THE BALE (aka: Movie Review: The Fighter)

Happy New Year to you all! I know it's been an eternity since I wrote a real blog with substance, but that ends NOW! Over the break I was able to see a few great movies, and this entry will be dedicated to telling you about the first one, The Fighter.

My friends and I have gotten into the habit of referring to Christian Bale as "The Bale" since he is beyond awesome and mostly rules in all ways possible by a human being. He's stunning to look at, has about a million different dialects and accents he can use, and is enormously talented as an actor. Even his outburst a few years ago was turned into a hilarious and epic dance remix that should be found on youtube. To me, Christian can do no wrong, and never has. Even in movies like Laurel Canyon or Little Women, The Bale can't help but be a true BAMF to the core. Not only does he have more cult classics than most any other actor (American Psycho, Equilibrium, The Newsies, Velvet Goldmine), but he also does pay his dues in indie films like The Machinist and Rescue Dawn. Not to mention, he could drink your milkshake even as a kid (12 years old) when he was hand picked by director Steven Spielberg, and starred in Empire of the Sun. As if that wasn't enough, he also has been a part of the biggest revival of an American icon in film history (at least in my humble opinion) by being Batman, the ULTIMATE hero. Not just anyone can play Batman. And Christian is not just anyone.

However, Christian has never received an Oscar nomination. No... I did not say he's been nominated but never won, he's never even been NOMINATED. The injustice is too cruel. But fear not, there is hope, for I have seen The Fighter and have come to report today that INDEED Christian Bale's performance is OSCAR-LISCIOUS. Get ready Academy, there is no other supporting actor that even compares to this man's rendition of a cracked-out, pseudo-hero brother of a losing boxer. Bale has this tied DOWN. He's won every award for this role so far, and I don't think we'll be seeing the guy slowing down. And it's about TIME, too. Go on wit' ya bad self, Bale, and enjoy the sweet victory. You deserve it!

But seriously, Bale captures this character so well, at the end when they showed us the real person he had portrayed I was shocked. Dicky sounded and acted just like what I had seen Christian play for the last 2 hours. It was said that while he and Mark were filming this movie, they acted so much like the brothers that they were mistaken for the brothers by people who were used to seeing them around town. That is a big testament to what a wonderful job these two actors did in these roles. And I was especially excited, because in each film Christian has been in lately, it seems he's been overshadowed by something or someone else. I believe my exact words as I left this theater were: "Finally, Christian is in a movie were he steals focus!"

As far as plot goes, The Fighter isn't anything ground breaking. You can probably guess how things are going to go. However, even though it was a sports movie with adversity and triumph, a plot we've seen before, I still enjoyed seeing this story play out. The script is good and entertaining, and the acting, as I have said, was superb. My only complaint was that Mark Walberg's character, Mickey, was portrayed as kind of a wimp in life. Not talking boxing, I mean how he let everyone near him push him around. He let his sisters bully him, his mom bully him, he let Dickey walk all over him him, he let his sisters bully his girlfriend. By the end I just wanted to shout at him. Thankfully, in the end, we know how things go for Mickey.

So, if you are in for a movie that gets you jazzed up, go see The Fighter. If nothing else, go to see Christian Bale's most awesome performance to date. Awards season can not be more exciting for me this year!