The Prestige

The Verdict: Professionally made, if slightly turgid. A great cast does well enough, but a range of dislikeable characters and a thoroughly self-important feel mean you'd be better off watching 'The Illusionist'.

The Rating: 6/10

Featuring a truly excellent cast, 'The Prestige' promises much, right from the first words of dialogue, where the tease of a plot twist is dangled before us by none other than Mr. Michael Caine. Michael informs us that the true magician delivers a trick to the audience in three parts. The pledge is a promise to the audience, a statement of fact. The turn is the trick itself, the moment where the illusion happens, but the Prestige.. well, that's when you deliver the 'wow', that's the moment when the audience reaction shifts into the realm of wonder.

So, right from the off, we're expecting a trick in the movie as well, that the plot will have a 'prestige' moment... now, I'm no expert in suspense, but I'm of the opinion that the best plot twists are.. and stay with me here... unexpected..? (Controversial - Ed) I didn't really appreciate a friend ruining the Sixth Sense for me, and I felt the same pang of muted anger when Sir Michael revealed an impending surprise to come. So, the language is a little couched, but the message is loud and clear.. and it's in the title for gawd's sake! .. 'Expect a big trick at the end people!' They may as well have called it 'The Big Plot Twist' for all the secrecy that surrounds the prestige moment of this movie.

Hmmm, maybe I'm getting a little cynical here. (Just a tad - Ed). There is a lot to like in this movie. Christian Bale is one of PCMR's favourite Hollywood actors (since 'American Psycho'), Hugh Jackman has shot up the league table since making 'The Fountain', and Christopher Nolan has got to be one of the more exciting directors working in Hollywood ('Memento', 'Insomnia' and 'Batman Begins' were all very good). Add into the mix the supporting heavyweights of a certain Michael Caine, Scarlet Johansson, Andy Serkis (looking decidedly human for a change) Piper Perabo and, um, David Bowie (Ziggy! The StarMan himself! - Ed) and you get the formula for a winning movie, right? Well, in PCMR's humble opinion, not exactly.

The story centres around the rivalry between Alfred Borden (Bale) and The Great Danton, also known as Robert Angier (Jackman). The two men start their careers together, but for a variety of reasons, each eventually becomes the nemesis of the other. Borden accidentally kills Angier's wife, and Angier responds by shooting Borden, all in the first fifteen minutes of the movie! So right from the off, you can see why they wouldn't be on each other's christmas card lists.

The rivalry hinges around the jealousy of these men for the situation of the other. While Borden is happily married - to the casual observer at least - Angier becomes steadily more bitter. Borden eventually develops a new trick, called The transported man, and Angier becomes obsessed with trying to figure it out.

I don't want to ruin the plot of 'The Prestige' for you folks, but the reveal of the trick to Borden's illusion is pretty stupid. I'm not one to normally say 'I could see that coming', but let's say that this 'twist' was telegraphed, signposted, highlighted in bold and luminous yellow on-screen, and then tattooed on Scarlett Johansson's cleavage in case you were distracted. Well... everything except that last part.

So Angier, unable to figure out this painfully obvious trick, (the big eejit - Ed) travels to California to meet a certain Mr. Tesla. Mr. Tesla is played by a certain David Bowie. David Bowie employs a certain accent in this movie which is like a cross between Shortbread Tin Scottish, and Harrison Ford Russian (remember that submarine movie?!). It is truly remarkable that Nolan allowed Bowie to use this accent, but he was probably in awe of the man, and we can forgive him that I suppose. (Don't be saying bad things about David Bowie now! - Ed) The thing is, Bowie's character is just so patently ridiculous, and I couldn't get past that as I listened to his Mittel-Europaische-Glasgow-Celtic twang. (At least Michael Caine had a good cockney accent - Ed)

(*Sigh*).. Anyway, I should add that the narrative of the Prestige is really quite unnecessarily complex. The movie begins with Borden (Bale) in prison reading Angier's (Jackman) journal, and cuts to a flashback. Then in the flashback, we see Angier reading Borden's journal, and off we go to another flashback. Nolan successfully manipulated the narrative of his story to creative effect with 'Memento', but in this instance it jarred with me. Why not start from the beginning Chris!? It worked with Batman!!

This is a professionally made movie, and the cast are all quite good (except for Bowie's accent, which of course I mentioned already.. but just in case you missed it, it was terrible). the film looks lovely, and the leading men all get to sport a variety of amusing fake beards quite regularly, which adds a little novelty value. Unfortunately, all the fancy window-dressing can't disguise the lack of a decent prestige moment to reveal to the audience in the end. Sadly, the twists and turns seemed drawn out, predictable, and a little silly for me. Add the fact that the two lead characters are pretty much miserable gits, obsessed with one-upmanship, and you get a movie that I found difficult to warm to.

In a 'celebrity deathmatch' between 'The Prestige' and 'The Illusionist', my money would be on The Illusionist to get medieval on Christopher Nolan's effort. Now that movie had pedigree. For me, this one was a little flattered by the critics, and, dare I say it, I would recommend caution before rushing out to watch it. Let's just say it's a little more Paul Daniels than Derren Brown.

Harsh Times

The verdict: Gritty, dark, drama, that ends up being unnecessarily bleak for PCMR's taste, although Freddy Rodriguez is very good, and Christian Bale is frightening.

The rating: 6/10

David Ayer first attracted Hollywood attention on a large scale with his script for Training Day, the over-rated gritty cop drama that won Denzel Washington an Oscar. PCMR struggles sometimes to determine why some movies gain more critical praise than others, and Training Day is a case in point. I couldn't see what much of the critical furore was about with this movie. Despite two strong lead performances from Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, the movie itself was unsatisfying, and the last half hour in particular left me a little cold.

Aanyway, since when has PCMR’s voice influenced the machinations of Hollywood eh? Since Training Day, Ayer has written the excellent and criminally under-rated 'Dark Blue' (featuring one of PCMR’s favourites, 'Grindhouse' star Kurt Russell), and (ahem) the Colin Farrell auto-pilot vehicle 'S.W.A.T.'. But everyone needs a paycheck movie now and again right? Oh, did I mention that, before Training Day, Ayer also 'wrote' the screenplay for 'The Fast and the Furious'? Hmmm, perhaps Ayer’s resume means his box-office credentials are unshakable, but his soul may well reside in hell when judgement day comes. (Yikes! A little harsh, no? – Ed)

For his first foray into directing, Ayer helmed Harsh Times, a movie he also scripted, and with three big names filling the principal roles. Set in Los Angeles, Christian Bale plays Jim Davis, an Afghanistan war veteram with a desire to join the police force, and a pretty bad attitude. Also soon to star in Grindhouse, Freddy Rodriguez plays Mike Alonzo, Jim’s best mate, and a web designer who is also looking for work. Desperate Housewives' Eva Longoria plays love interest #1, Mike’s Lawyer girlfriend, who is supplying him with lunch money while he looks for a job.

We learn a lot about Bale’s character, Jim in the opening two scenes. He has been traumatized by his war experiences, is in love with his Mexican girlfriend and wants to join the police force so he can marry her and settle down. However, it becomes clear from early on that Jim has some 'unresolved issues' as Dr. Phil might say. Put another way, he’s basically a complete mentalist.

Ayer has set his movie in Los Angeles, and PCMR got the feeling that the film was based on the Cypress Hill song 'Insane in the Brain'. That song starts with a little sample of what sounds like a Hispanic gangster saying "who you tryin’ to get crazy with, ese? Don’t you know I’m loco!?" This quote essentially sums up Christian Bale in 'Harsh Times', and is an indication of the style of dialogue in the movie, set as it is in a principally Hispanic and crime-ridden area of Los Angeles.

This movie is from the 'Training Day' boilerplate, essentially two guys driving round a city with bad things happening. The premise is of Bale driving Rodriguez around while they look for work. Unfortunately, Bale gets refused from the police force quite early on in the movie, and the moment this news is revealed to him turns out to be his first moment of red mist. His response to this news is to 'get fucked up', so the two boys score some weed, get high, and then try to pull some birds. (Shouldn’t that be: "score some bee-atches, puto?" Ahem – Ed) Unfortunately, the very bad things start happening fairly early on in proceedings.

Christian Bale is excellent, as ever, in this movie. Unfortunately, rather than becoming a career-high performance, as Denzel enjoyed from Training Day, Bale’s character is really just an angry young man. We don’t learn too much about this guy before he went to the war, except from one friend who says he 'used to be mellow'. Rodriguez’s character, and performance are possibly more interesting however. All through the movie, Bale’s more easy-going companion marshals him and watches out for him, and the relationship is the core of this movie. Bale’s performance may attract the plaudits from this movie, but Rodriguez is genuinely good as well, in a more under-stated way. One could even argue that playing a psycho freaking out is easier than playing his buddy in the passenger seat, concerned for his friend’s mental health.

The movie is dark and gritty, set as it is on the streets of Los Angeles. However, it is a little bleak for me, and the last act in particular crosses the line into unreal territory that jars a little with the street realism that comes before. The two male leads are excellent however, and PCMR would argue that Bale has the presence and charisma to become one of the best in the very near future. Rodriguez too, makes a great claim for himself as a support player, and 'Grindhouse' should send him into the big leagues. Eva Longoria plays supportive girlfriend #1, and this role won’t exactly endear her to any feminist fans she may have gathered from Desperate Housewives. (Ummm… you haven’t seen the show then? – Ed)

Of note also is a great little supporting turn from Terry Crews, who also turned up in 'Idiocracy', playing the future president of the United States. Crews has a nice few minutes on-screen, and was excellent in 'Idiocracy' to boot. PCMR predicts big things for this guy, who you will most likely recognize as the father from 'Everybody Hates Chris'.

So, 'Harsh Times' is, well, a little harsh. I found it unnecessarily bleak, but thought the two leads were excellent. If you like your cop dramas dark, unsettling, and are a fan of A-list actors playing nut-jobs a la DeNiro in 'Taxi Driver', then Harsh Times may be for you. However, most of the audience may be a little unsettled by it’s misogyny, glib outlook on life, and hollow acts of senseless violence to consider it anything more than big-budget trashy entertainment. Christian Bale may have to choose his roles a little more carefully if he wants to leave behind a body of work to merit the investment he makes in his roles. (Although he got a lot back from this one, being the executive producer and all – Ed)