Christian Bale Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked"-a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Christian Bale-whose latest project "The Pale Blue Eye" is in select theaters now and begins streaming on Netflix on January 6th.  

Christian Bale's Filmography Ranked:

24.Exodus: Gods and Kings (D-)

23.Reign of Fire (C-)

22.Pocahantas (C-)

21.Harsh Times (C+)

20.Public Enemies (C+)

19.Amsterdam (B-)

18.Terminator Salvation (B)

17.Shaft (B)

16.Thor: Love and Thunder (B)

15.The Machinist (B)

14.Out of the Furnace (B)

13.Equilibrium (B)

12.Hostiles (B)

11.The Big Short (B+)

10.The Prestige (B+)

9.Ford v. Ferrari (B+)

8.Vice (A-)

7.The Dark Knight (A-)

6.The Dark Knight Rises (A-)

5.3:10 to Yuma (A)

4.American Hustle (A)

3.The Fighter (A)

2.Batman Begins (A)

1.American Psycho (A)

Top Dog: American Psycho (2000)

In my mind, no conversation about the funniest movies ever made is complete without a mention of American Psycho. Between its spot-on commentary about the hollow, superficial lives successful people often eagerly choose to lead, basically non-stop stream of quotable dialogue and eerily chaotic yet self-knowingly goofy lead performance for the ages from Bale, American Psycho is able to mine non-stop belly laughs out of pitch-black material and produce a level of sincerely great comedy moments that easily exceeds about 99% of the genre's more traditional entries.  

Bottom Feeder: Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

Although Ridley Scott maintains a reputation of being a predictably unpredictable filmmakers in terms of quality and the kinds of projects he tackles, the negative results of Exodus: Gods and Kings are still a complete shock. Despite collaborating with an all-star cast (Bale, Joel Edgerton, Aaron Paul, John Turturro, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Ben Mendelsohn, Hiam Abbass, Golshifteh Farahani, Ewan Bremner) and decorated veteran screenwriter in Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List, American Gangster), Scott's epic inspired by the Bible's Book of Exodus is a brutally dull, thinly written story of heroism and betrayal that is made particularly unbearable by its unjustified 142-minute runtime. 

Most Underrated: 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

3:10 to Yuma is a tremendous, bizarrely slept-on Western from James Mangold (Ford v. Ferrari, Logan) with some great shootouts, ace performances from an excellent ensemble cast (Bale, Russell Crowe, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda, Dallas Roberts, Alan Tudyk, Gretchen Mol, Vinessa Shaw, Kevin Durand, a then-teenage Logan Lerman) and an engaging story about the steep price humans have to pay when they succumb to their greed-driven impulses. 

Most Overrated: The Dark Knight (2008)

This is a take that I've been getting killed for IRL since about 3:00 AM EST on July 18th, 2008 when I came out of the midnight screening with about 8 of my friends and declared that the movie really wasn't that great and the previous summer's Transformers was a way better movie. While I'll decline comment on whether I still believe Transformers is better than it, I remain steadfast in my belief that The Dark Knight is overpraised. Sure, it's a very entertaining crime saga/superhero flick and one of Christopher Nolan's better movies, but I don't believe anything in it outside of Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is truly transcendent. Perhaps a long overdue rewatch will make me finally see the light.