Review of The Machinist (2004) by Printninja — 01 Dec 2005
I picked The Machinist up out of curiosity, after hearing the hoopla concerning Bale's dramatic weight loss to get the part, and seeing the positive reviews. After Batman Begins it thought it would be intriguing to see what a "skeletal" Bale looked like, but it turned out to be about the same as seeing one of those poor starving dogs on a change can at the checkout counter in a convenience store.
You look, you feel sorry for the dog, but you really don't care to know much more. Feed it, or put it out of it's misery. That's what I wanted to do to Bale's character in this movie.
Instead, I had to sit through a plodding telling of a pretty boring tale. As provocative as the hallucinatory/psychotic effects from a year of sleep deprivation were, they just didn't make up for the flat, tedious story.
Yeah, we knew SOMETHING big happened to make this guy so screwed up, and if the ending delivered that something big, I could have forgiven the rest of the movie for being so lifeless. Unfortunately, the satisfying ending I was expecting didn't happen.
Nope. All in all, the Machinist left me hungry for something more... like a good story.
This review of The Machinist (2004) was written by Printninja on 01 Dec 2005.
The Machinist has generally received very positive reviews.
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