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List Price: $14.95 | | Label: Weinstein Company
Salesrank: 3557
Released: March 13, 2007 |
| Our Price: $5.50 |
| Used Price: $2.16 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
(Action) Bale stars as an ex-Army Ranger who finds himself slipping back into his old life of petty crime and booze after a job offer from the LAPD evaporates. Honorable discharged Homeland Security wants to recruit him for some special ops in Central America but first he has to pass a urine test...which proves difficult. Film directorial debut for Ayer who has written such box office hits as TRAINING DAY U-571 and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS System Requirements:Run Time: 116 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/CRIME & CRIMINALS UPC: 796019799553 Manufacturer No: 79955
Description of Harsh Times:
Bleak as its South Central Los Angeles setting, Harsh Times is like a suicidal vortex swallowing men who ought to know better but can't stop their self-destruction. Christian Bale stars as Jim Davis, a stressed-out, former Army Ranger who becomes a very bad influence on his weak-willed buddy, Mike Alvarez (Freddy Rodriguez of Six Feet Under). Together the two meander through streets at night, getting drunk and stoned, finding trouble for its own sake and inviting danger as a ritual of machismo bonding. Mike's wife, Sylvia (Eva Longoria), a lawyer whom Mike, working as a telemarketer, put through school, is repelled by Jim and watches in pain as her spouse chooses a downward spiral over renewal and redemption with her. When Jim's application to join the L.A. police is turned down, he leads Mike into pure anarchy. An impractical change of fortune doesn't help any, and first-time director David Ayer, who wrote the screenplay for Harsh Times years before his script for Training Day, goes to some lengths, dramatically and visually, to convey Jim's unhinged condition. The dreariness of it all, and a sense that Bale has constructed--but not exactly lived in--another in his gallery of lost, misfit souls, makes it hard to connect with this film. Still, it is hard to turn away from these desperate and dangerous characters. --Tom Keogh
Harsh Times Reviews:
SIMPLY A GOOD FILM 
2008-07-02 - I think that this movie is a great film, that it is good made.very true, without effects specials.
Harsh Times Is A Great Flick 
2008-06-19 - If you don't think this movie is any good, I would hate to know the movies you would like. This is the most underrated movie I've seen in a while. Christian Bale has become one of my favorite actors. I love him in absolutely everything I see him in. And this movie is no different. He seems to embody his characters in such an intense way, it can be scary, and he doesn't disappoint here. For being an Englishman, he does American better than most American actors. I thought the script was well written, and the supporting actors did a good job. That Desperate Housewives chick didn't even get on my nerves.
Harsh Movie is more like it. 
2008-05-31 - The PQ and AQ are very nice. Too bad HD DVD died. This movie should have died. I am a huge fan of Christian Bale and have enjoyed all his other movies. This movie is not very good. Bale does the best he can do with this weak plot and weak script. You may want to pass this by.
Money from America
2008-04-29 - Who ever invested money in this production needs therapy as they have obviously got more money than sense.
completely underrated
2008-04-02 - This movie was very, very well done in my opinion. Ultra realistic, very gritty, very tense, extremely entertaining. Maybe it made some people squirm, and that's why they didn't like it? The acting was top-notch, and it was intense and realistic in a way that could earn the badge of "uncomfortable". But I love that type of movie. This movie should have garnered more attention and more praise. Christian Bale is ferocious. Grade A.
