Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
3/4
The Machinist review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 11/02/2012
Seeing Bale here proves that he is one of the underrated artists that can convey emotion while being passionate in his craft. Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) is a machinist who has insomnia and is bothered by Ivan, a stout individual while things go wrong along the way. He seeks comfort from call girl Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and a waitress Maria (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón). An underrated psychological thriller that keeps you glued because of the plot while Bale convinces you of his stellar performance. Jennifer Jason Leigh is always dependable. It shows how serious an actor Bale can be. Score was perfect for its genre and direction was detailed and suspenseful enough to keep it interesting. The pace and cinematography just sufficient to keep things interesting. The Machinist is …
Rating of
2/4
"The Machinist" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 06/24/2012
I'd heard a lot about this film, particularly involving Christian Bale's dramatic weight loss and his physical transformation is remarkable. He plays an insomniac haunted by hallucinations and a constant feeling of deja vu until he begins to discover notes left for him by an unknown figure, leading him to fear for his sanity. These kind of psycho dramas tend only to work if done with subtlety; the best examples, Fight Club, Memento and The Sixth Sense are exercises in directorial expertise, the audience fed with misdirections and seeds of potential clues which in each case leads to a powerful climactic revelation. During this film however, I felt like I was having to clamber through a minefield of heavy-handed symbolism and hulking sign posts pointing to a conclusion that had been …
Rating of
4/4
Incredible descent into madness
TheWolf - wrote on 10/10/2007
Let me get this out of the way first, the only mention I plan to make here about the insane weight loss of Christian Bale for this role is that he had to put it all back on and then add a lot of muscle to play Batman a year later.
The story is considered to be slow for most people. Personally I didn't mind the pacing of how it works. Honestly the pacing I feel puts the viewer into the tormented frame of mind that Trevor is going through. Everytime he gets even close to sleeping something always manages to wake him up. The lighting and the coloring of everything around him is an old and dreary feel, there are no bright colors, and nothing that can extract hope or happiness for the existence of the character. This is an amazing technique. By keeping the colors dark and even the tones …
Rating of
3/4
A Modern day Edgar Allan Poe Story
Josh C - wrote on 04/19/2007
The machinist unravels itself slowly and carefully until the very end. The acting along with good story telling created uneasiness throughout the movie. I felt like I was watching a modern day Hitchcock film that was based one of Edgar Allan Poe?s works. So if you like a mysterious plot with some strange characters the Machinist delivers.
The most surprising part was the weight loss of Christian Bale. If anyone had doubts about Christian Bale?s acting or dedication to his craft this movie put all of those doubts aside. He lost so much weight for this movie it was sickening. I couldn?t even recognize him at first glance.
***Spoiler Alert***
The movie is a modern day ?Tell-Tale Heart? by Edgar Allen Poe. His guilt eats at him, making him loose weight, develop odd OCD traits, and …
