Jim Davies (Christian Bale) is back on the streets of LA after six years in the army. He finished up as a Ranger before being honourably discharged. Suffering with extreme PTSD, he hits town with his buddy Mike (Freddy Rodriguez). Jim is trying to start a career in law enforcement, but his psychological injuries are proving an obstacle. He feels that he has no hope if he does not get a career in law enforcement, and he is worried about how he is going to get his wife-to-be over the border and living legally out of Mexico. Mike, meanwhile, is unemployed and his wife (Eva Longoria) is on the warpath. The film follows the pair as they drive around the city, drinking, smoking weed and engaging in medium-level criminality, ostensibly handing out resumes for Mike to get a job. All while Jim's psychological state worsens.

Christian Bale's frightening performance as Jim Davies is the towering point for this film, the directorial debut of the man who wrote the screenplay for the superb "Training Day". While Bale's performance is manic, it tends to veer close to being over-the-top at times, while Freddy Rodriguez's does more so. It is not helped by some dodgy script writing, which is surprising seeing as how it's coming from the man behind "Training Day". The dialogue could have been better. It sways too much into hip-hop parlance with "dawg" thrown out a bit much and some of it is cringe-worthy. I'm not saying people don't talk like the way the men do in this film, but it just came across as a bit pantomime, and together with the scenes where the two leads lose the run of themselves a little it was detrimental to the overall impact. Overall this is a real heavy-hitter. The film pulls us in to all this anger and misery and bludgeons us with the baseball bat until it is covered in blood and snaps in two. In that sense it does a commendable job, but it did not seem to realise it's potential. All it's missing is a bit more plot focus and some fine tuning in the script and character writing.

I went to see Harsh Times knowing little about it aside from that Christian Bale was in it.

It's hard to go into detail without spoiling the plot, but it's an excellent story of two friends down on their luck, one of them an ex-soldier with some serious post-traumatic stress syndrome.

All the acting is top-notch, and knowing people very similar to the ones in the movie, I would say that it is spot-on, which is a very hard thing for any actor to nail.

A lot of the time when you watch a movie with Brad Pitt in it, you're just watching Brad Pitt be Brad Pitt. As cool as he is, this tends to spoil the movie and any suspense of disbelief.

I've seen a lot of Christian Bale movies, and even so, I forgot that it was Christian Bale throughout most of the entire movie. That is an incredibly impressive thing indeed.

The movie may not get an Oscar, but it is done superbly well, and Christian Bale is quite possibly the next Anthony Hopkins.

In South Central Los Angeles, the unbalanced, deranged and neurotic ex-Ranger Jim Luther Davis (Christian Bale) meets his best friend Miguel 'Mike' Alonzo (Freddy Rodríguez) to drink beers and smoke joint. Jim is expecting to join the LAPD to marry his Mexican girlfriend Marta (Tammy Trull) while Mike is being pressured by his mate Sylvia (Eva Longoria) to find a job. When Jim is refused by the police department, he becomes furious and begins a series of violent actions until he is called by the Federal agency and assigned to work in Colombia. Meanwhile, Mike gets a dream job, making Sylvia happy. Jim invites the weak Mike and their friend Toussant (Chaka Forman) to spend the weekend in Mexico. After some incidents, Jim returns bringing 20 kg of marijuana to Los Angeles, leading to a tragic end.

"Harsh Times" is a dramatic good movie based on two unpleasant characters. Jim Luther Davis, brilliantly performed by Christian Bale, is an unbalanced man, a former soldier with strong psychological problems, actually sequela of war associated to his intelligence, his formation in a bad neighborhood and lack of opportunities in his civilian life. Mike Alonzo, performed by Freddy Rodríguez, is a man with a weak personality and with an exaggerated machismo, also fruit of his formation in a bad neighborhood, and absolutely influenced by Jim. Together, they steal, fight, drink booze, smoke pot, do not respect women, therefore they are really scum. Along a couple of days, the viewer follows their "adventures" in this powerful and non-optimistic realistic film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Tempos de Violência" ("Times of Violence")