Spotlight On: Christian Bale

This week's spotlight is on one of my favorite actors, Christian Bale. He is an actor who has appeared in two of my favorite film franchises, Batman and Terminator. He is also very dedicated to his roles and has lost a lot of weight for several roles and has gained a lot of muscle for others. I have never seen The Machinist, but I have seen photos of Bale in that role, and it is just eery how much weight he lost for that movie. Anyways, he is a very talented actor, and here are some of my favorite roles of his.

Little Women

Little Women is still on my list of books I need to read, but I love this movie. One of the best things about it is Bale as Laurie and his relationship with Winona Ryder as Jo. It just breaks my heart everytime she rejects his marriage proposal.



Pocahontas

I added this one just because I think it is hilarious that Bale voiced Thomas in Disney's Pocahontas.



A Midsummer Night's Dream

Here he is in the film version of Shakespeare's famous play. He plays Demetrius, a man who is under a love spell and falls in love with Calista Flockhart's character.



American Psycho

My absolute favorite role of his, I love Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman. He is just this total yuppie rich guy who has to have the best everything and hates it when someone has stuff that is better than his. Oh yeah, and he is also a crazy psycho murderer...or is he?
Here are some of my favorite scenes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwicLgOGJOI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqJsycuqILM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VXRVq_1EYg

Batman Begins/ The Dark Knight

Here Bale plays one of the most well-known superheros of all time. What makes Batman different from other superheros is that he doesn't have any powers. What he does have is a lot of money, a cool car, a batsuit, and a utility belt.



Terminator Salvation

Here he plays sci-fi hero John Connor, the man who is prophesized to lead the resistance against the machines. While not the best Terminator movie, I still really liked it and am looking forward to another one!!!



The Fighter

This is the movie that Bale won his Oscar for. He plays Dickie Eklund, a former boxer and crackhead whose younger brother is getting his chance to be great. I thought that Bale was brilliant in this film, and think that he really deserved his Oscar.




Upcoming: I am super excited to see Bale in the remake of Oldboy. I loved the original, so naturally I was pissed about a remake. But with Josh Brolin confirmed to be in it and Bale rumored to be in it, it should be great. What I am REALLY excited to see, however, is The Dark Knight Rises, which will be the last time he will be playing Batman.

Spotlight On: Martin Scorsese

I never realized that I was a big Martin Scorsese fan until one day I realized that I have loved every single movie of his that I have seen. Crime/ gangster films have never been my favorite, but for some reason I just love Scorsese films. They are always really cool and have really great dialogue. Plus, a good majority of them feature Robert De Niro, who is one of my all-time favorite actors. Here are the films of his that I have seen.

Mean Streets

I actually just saw this movie for the first time around a week ago. I believe that this was the film that first started to get Scorsese some notice, and was also his first collaboration with Robert De Niro.



Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver is one of my favorite Scorsese films. It has an interesting story, a great performance by De Niro, and is just a classic. It also features one of the most famous scenes in cinema history...



Raging Bull

I've always hated sports films, but for some reason I just love ones about boxing. In my opinion, the greatest boxing movie of all time is Raging Bull. Both De Niro and Joe Pesci are brilliant in this film, and it also features some of the greatest boxing scenes ever. Like the one HERE. There are just tons of great scenes in this film, like the one HERE. One of the other main things about this movie is La Motta's jealousy which is shown in the clip below...



The King of Comedy

This movie is quite a bit different than most Scorsese films. It features De Niro as an aspiring stand up comedian that ends up stalking and kidnapping the star of a talk show. Rupert Pupkin is one of the saddest characters in film history, and is also another great De Niro performance.



Goodfellas

Although I've never been a big Ray Liotta fan, I do like Goodfellas. De Niro and Pesci give more great performances, along with a great performance by Lorraine Bracco. This is, without a doubt, one of the greatest gangster films of all time.

Cape Fear

I have never seen the original Cape Fear, but I guarantee that the villain in that film is nowhere near as creepy as De Niro is in this film. The accent he has in this film just makes him ten times as creepy. This film also features a young Juliette Lewis in an Oscar nominated role.



Gangs of New York

This is Scorsese's first collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio. To be honest, I don't know if I have ever seen this entire movie. What I remember most is Daniel Day-Lewis' performance as Bill the Butcher, which is one of his many brilliant performances.



The Aviator

This biopic features DiCaprio as film director Howard Hughes. Being a huge fan of Katherine Hepburn, I think that Cate Blanchett did an amazing job playing the famous movie star in this film. Blanchett gives an Oscar winning performance of an Oscar winner...



The Departed

After decades of brilliant filmmaking, this is the film that  (finally!) won an Oscar for Director for Scorsese. If features great performances by DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, and Vera Farminga. My favorite performance in this film, however, is Mark Wahlberg as Staff Sergeant Dignam.



Shutter Island

Probably my least favorite of all of the Scorsese movies I have seen, but it does have its good moments. Plus...you gotta love that BAAW-ston accent.



Upcoming:
I'm really excited for Hugo Cabret, which comes out in November. If features Johnny Depp, Christopher Lee, Jude Law, and Chloe Moretz. Silence with Daniel Day-Lewis and Benicio Del Toro is set for 2013, and he is also going to direct a biopic of Frank Sinatra. I think that that is really cool, but who in the hell are they going to get to play the Chairman of the Board?

My Review: The Fighter

Mark Wahlberg is effin sexy. Just thought that everyone should know... Anyways, this movie was really really good. It tells the story of boxer Micky Ward and his older brother Dicky. Dicky is sort of a town legend because he knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard, and is also Micky's trainer and a crack addict. This movie tells the tale of how Micky went from being a "stepping stone" to being welterweight champion of the world. While I'm not a particularly big fan of boxing, I always get really into boxing movies. When they are in the ring, and getting the crap kicked out of them, I always get stressed, and when they start winning, I always get really excited. During the first fight when he was getting his ass kicked, I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack, and at the end, I almost cried. Anyways, this movie has great performances from all of the leads, Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo. Bale and Leo totally deserved their Golden Globes, and I'm surprised that Wahlberg wasn't nominated, because I think that he did a great job too. And I'm not just saying that because I think that he is damn fine, which I do...because he is. Well anyways, if I saw this movie when it was still 2010, this definitely would have made it in my top ten of 2010 list because it is a really great movie with really great performances, and is definitely a film I would recommend. My rating: 9/10

Character of the Week: Staff Sgt. Dignam

While I am generally not into this type of movie, I absolutely loved The Departed. It was funny and cool, and absolutely unpredictable. My favorite thing about the movie was Mark Wahlberg as Dignam. He's a complete asshole, but has the best lines in the whole movie, and earned Wahlberg a well deserved Oscar nomination. I found a really good "best of" video of Dignam, but unfortunately its pretty poor quality, and I couldn't embed it, but if you click on the link it will take you to Youtube...



Also...he's the one who gets justice at the end. No big speech...no "you killed Queenan," he just shoots Sullivan right when he walks in the door...fantastic!