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PLOT: A former U.S. soldier who served in Iraq is overtaken by psychotic impulses, misogyny and bitter anger as he careens about the streets of L.A. with his best buddy.
A psychotic ex-soldier and a lamentable loser: What a doomed and damnable pair to be unleashed on the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles.
Derivative, cliched and relentlessly violent, Harsh Times is a film about living in the underbelly of an angry America at war with itself.
It could be easily dismissed as a routine gang-banger action flick ... except for a couple of unique factors.
One, it is the directorial debut of screenwriter David Ayer, who wrote the script for Training Day. In that film, Ayer set the scenario that would finally garner Denzel Washington his best-actor Oscar (although it should have been Malcolm X that did it first). In addition, Ethan Hawke generated a best-supporting-actor nomination.
Two, Christian Bale fashions a stunning portrayal of the psychotic, a military careerist desperate for a new gig, either with the LAPD or in a federal agency such as Homeland Security. Either way, he would still play with guns and perhaps get to kill again. This is not just a post-war trauma case. Our guy was nuts even before he served in Iraq.
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Bale captures his character's disturbing mindset with a ferocity worthy of Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. He also invokes the vulnerability of Sylvester Stallone in the original Rambo movie, First Blood. It makes for an interesting dichotomy within a damaged human being.
Freddy Rodriguez, as the loser buddy, is unselfish in support, a sidekick along for the ride to the abyss. He even risks losing his woman (Eva Longoria) to hang out with Bale. That's just stupid. We watch in horror.
These factors might have propelled Harsh Times into instant-classic status. But the movie is soulless. It is Training Day flipped and gutted of its social context. Instead of the two cops in Training Day -- one corrupt, the other the crusading idealist -- Harsh Times features two criminals struggling with the same personality split.
And in Harsh Times, the two buddies just wreak havoc, drink, take drugs and tempt fate in the crudest fashion possible. Theirs is a brutal, demonic version of the City of Angels. They also take a side trip to bucolic Mexico, because Bale's character is in love with a woman there (there are scenes in Spanish with English subtitles) and because the movie needs relief from its claustrophobic setting.
In truth, even Training Day had a B-movie mentality with A-list actors and the burnish of an Oscar campaign. In Harsh Times, there is even less to support the rage. Lacking soul, it plays as exploitation, not insight.
Harsh Times has already suffered hard times as a viable film release. It first screened in Canada at the 2005 Toronto film festival. Here we are two months past the 2006 fest and Harsh Times is only now getting its theatrical release. Clearly, it is a hard sell.
Yet Bale rages, storms and frightens us into submission.
BOTTOM LINE: The meek may inherit the Earth but they might never be able to watch all of this brutal, soulless movie. Christian Bale remains mesmerizing.
(This film is rated 14-A)