Christian Bale Movie:

		List Price: $20.99		Salesrank: 56235 Released: August 30, 2005
		Our Price: $18.95
		Used Price: $20.98
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
As a bleak and chilling mood piece, The Machinist gets under your skin and stays there. Christian Bale threw himself into the title role with such devotion that he shed an alarming 63 pounds to play Trevor Reznik (talk about "starving artist"!), a factory worker who hasn't slept in a year. He's haunted by some mysterious occurrence that turned him into a paranoid husk, sleepwalking a fine line between harsh reality and nightmare fantasy--a state of mind that leaves him looking disturbingly gaunt and skeletal in appearance. (It's no exaggeration to say that Bale resembles a Holocaust survivor from vintage Nazi-camp liberation newsreels.) In a cinematic territory far removed from his 1998 romantic comedy Next Stop Wonderland, director Brad Anderson orchestrates a grimy, nocturnal world of washed-out blues and grays, as Trevor struggles to assemble the clues of his psychological conundrum. With a friendly hooker (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and airport waitress (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) as his only stable links to sanity, Trevor reaches critical mass and seems ready to implode just as The Machinist reveals its secrets. For those who don't mind a trip to hell with a theremin-laced soundtrack, The Machinist seems primed for long-term status as a cult thriller on the edge. --Jeff Shannon

Machinist-Special Edition [Region 2] Reviews:
Great mindbender that just about merits Bale's performance
2008-12-03 - I remember that this film came out around the same time as Adrian Brody's 'The Jacket'. The themes of both films are remarkably similar - a tortured individual is increasingly plagued by bizarre intrusions into his everyday reality, with both he and the viewer desperately trying to ascertain if what he is experiencing is real or merely a descent into madness, scrambling for clues in a dense thicket of intimations, references and flashbacks to the characters past.

I enjoyed 'The Jacket', but found this to be a notch higher in the mind-bending rankings, firstly because all the loose strands were tied up at the end, and secondly, because of a quite outstanding and intense performance from the unnervingly gaunt Christian Bale. The unbearable responsibility of self-judgement played out in a contemporary and real yet disturbingly soulless backdrop, turns this film into one of the best adaptations yet of a novel that Kafka never wrote, and that's the kind of accolade that Bale's sacrifice to his art surely merits.

I'm going out on a limb here...
2008-10-11 - Christian Bale is the new Marlon Brando. That's my take. I'd seen every one of his films before this (except for the latest Batman) and thought I had witnessed his best performances but no - this is his greatest. I am a complete and total CB fan. I hate movies like Batman and The Terminator, but I will see them now because I want to make certain I don't miss one of his performances. I hope he gets all the perks he deserves for working so darned hard. The talent, the dedication he brings to his work are phenomenal. I'm in awe.

haven't i seen this story before?
2008-10-01 - the movie is just a reworking of an old hollywood gimmick. we've seen the same thing in 'fight club'(1999), 'memento'(2000) and 'the secret window'(2004). and the story is much, much older. it was pobably old when l ron hubbard used it in his story 'fear'(1940).

it is just a reworking of an old gimmick, with all of the usual dark music, sound effects, camera angles, and cliches from central casting. it evens rips off the red car gimmick from 'the sixth sense'(1999).

i realize a lot of people enjoy these things. but it's just the same old, same old, same old. it blows. sue me.

Underrated
2008-09-19 - The Machinist is the sort of film Hollywood does not dare to make- risky, taut, and smart. While not a great film it certainly is loads better than the usual bilge Hollywood feeds the public. That director Brad Anderson (who directed Session 9) had to go to Barcelona, Spain to finance and film the picture says it all. The film stars Christian Bale (who lost over 60 lbs. for the role) as Trevor Reznik, a machinist who has not slept in a year and is wasting away physically. His only sources of comfort seem to be a prostitute named Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) that he sleeps with, and an airport café waitress named Maria (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon), whom he confesses to. Then, one day, on a break at work, Trevor meets Ivan (John Sharian)- a bald biker dude with a Cajun accent, red sportscar, and a claw for a hand- after his left hand was mangled in an accident. Not long after Trevor accidentally causes the dismemberment of a co-worker named Miller (Michael Ironside) and is shunned at work. He seems to be losing his mind when no one believes him that the reason the accident occurred was because he was looking at Ivan- whom his bosses claim is not on the payroll.... Perhaps the only downsides to the film are Leigh's hooker with a heart of gold (although she does what little she can with the role) and the ending. As Trevor sleeps he dreams of the first few moments after the accident and then we get a fade out. There should have been something more definitive and climactic than merely Trevor's getting shuteye. The end feels almost tacked on, as if Kosar had no idea how to get out of the corner he painted his character into. Still, were this a Hollywood film there would have been car explosions, pedophilia, and many other overblown elements. The best thing for this screenplay was that it had to be made overseas. There are a number of excellent little points in the film, such as scattered Dostoevsky and Kafka references, Trevor's looking eerily like his Nine Inch Nails namesake Trent Reznor, Trevor's choosing to turn left, in the Route 666 kid's ride with Nicholas, and in the sewers, when he encounters forks in a road, until the end, where he turns himself in and turns right on the highway, which picks up on the mangled left hands of Miller and Ivan and other left aligned things in the film. Also, Michael Ironside- who works far too little- seems to always lose a limb in his films.

Wow ... This Movie Freaked Me Out
2008-09-09 - As you watch this movie, it will keep you wondering ...
What is wrong with this guy?
Why is he so skinny?
Why can't he sleep?