head was quite a task. I even went to see The Illusionist in the theater and thought I was going to see The Prestige. Even though I enjoyed that outing and was entertained by the film, I recently found out The Prestige is way, way better. It even made me want to go watch Batman again after seeing Christian Bale and Sir Michael Caine in action together a second time.

In this film you have two magicians who have been around each other for a long time and are competing to see who is best. There is also a grudge war between the two that all started with an unfortunate accident that resulted in Angier’s wife’s death. In the end, the obsession to be on top ruins both men’s lives and there are a few twists in there that aren’t easily seen through from the beginning.

This film is full of wonderful actors. It was definitely a treat to see Bowie back in action. I think his performance as Nikola Tesla blows his Labyrinth performance out of the water. Andy Serkis plays his assistant. I’m glad to see he’s getting more work. The two magicians are played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. Michael Caine is an engineer who builds and designs the illusions and Scarlett Johansson plays an assistant. Besides just being a great movie, I think this film also portrays what an unhealthy obsession can do to somebody when taken to extreme levels.

One thing I really appreciated was the lack of offensive material. So often in the box office I see films that great, except I can’t recommend them to certain people because of certain content contained throughout. This is one that will hopefully keep you entertained, and, isn’t full of nudity, violence, language and drug-use. So go out and see it. I caught it at our dollar theater. Hopefully it’s playing somewhere around you for cheap too.

The Machinist

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 22, 2005
in Drama, Factory, Independent, Mystery, Neo Noir and Thriller
. 1 Comment

Here’s one I was always wondering about…but now I know. Liz and Robby came over and I’m glad I saw it. We were all amazed at how much weight Christian Bale lost for this role. It was pretty much just painful to see him in so many scenes with his shirt off. He looked like a holocaust victim.

The premise of this film is there’s a guy who works as a machinist in a metal shop and there’s this guy who’s after him, messing with him and the machinist is trying to track him down. This movie reminded me a bit of Memento and Fight Club - I won’t say much else because I don’t want to ruin the plot for you. There were definitely a few twists and I really liked the ending. I wasn’t really expecting it, but afterwards everything makes perfect sense.

If you’re into thrillers/mysteries, don’t mind dark films and aren’t afraid of something that might be a bit mildly scary/creepy at parts you should check this one out.

Batman Begins

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 15, 2005
in Action, Adventure, Based on a comic, Crime, Martial Arts, Neo Noir and Thriller
. 1 Comment

I started off with the intent to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith but Sarah informed us that the movie sucked so Liz, Sarah and I went to see this movie instead and I’m glad we did. For starters, we have a star-studded cast including Christian Bale (Treasure Island, Newsies, American Psycho, Equilibrium), Michael Caine (Zulu, Alfie-original, The Italian Job-original, A Bridge Too Far, The Muppet Christmas Carol), Liam Neeson (The Mission, Schindler’s List, Michael Collins, Kinsey), Morgan Freeman (Driving Miss Daisy, Glory, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Unforgiven, Shawshank Redemption, Seven, Amistad, Million Dollar Baby, Unleashed), Katie Holmes (Pieces of April), Gary Oldman (Dracula, True Romance, Leon, The Fifth Element), Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Intermission, Cold Mountain), and Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai). See? I said it was star-studded

I read a review earlier today of said movie that talked about what a crappy film this was. Apparently the good actors just didn’t quite make it good, there was action but it was full of dead spots, blah blah blah. I didn’t see any of the bad things I read about in this movie. I really believe that Christopher Nolan has resurrected the Batman movies - especially after a string of such bad ones. This one definitely rocked. I think this was also the first Batman movie to explain the origins of Bruce Wayne. Liam Neeson did an awesome job as well as Gary Oldman, one of the few films where he’s not the bad guy. I didn’t quite recognize Ken Watanabe, but his voice immediately gave him away. Then we have good ol Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Christian Bale. If you like Equilibrium, you’re definitely going to love this one.

I think this movie will appeal to the comic lovers, the action lovers and the Batman lovers. It’s definitely way more serious than the “Holy Swiss Cheese Batman!!!!” TV series, but fake and unreal like other comic hero movies. This is also a movie that should keep the interest of older kids and adults. There’s not really much swearing and other than people getting the crap kicked out of them by Batman, there’s not much else to deter people from watching this film for content. I rate this as a must see and it will probably end up on my top 10 list at the end of the year.