Harsh Times

New York Post Kyle Smith

If Martin Scorsese were 30 and a Los Angeleno, he'd be making movies much like this one.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Bale is mesmerizing and Rodriguez keeps up with him as the whole unsafe contraption zooms.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Harsh Times occasionally echoes "Taxi Driver," Ayer's own "Training Day," and even "First Blood" in the way it examines the psychological disintegration of a character and the seduction of amorality.

Miami Herald Peter Debruge

Not since "To Live and Die in L.A" has there been such a raw, cynical vision of living and dying in L.A.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Bale brings intense energy (and a convincing American accent) to the proceedings, and the film manages to make this borderline Travis Bickle into a sympathetic character - with a sweetheart, and a sweeter life, beckoning from south of the border. Strong stuff.

TV Guide Ken Fox

With his ersatz-gangsta swagger, the once-again buff Bale gives it his all -- he's got to be the most committed actor in Hollywood -- but the real surprise here is Rodriguez, who has all the talent and charisma of a major star.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

All along, you know something terrible is going to happen, and when it does, you leave the theater shaken and deeply moved.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Debuting as director, Ayer once again points his loose cannon directly into the body politic: the protagonist of this sour but haunting tale is a crazed army ranger just returned from overseas (Christian Bale) who's so full of war that even the LAPD won't hire him.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Ayer gets lost in a maze of ironies, and has to bulldoze his way to an exit. For a while, Harsh Times is thrillingly hard to predict. By the end, it becomes all too easy.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

Rodríguez is excellent as Mike.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Harsh Times opens with a deadly nightmare and ends with a vast bloodbath -- in between, things get a little gruesome.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Harsh Times, is almost a good, salty urban thriller.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A psychotic seizure of a performance by Christian Bale dominates Harsh Times, the directorial debut of David Ayer that channels "Taxi Driver."

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Well-intentioned but not very well directed, it makes for a better psychological profile than a film.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

For most of its meandering running time Harsh Times is just a rough South Central L.A. buddy movie.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The result is an angry, violent mess of a movie with a central character threatening to implode right on the screen.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Give Harsh Times an "E" for effort, but not much else.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Mr. Bales's spectacular technical performance of a toxic bad boy on the fast track to hell somehow lacks an inner core.

Los Angeles Times Michael Ordona

Harsh Times goes down like the vinegar its protagonist chugs to try to beat a drug test. It's carefully crafted, exasperating and ugly, a festival of self-destructiveness, in all ways a reflection of its lead as brought to careening, erupting, implosive life by Christian Bale.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

The film's unrelenting bleakness and misanthropic tone is likely to be a turnoff to mainstream performances, but it provides its lead actor with another opportunity to display his riveting intensity.

Village Voice Jim Ridley

Whatever political statement Ayer intended to make with his Gulf War veteran turned human time bomb is swamped by the movie's obnoxious badass envy, and Bale's gloating display of American-psycho fireworks, the kind of vein-popping show-boating that might as well be performed in a mirror.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The film amounts to a harsh and perpetual assault on viewers' sensibilities -- not only because of its violence but because of its overall bleakness.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The real problem with Harsh Times is Jim himself. Bale goes at the part with his usual intensity, but the character still seems like a psycho without psychology or a soul.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Harsh Times contains exactly 30 seconds of novelty.