With “The Pale Blue Eye” director Scott Cooper has found his mojo again. Ever since his excellent 2009 directorial debut “Crazy Heart” and his 2013 sophomore effort “Out of the Furnace,” Cooper had struggled to find a strength in his follow up projects. 2015’s true story of Whitey Bolger “Black Mass” was underwhelming. The director’s 2017 Western “Hostiles” suffered from an undercooked ... more >
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“THE PALE BLUE EYE”: a candlelit murder tale that uncovers the darker facet of our intellect | REVIEW
Available on Netflix
Starring Christian Bale, Harry Melling and Simon McBurney
Directed by Scott Cooper
American Hustle
The Con over Reality: making the case
Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper
Directed by David O. Russell
In "American Hustle"’s would-be signature moment con-man Christian Bale shows G-man Bradley Cooper a Rembrandt in a gallery. He explains that it’s really a fake. Who is the better artist, he asks, the original artist or the person who took the time and skill to fake it? Well, I would say the artist. He is the one who perceived it. He is the one who conceived it. He is the one who summoned the ... more >
CHRISTIAN BALE to play Moses
Time to start growing out that beard again
Can Christian Bale do a good Moses? Charlton Heston was the right guy for the job, as was clear from the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille H'wood extravaganza "The Ten Commandments." We think Bale will live up to the promise. He's been attached to play Moses in Ridley Scott's retelling of the story of the biblical hero, according to Deadline. The suggestion follows reports last week that Steven Spielberg has ... more >
Reddit crowd-sources big screen heroes
Bond or Batman: who's the fairest of them all?
Scared or turned on? A Reddit reader put together a composite picture of all the actors having interpreted the M.I.6 agent in an attempt at revealing the real face of James Bond. Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan are very recognizable, whereas Timothy Dalton and Roger Moore tend to get lost in the alpha-Brit melee. If nothing else, this fun project may help give some ideas to the producers of the ... more >
The Dark Knight Rises
Disguised as entertainment it feel like a foreboding prophecy
Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway and Marion Cotillard
Directed by Christopher Nolan
UPDATE - Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims of the Denver theater shooting. We were saddened by this tragic event. If “Inception“ found Christopher Nolan debating whether to surrender, Tarkovsky-like, the real world for the deepest levels of imagination, “The Dark Knight” Rises finds him already having taken the plunge. Where would you rather be as a musclebound ... more >
The Fighter
Another Screen Comment critic speaks out
Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams
Directed by David O. Russell
I once referred to Christian Bale as The Actor Most Likely To Tick Off His Wife By Staying In Character Over Dinner. Shortly thereafter, to my amusement, I read an article in which Bale admitted this was true, that his method actor’s commitment sometimes got on his wife’s nerves. With that in mind, Bale’s role as a crack-addicted ex-boxer in “The Fighter” must have been a rough few months for ... more >
The Fighter
A movie narrative that keeps on giving
Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Amy Adams
Directed by David O. Russell
There is never a doubt about how the fights will turn out in “The Fighter,” except the ones that play out within the family of Mickey Ward. Dickey Eklund (Christian Bale) at one time was called "Pride of Lowell, Massachusetts” because he managed to knock down Sugar-Ray Leonard (though some would say Sugar-Ray tripped). Now he mostly spends his time training his brother Mickey (Mark Wahlberg)--when ... more >