Bleak as its South Central Los Angeles setting, Harsh Times is like a suicidal vortex swallowing men who ought to know better but can't stop their self-destruction. Christian Bale stars as Jim Davis, a stressed-out, former Army Ranger who becomes a very bad influence on his weak-willed buddy, Mike Alvarez (Freddy Rodriguez of Six Feet Under). Together the two meander through streets ...
Manufacturer: Pathe Distribution LtdStarring: Christian Bale, Freddy Rodriguez, Eva Longoria, Terry Crews, Emilio RiveraDirected By: David Ayer
Leave it to New Zealand director Jane Campion (The Piano, Angel at My Table) to begin an adaptation of Henry James's great novel (set in the late 1800s) with a group of late-20th-century women from Down Under talking about the importance of a kiss. Like any good film adaptation (and it's a very good one, indeed), this exquisitely framed and mounted Portrait of a Lady is at ...
Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UKStarring: Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey, Martin Donovan, Mary-Louise ParkerDirected By: Jane Campion
Manufacturer: Warner Home VideoStarring: Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Christian Bale, Gary OldmanDirected By: Christopher Nolan
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentStarring: Frances McDormand, Alessandro Nivola, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhoneDirected By: Lisa Cholodenko
Samuel L. Jackson makes a gleefully updated John Shaft in John Singleton's homage (not remake) to the early 1970s action classic, picking up where Richard Roundtree's legendary Shaft left off. The Manhattan-set film features excellent performances, dynamic action scenes and witty one-liners (Jackson's Shaft: "It's my duty to please the booty"--although the line's deceptive: there's a ...
Manufacturer: Paramount Home EntertainmentStarring: Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams, Christian Bale, Jeffrey Wright, Busta RhymesDirected By: John Singleton
Not quite the large-scale epic it promised to be, Reign of Fire is still an enjoyable entry in the post-catastrophe genre. It opens in present-day London with a boy witnessing the rebirth of the race of dragons, who are supposed to have wiped out the dinosaurs and now devastate the world again. Skipping the collapse of society with a montage of magazine articles about the world in flames, ...
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Studios Home EntertainmStarring: Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Izabella Scorupco, David Kennedy, Gerard ButlerDirected By: Rob Bowman
Manufacturer: Eureka EntertainmentStarring: Timothy Bottoms; Susannah York; Christian Bale; Christopher Lee
Roundly dismissed as one of Steven Spielberg's least successful efforts, this very underrated film poignantly follows the World War II adventures of young Jim (a brilliant Christian Bale), caught in the throes of the fall of China. What if you once had everything and lost it all in an afternoon? What if you were only 12 years old at the time? Bale's transformation, from pampered British ...
Manufacturer: Warner Home VideoStarring: Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers, Joe PantolianoDirected By: Steven Spielberg
As a bleak and chilling mood piece, The Machinist gets under your skin and stays there. Christian Bale threw himself into the title role with such devotion that he shed an alarming 63 pounds to play Trevor Reznik (talk about "starving artist"!), a factory worker who hasn't slept in a year. He's haunted by some mysterious occurrence that turned him into a paranoid husk, sleepwalking a fine ...
Manufacturer: Tartan VideoStarring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, John Sharian, Michael IronsideDirected By: Brad Anderson
Import from the Netherlands, which play in English. Bobby Platt is a mentally slow young man who escapes an abusive, hateful stepfather who has killed his pets one by one. To save himself, Bobby runs away and meets a strange old man who wanders the highways to bury roadkill animals. Bobby becomes the old man's apprentice and learns to see the world of nature in a strange idyllic way. But soon the ...
Manufacturer: Lions GateStarring: John Hurt, Christian Bale, Daniel Benzali, James Faulkner, John O'TooleDirected By: Jeremy Thomas
