only 7.0 ????? come on...

I watched it from the middle so i cannot entirely be sure, but man it seemed like totally unbelievable characters in unbelievable-irrational situations. I did not like Bale 's perfomance at all in this "lets get into trouble and behave like 5 year olds" attitude.

I will give it another go when i have the chance, i might have missed important things not seeing it from the start, but it is the first time when i watch a movie so bad it is laughable.

syd_tf,

I agree the movie deserves better, but I can easily see why not many liked it.

It has / does 3 things most movies try, but don't mage successfully: a) IT tells it's version of the truth - that is, 'how I experienced these events', in that Ayers had that background where he'd know many of these characters - so a brand of realism;

b) IT makes you uncomfortable and apprehensive. It's not The Titanic. Watching it is like being what's his name, best friend, but unable to do anything (where most all of us would have never done - accompanied that madman with - Never, that was some bad judgement!) Most movies do not achieve that no matter how they try. This one does, but in an apprehensive, negative, negative way; and

c) THOSE first 2 elements together make it very smart and tight writing, I have to hand it to Ayers. It achieves an effect. It's not easy to achieve - where events seem to follow each other inexorably and plausibly because the guy is out there and you know that whatever is coming, it will not be good. Apprehensive.

Agreed. Bale reminded me of myself at 21 and marriage pulled me out of it for a while until divorce brought me back. Good flick gave it a 10.

this is a silly movie, hopefully OP was just a 14 year old kid

The first time I saw this film when it was released I thought it was alright, but training day was far better imo. I recently tried to watch it again and made it about 3/4 of the whole way before deciding I didn't want to bother watching all the crazy *beep* at the end again. Even the first half of the flick no longer did it for me. Christian Bale is just not believable as this l.a. vato. is he supposed to be half hispanic or something because he delivers half of his lines with that sterotypical street gang drawl and it sort of detracts from the rest of his performance. Eva Longoria as a lawyer? Wasn't really buying that either. I'd like to know what kind of experiences this film was based on, because the whole thing just seemed pretty ridiculous.

Now where's that cake?

It really bothers me that IMDB has become this parallel universe where 'only' 7/10 is considered a bad rating.




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