HARSH TIMES

A slow moving ‘why am I watching this’ sort of thing.

Harsh Times is a film that I would not go see in a theatre. Too bad I wasn’t aware of this before I went and saw it in the theatre. The story was weak and didn’t play out well on the screen. Half the movie took place in a car, which was just annoying probably because I spend so much frickin time in my car as it is. The redeeming part is just seeing Christian Bale work, and seeing Eva Longoria on the big screen.

The story was written by David Ayer, of Training Day fame, and it was just not all the way there. It never hit a level where I felt consumed by it. I constantly felt distant from it. I see part of the problem as being a lack of intimate moments. The characters don’t seem to open up or develop until the last 10 minutes of the film. There is no emotional connection created before the end, and by then it is way too late.

It seemed like at least half of Harsh Times takes place in a car. Not a terribly stimulating environment for developing characters. I can understand that this is what much of their life consisted of so it is important to the story, but c’mon. It isn’t even an interesting car. I would have liked to see more dynamic scenes that challenged the characters a little more.

The main reason I saw this film in the first place was to see how Christian Bale would pull off this role. He is one of the most exciting and professional actors working in film. He did a great job with Harsh Times, but it was not enough to save this film. Eva Longoria is making her way into the big screen scene and this was one of her first big roles. She played the role with ease and I think we will be seeing a lot more of her in films to come. I have to mention Freddy Rodriguez also because I think he did a great job in his role as Bale’s best friend.

So the acting was good, but the story wasn’t. The shots were not that interesting and the character development was very weak. It never seemed to get to any point. It just kept rolling slowly along in its monotonous manner. So Harsh Times falls pretty short from being a great film and not worth seeing in the theatres.


GRADE: C
TRAILER: http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/harshtimes/trailer