Mark Twain said that Wagner's music isn't as bad as it sounds. The Machinist isn't as good as it looks. But Bale's fever-dream performance is otherworldly great.
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03/09/05
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The Machinist (2004)
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Reviews Counted:131
Fresh:98
Rotten:33
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: A suspenseful low-budget thriller where Christian Bale completely inhabits his role.
Theatrical Release:Oct 22, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $939,471
Synopsis: Christian Bale delivers one of cinema's most sacrificial performances in Brad Anderson's mesmerizing thriller. Written by Scott Kosar (2003's THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE), THE MACHINIST takes place... [More]
Starring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Michael Ironside
Director: Brad Anderson
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Reviews for The Machinist
Bale's performance has the emotional weight to substantiate this body-art spectacle, ranging from prickly self-righteousness through panicked self-doubt to morbid self-pity...
03/01/05
The Machinist doesn't offer large rewards beyond Bale's presence and its vague atmosphere of dread, but those are enough.
02/25/05
This bleak exercise in paranoia is somewhat thin on 'entertainment value,' but it's heavy enough on mood to warrant spending a few hours inside Reznik's skin.
02/04/05
You'll join the dots in Anderson's thriller within the first five minutes - a real crying shame since Bale deserved much more for his pound -- or 63 -- of flesh.
01/26/05
You can’t stop thinking about how awful Bale looks—partly because his transformation is so unnerving, but also because the film doesn’t give you anything else to think about.
01/04/05
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12/19/04
An unsettling psychological thriller despite being composed of old, familiar parts, the film has an atmosphere that's as scary and tense as anything else this year.
12/19/04
Watching The Machinist can be a chore, as it requires absolute attention from the viewer. But don’t let that scare you away.
12/16/04
Too derivative to earn a strong recommendation
12/15/04
[Bale's] haunted, sunken-eyed look will stay with you for days.
12/11/04
[Bale's] is a great performance, full of commitment and sacrifice, and The Machinist is one of the year's best films.
12/10/04
The Machinist doesn't take us to a happy place. For those who appreciate true mind-bending grit, though, this is the bedeviled place to be
12/10/04
Bale's body-sacrificing performance is worth catching, even if the story is as thin as he is.
12/10/04
The film is admirably atmospheric but it ultimately loses its nerve and is revealed as just another comforting lesson in redemption.
12/10/04
The trouble with the movie is that its dramatic content is almost as thin as Reznik's extremities, and nearly as obvious as the ribs that poke through his skin.
12/09/04
A product of precision engineering, a compact model of bare-bones efficiency.
12/09/04
...more freak show than creep show.
12/07/04
A generic Twilight Zone-type thriller
12/03/04
It's one of those movies that you admire more than you enjoy, but Anderson and Kosar are clearly talents to watch.
12/03/04
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