A blog about general entertainment, fashion, and movies. And some random stuff too.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

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!

9 comments:

  1. We've already discussed that I 100% percent agree with you, but it wouldn't be right if I didn't leave you a little blog lovin'. :)
    Let's not forget Amy Adams, though. The girl was de-glammed for this role, and donned a totally believable accent. I really adored her!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with you 100% and Chelsea is right also, Amy Adams was impressive! Good movie, amazing role by Bale. If he doesn't win I will never watch the Oscars again!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes Amy was great. And I especially loved that she said she was nervous about the role because of the cussing. She's so cute!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good post! I am definitely in the fanbase for Christian. I've never understood the criticisms with his Batman performance. He IS Batman, but I'm preaching to the choir here. In any case, while my favorite Bale performance will always be Batman, I am very excited to see him winning awards left and right this year for The Fighter. I highly recommend watching the documentary High On Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell which is the HBO documentary they are shown filming in The Fighter. Gives even more insight into Dicky, and just a great doc anyways.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm so ready to go see this! I love Mark Wahlberg already so I'm bound to like it. But i definitely appreciate how versatile Christian Bale is. He can portray SO many different characters, and he does a bang up job every time! Good review.
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I TOTALLY agree with you about Christian Bale. I am a huge fan, & have been since "Empire of the Sun", a movie that was underrated at the time. We study his performance in "American Psycho" in my master Film classes that I teach, & when THIS one comes out in DVD, we will study his performance in this one as well. I think his portrayal of a drug-addict is caught perfectly. It made me sick to my stomach & I almost had to walk out because it rang true so vividly...and it made me cry... & then, I felt joy...EVERYTHING a movie is suppose to make you feel. I loved it, love Christian Bale & I LOVE Mark WAhlburg too! He was portraying this character the way he was..too chill, too patient, but someone who had hope...and he DID let people get away with too many things...but it's based on a true story, and he did triumph in the end. Sometimes, people have to LEARN to stand up on their own two feet, and that was part of the message.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You know I totally agree with you about Bale and his role. He owned it. I love Markie Mark too, sorry Mark Walberg, have for a long time. I was surprised by Amy Adams because, honestly I have never really been that impressed with her and she got my attention in this one!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. re: Mickey Ward being a pushover outside the ring. Having watched a lot of footage of the real guy, he's a really mild-mannered, soft spoken guy. When you have a bunch of nutty family members harping at you from one end, and a girlfriend and trainer harping at you from another end, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and clam up, letting everyone push you around. But I think it was Whalberg's most subtle performance to date, even if my favorite thing he's done is his scene-stealing turn in The Departed (for which he was nominated for Supporting Actor). I think that right there is what stems the conflict in the film, his lack of being able to really stand up for himself until he just can't take it anymore.

    ReplyDelete