Harsh Times...inflicts pain.

Christian Bale has a body of work that any actor can be proud of (Batman Begins, The Machinist, Prestige, New World, Shaft), yet Harsh Times will not be one of those films worth reminiscing about. This is a movie about, Jim Davis, played by Christian Bale, an honorably discharged Gulf War veteran, on a mission to secure a job and bring his fiancé from Mexico to begin a new chapter in their lives together. With first-rate experience from the military, Davis returns home to Los Angeles with aspiration of joining an elite division of the LAPD.

While waiting for word back from the police department, he tries reconnecting with an old friend, Mike, played by Freddy Rodriguez (Poseidon, Lady in the Water, Six Feet Under) for fun times. Back in the day, they were juvenile delinquents together…drinking, drugs, girls, theft, intimidation…your basic gangster activities. But to Davis' disappointment, his old friend, is trying to clean up his act, in the mist of a job search and trying to do right by his successful & earnest girlfriend, played by Eva Longoria (Sentinel, Desperate Housewives). But with some peer pressure, Davis persuades his friend, who is eager to feel like an alpha male again, to participate in unsavory behavior. In time, Davis finds out he is passed over for the LAPD assignment, but other doors are opened that he is reluctant to accept. His mental stability is quickly unraveling, impairing his judgment and choices, all the while he is dragging his friends, fiancé and ultimate himself into an abyss of destruction. NO GO for Harsh Times, the theme & dialogue in this film are cliché & unoriginal. (115 minutes, R)