Harsh Times

Director: David Ayer

Cast: Christian Bale, Freddy Rodriguez, Eva Longoria

Genre: Independent, Drama, Crime

Rating: ** = "Didn't Like It"

I like Christian Bale and the premise of the movie sounded interesting - returned soldier carouses around town with his best friend before heading off to a job with the DEA in Colombia and they get into trouble. But it turned out to be a pretty boring movie with some very unlikeable characters - if I can't like the characters, then I can't get into the movie.

Christian Bale plays Jim David, a gung-ho ex-soldier who has failed in his numerous attempts to join the LAPD. His best friend is pal Mike Alvarez, who lives with (and off) his beautiful lawyer girlfriend, played by Eva Longoria. Jim just wants to get a badge and be "the man" and volunteers to drive Mike around job hunting, as his girlfriend is not happy living with a jobless boyfriend. Instead of helping Mike look for a job, Jim convinces him to blow it off and the two of them spend most of their cursing, drinking, smoking pot, robbing street hoods, and generally being complete idiots. Christian Bale's talent is wasted in this role, a completely one dimensional psycho hot-head who seems more concerned with screwing up his life even more then it already is and scaring his friends with his violent, psychotic outbursts. He is completely unbelievable as a street thug, spouting the same lame street/gang slang over and over again spliced with numerous expletives.

The movie drags at a tedious pace with Jim and Mike getting into and out of one mess after another. Throughout the whole movie all I could think about was what losers these two guys were and looking at my watch wondering when it was going to end.

The end of the movie finally got interesting and it was obvious that first-time director David Ayer was trying to tie up everything that had happened to Jim and Mike into a tidy little ending. The last 15 minutes of the movie were actually quite interesting and Bale and Rodriguez finally got to do some decent acting. A very sad, dark movie that made little sense, the only reason this movie gets two stars is the ending somewhat redeemed the boring mess the movie was up til then.

What Parents Need to Know:
Common Sense Media rates this movie as:
17+ = For strong language, violence, and drug use. (Common Sense Media claims there are over 200 utterances of f--k - who has time to count all that?? Good grief.)

Parents need to know that this movie isn't for kids in any way, shape, or form. Full of bloody violence, drug use, lawlessness, and physical abuse, it follows the experiences of a traumatized Afghanistan war veteran and draws connections between what happened to him during combat and his behavior back home in Los Angeles. Weapons include guns of all kind, knives, and grenades; the brutal violence results in gaping wounds and lots of blood.

Definitely not for kids, but there wasn't nearly as much violence as Common Sense Media portrays. It's not so much the violence that should convince parents to keep this away from kids but the mature themes and the sometimes glorification of a criminal, violent lifestyle.

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 48% (Rotten)