REEL TIME: Bratty kids, badass bitches and a full-weight Christian Bale

With the help of City Paper critics, Josh Middleton counts down the weekend's six new film releases, from least- to most-worthy of your precious time and hard-earned dollar bills.

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REEL TIME: Bratty kids, badass bitches and a full-weight Christian Bale

POSTED: Friday, January 20, 2012, 4:37 PM

Filed Under: Movies

No. 4: Sam Adams says the action scenes in Zhang Yimou's Flowers of War "are masterfully staged and edited, the melodramatic moments expertly milked," but that's where his praise stops for the historical war drama based on 1937's Nanking massacre. He says star Christian Bale — who, for the first time in a minute, performs in full body weight — lacks the "bone-deep weariness that might give his foregone conversion a hint of dramatic tension," and scolds Yimou for not knowing when to "pull the reins" on a film that ends up feeling "over-stylized" and "under-thought." Read the rest of his review here. (UA Riverview)

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