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Equilibrium starring Christian Bale: Powerful, Action-Filled, Spot-On Observation of Human Nature

Posted on August 20, 2012 Written by ripitup

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Equilibrium (2002) starring Christian Bale, Emily Watson, Taye Diggs, Angus Macfadyen & Sean Bean
Equilibrium (2002) starring Christian Bale, Emily Watson, Taye Diggs, Angus Macfadyen & Sean Bean.

In a post-WW3 world, Libria has been founded on peace. In Libria, there are no wars because citizens are devoid of feelings and urges of aggression, violence, greed, anger or jealousy. This is managed by the obligatory daily dose of the drug Prozium which prevents Librians from feeling any emotion, including passion, lust, love, joy…

In this war-free world, the only crime committed is “sense offense” as some of the citizens rebel against the regime and don’t take the drug. People aren’t allowed to keep anything colorful, personal, different-including art, books and furniture. Anything that can urge feelings…

Offenders are caught and killed. Their stuff is confiscated by the sweepers, armed forces enforcing the Father’s law, all in the name of “peace.” Outranking Sweepers are Clerics, men dedicated to further enforce the law. Clerics have been exceptionally trained in combat, whether it is with or without weapons.

And the best is John Preston Christian Bale), who despite the lack of feelings, has the ability to think like the criminals, making them all easy prey and the master of fighting skills. While he is a favorite because of these, he is also monitored very closely as he has failed to spot one sense offender, his wife.

However when an incident hits too close to home and coincidences end up Preston missing a dose, he gets a taste of what the offenders are fighting for.  This confuses him, but he can’t help but continue feeling. But as Preston tries to cope with all of these new sensations and keep his feelings for a inprisoned offender (Emily Watson), he will have to pretend that he’s still the same Preston, hide the changes from his kids, his partner (Taye Diggs), Father’s representative (Angus Mcfadyen.) But how the hell can he do his job, which involves killing many people who are just guilty of wanting to feel?

Will he be able to rebel against a system he so loyally believed in? Will he be able, or have the guts to, try and demolish the system- especially when his latest official mission is to destroy the rebels completely?

*

Why Equilibrium Is a Must-See

Sorry for the long plot summary, but I needed you to envision the world of Libria, to fully engage you in the dilemma of John Preston. I purposefully didn’t include the trailer as it is misleading (as in the event(s) that lead him to rebel) and shows a bit too much, without covering an example of change in Preston’s attitude.

Christian Bale’s portrayal of John Preston is one of the things that make this movie.

While there are practically no twists (probably nothing you won’t see coming anyway) that the movie will use to entice its audience, it really doesn’t need to. Equilibrium gets its strength from how well the artificiality of the manufactured state is shown, how impressively the fight scenes were choreographed, Christian Bale’s character’s transition, the sufficient action scenes and how it is easy to identify with the rebels, and picture how hard it would be to adapt to a world like that, had we known what feeling was like before Libria…

It’s regime draws parallel to a regime we still see in a lot of countries, and it is a wonderful display of irony, hypocrisy of those in power, and the irony of using extreme violence to “protect” “the peace.”

It’s in a movie viewer’s nature to look for plot holes, or at least to naturally “detect” them when he/she is not captivated by the movie. I can’t help doing the same with movies that bore, annoy or fail to entertain me. However, when it comes to Equilibrium, I urge you to pay attention to the dialogue and the clues thrown around. The “popular plot holes” suggested by some viewers are actually incidents whose reasons are explained or implied.

Oh and if you need an addition to the cast, Sean Bean is in it.

This is the movie that made me a Christian Bale fan. Because it actually shows that he is not just into the projects that are considered indie and/or artsy, and/or including characters that are hard to (or impossible to) relate to. Equilibrium is a lot more mainstream than most of his films, shot before the Batman trilogy.

It is fast, emotional and relevant to our world. Written and directed by Kurt Wimmer (who I also became a fan of with this movie) in 2002. Currently rated at 7.6 on Imdb.com, I’d rate it higher.

Notes on the Director and Cast:

  • Kurt Wimmer is also the writer/director of Salt (action film starring Angelina Jolie) and Law Abiding Citizen (an action/thriller starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx. He is also the inventor of the fighting style and “education” used in Equilibrium.

 

  • Salt 2 is being shot and is also written by Wimmer.

 

  • The movie also features the talented actor William Fichtner as the leader of the rebels.

 

 

  • Angus MacFadyen is better known for his pivotal role in Braveheart, where he played Robert the Bruce, a nobleman who was torn between his faith in William Wallace (played by Mel Gibson) and his privileges.

Related Movie Suggestions

The Island starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson

Gattaca starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law

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Christian Bale Trivia

11 Actors, 11 Drastic Weight Changes for Roles: With Christian Bale, Jared Leto, Tom Hanks and more

Cake starring Heather Graham, David Sutcliffe and Taye Diggs

Salt starring Angelina Jolie & Liev Schreiber

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: action, angus macfadyen, Christian Bale, christian bale equilibrium, director kurt wimmer, drama, emily watson, emily watson equilibrium, equilibrium, equilibrium 2002 movie, equilibrium cast, equilibrium christian bale, equilibrium movie, equilibrium movie review, Kurt Wimmer, kurt wimmer movies, Law Abiding Citizen, movies, salt angelina jolie, salt movie, salt movie review, sci fi, sean bean, Taye Diggs

Cake starring Heather Graham, David Sutcliffe and Taye Diggs

Posted on July 30, 2010 Written by ripitup

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Cake starring Heather Graham, David Sutcliffe and Taye Diggs
Cake starring Heather Graham, David Sutcliffe and Taye Diggs. Made in 2005. Image via divxplanet.com

Pippa Mcgee (Heather Graham) is a beautiful, free-spirited, fun-loving and committed-phobic girl. She makes a living as a freelance travel writer and loves her fun and responsibility free life. She absolutely hates the pink bridesmaid dress she has to wear. She doesn’t enjoy weddings either. And it is at this wedding that she meets a handsome stranger, Ian (David Sutcliffe). But to her surprise and disappointed, this cute and witty guy doesn’t really want to make out with a drunk girl who won’t really remember anything in the morning. Trust Pippa to find the one decent and old-fashioned guy around.

Bu?t Pippa’s carefree life takes a blow when her father Malcolm (Bruce Gray) has a heart-attack. Since he has to rest for a long while, he leaves it to Pippa to run his bridal magazine. Pippa involuntarily agrees and tries to adjust to the idea that she will have to be tuned in on anything bridal. But she is in for a surprise, when that handsome stranger- Ian- turns out to be a trusted employee of her father and he is willing to stick around and help her out. Pippa now has to deal with faltering sales, men who want to take over the magazine, her romance with the handsome photographer Hemingway Jones (Taye Tiggs) and her hard to define attraction for Ian…

Cake is a fun romantic comedy that has two potential romances going for it. Pippa first meets David Sutcliffe’s Ian and then Taye Diggs’ Hemingway. But it is pretty apparent she has a lot in common with Hemingway, so he starts dating him. But then again maybe opposites do attract and she and Ian are not exactly opposites after all. Of course you can guess who she will end up with. Of course you know things will work out for Pippa one way or the other. The reason to watch romcoms- especially the conventional ones- is just to see how the ride goes, not how it ends. That being said, this is a romantic comedy for girls. Yes, a guy who is a fan of the genre can enjoy it and Heather Graham is gorgeous. But other than that, I can honestly say most guys won’t really enjoy the plot.

Sandra Oh co-stars as Pippa’s best friend and it is refreshing to see her in a role other than Grey’s Anatomy’s Christina.

Written by Tassie Cameron and directed by Nisha Ganatra. Ignore the imdb rating if you like a decent romcom. It is 4.8 I’ll give it a 6, minimum.

For guy-friendly romantic comedies, you can check out:

The Invention of Lying starring Ricky Gervais

Ghost Town starring Ricky Gervais and Téa Leoni

Forgetting Sarah Marshall starring Jason Segel, Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Russell Brand

What Women Want starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt

Yes Man starring Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel

500 Days of Summer starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel

Shallow Hal starring Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow


And three more fun movies with romance, comedy and action:

  • Knight and Day starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz – this one is action and comedy dominant but it is romantic as well.
  • Bird on a Wire Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn– Same  genre as Knight and Day
  • The Sorcerer’s Apprentice– while it is mainly fantasy and adventure/action, it is also quite romantic too.

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Bruce Gray, Cake, comedy, David Sutcliffe, Heather Graham, movies, Nisha Ganatra, romance, romantic comedy, romcom, Sandra Oh, Tassie Cameron, Taye Diggs

In the mood for a fun romcom novel?

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