Christian Bale Performances Movie Draft (w/ Jean-Pierre Boudreaux)

Eli Price (00:03.681)
Hello and welcome to the establishing shot a podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies We are on a break this week from our early Spielberg series and in honor of our discussion of Spielberg's Empire of the Sun last week, which introduced the world to The wonderful actor that is Christian Bale. We're gonna be doing a draft of

Christian Bale performances this week. So I have JP Boudreaux joining me again this week. He is back, back again. And yeah, I guess since, since I'm splitting, I've been splitting episodes this season, I guess this is technically your fifth appearance.

Jean-Pierre (00:39.61)
Hello again.

Jean-Pierre (00:53.114)
Hey, give me a jacket Eli. 5 -Times Club on the back.

Eli Price (00:56.221)
Even though we just like minutes ago, minutes ago, we just finished his fourth appearance. This is technically a new episode. So technically the five. Yeah. We got to get you a, I don't know something. You know, I don't know what I have to offer, but maybe I can figure out something for you. but yeah.

Jean-Pierre (00:59.546)
We just recorded the other episode.

Jean-Pierre (01:08.986)
There we go. I'll take it.

Jean-Pierre (01:17.722)
Hahaha!

Eli Price (01:22.689)
JP and I, I think are both excited about this draft. Christian Bale, great actor, obviously. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (01:30.81)
One of the best of all time. If, you know, I mean, yeah, just.

Eli Price (01:36.545)
Yeah, I mean, undeniably a powerhouse actor.

Jean-Pierre (01:38.394)
I literally think there's only one movie I've seen him in where I was shocked that it made him look like a bad actor, because I know he's not.

Eli Price (01:49.281)
Yes. I don't know what movie you're referring to, but maybe we'll get to it later on in the episode.

Jean-Pierre (01:56.698)
If we don't, I will reveal it if we don't, but I'd be very surprised if either of us, I would be very surprised if either of us pick it as a notable Christian Bale performance.

Eli Price (01:59.457)
Yeah, reveal it at the end.

Eli Price (02:08.065)
Man, I'm nervous now. Okay, I hope I don't pick it. So yeah, if you're familiar with our draft episodes or draft segments, because this used to just be a segment in the full episode, but now they're their own episodes, we do movie drafts. This is a little bit different because we're drafting the performance, not the movie. So technically we could...

Jean-Pierre (02:37.178)
What was the other option that you brought up? Was it disaster movies, I think? Because when this releases, Twisters is coming out, I think, is what we talked about. We just couldn't pass up bail performances. We had to go with it.

Eli Price (02:37.633)
A movie. The movie.

Eli Price (02:45.761)
Yeah, twisters will be coming out close to this. Yeah, we could, we couldn't pass up the performance. Yeah. It's been a while since I've done like a draft based on something that was coming out around the release. So this is, this is probably keeping more in track of. Yeah. Of that. So yeah, I'm, I'm excited. There's plenty of great options to choose from for bell performances.

Jean-Pierre (03:02.234)
I think we chose wisely, yeah.

Eli Price (03:13.409)
So yeah, just keep that in mind when you're listening to this. We're drafting the performance, not the movie. A lot of the times the movie quality lines up with the performance, but not always. Sometimes you can get a really good performance in a movie that maybe you don't like overall. So yeah, we are drafting specifically the performance of Christian Bale in the movie. I think five is fine.

Jean-Pierre (03:30.202)
Absolutely.

Jean-Pierre (03:36.602)
We're doing five.

Okay, alright.

Eli Price (03:41.569)
And we'll do some honorable mentions at the end. so when you, when you keep it down to five, it makes it like harder to make your choices, which I think is fun. So, yeah, cause you, you want to like get your well rounded team of performances. and so, yeah, it's, it makes it harder to know you can only do five. yeah, let's, let's jump in. I, so this is the fourth draft that.

Jean-Pierre (03:44.281)
Alright, alright, let's do it.

Eli Price (04:10.369)
JP has done with me. So the way I usually do with my guests is they get, we go back and forth. I always give first time guests the first pick if they're doing a draft with me. But this, since this is an even number, this is our fourth draft together, then that means, well, is it our fourth draft together? Did we do a draft in...

In the overview episode, I'm trying to remember.

Jean-Pierre (04:38.906)
I don't, I don't, I feel like it may not have happened, but it's your show Eli. We'll do what you want man.

Eli Price (04:44.897)
You know what? I'm giving JP, I'm giving you, this is your fifth, this is your reward for your fifth appearance on the show. You can have the first pick. Yeah. The first pick, the first pick is yours for the taking JP. So you're on the board. Where are you going? First pick.

Jean-Pierre (04:53.914)
Okay, I'll take it. That's good.

Jean-Pierre (04:59.706)
Okay, that's skin.

I'm glad because I feel like my first pick is really, really strong. And I feel like both of us were gonna fight for this one, but since I get the first pick. So there's a movie that has become quite the meme machine in recent years, and rightfully so. A movie that I may not have fully understood when I watched it, but gosh darn is Christian Bale phenomenal in American Psycho.

Eli Price (05:05.729)
You're gonna steal something from me. I just have a...

Eli Price (05:13.153)
Don't you do it.

Jean-Pierre (05:33.722)
Patrick Bateman. I mean, you got, I mean, I'm sorry. Like, like, I'll admit it's typical, but I feel like the reason for having seen the movie, like his performance is pitch perfect. It's phenomenal. It's, and like every single, and like the memes almost make the movie more enjoyable. It is so bizarre. It's so weird. It's very gratuitous. But, but his, but he's, he's so.

Eli Price (05:33.761)
Okay, yeah, that's the that's the that's probably the typical pick. But yeah.

Eli Price (05:49.153)
it's great.

Eli Price (05:58.145)
yeah.

Yes.

Jean-Pierre (06:03.93)
good in this movie. And I feel like I've heard a little bit about the director herself talking about how good he was in the movie. But yeah, I honestly think it is one of his best performances of his entire career. And I wish he would do more outlandish stuff like this, because he's great. I love him and pretty much everything he's ever done. But he doesn't really do

Eli Price (06:05.441)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (06:19.713)
Yeah, I think you can make the argument that it's his best performance performance. Yeah

Mm -hmm.

Jean-Pierre (06:34.106)
this kind of role very often. And so I got to start off strong with American Psycho, Patrick Bateman. I got it.

Eli Price (06:36.129)
Yeah.

Eli Price (06:40.257)
Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a, I think, I think if you took like a hundred lists, that would probably be appear the most often as the number one performance. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (06:51.226)
I feel like it's probably his most unique performance for sure. I think it'd be argued for, yeah.

Eli Price (06:55.009)
Yeah. Yeah. So that was, that was one of my top picks. I don't have that as like my number one pick though. And it's, it's because it's, it's the obviously like, I would have wanted that on my list because like it's going to get votes, but my heart, belongs to the Christian bell performance in the prestige, which I just.

Jean-Pierre (07:02.682)
That's crazy. I would have thought that we both would have been like...

Jean-Pierre (07:11.034)
unfair.

Jean-Pierre (07:21.562)
That's a good one.

Eli Price (07:23.681)
Love because he sells it. He's technically playing two parts. I don't know if that's actually just maybe said spoiler for that, but it's been out for long enough and we've covered it on we've covered it on the podcast. So, you know, so

Jean-Pierre (07:34.33)
I mean, 2006. Yeah, yeah, sorry. Which I mean, I will say with the prestige, I still feel like to this day, it's probably one of my favorite No One films. And I think if someone's never seen a Christopher No One film, that's the one where I'm like, I kind of feel like that's the one that should start with. Because I feel like it's a really good example of who he is as a filmmaker, for sure.

Eli Price (07:48.769)
Yeah.

Eli Price (07:54.913)
Yeah.

I've started telling people that was like my gateway drug into becoming like a cinephile. The prestige was. Which I don't know if it's okay to use that as a metaphor, a gateway drug. But...

Jean-Pierre (08:14.042)
No, I mean, it's a pretty popular phrase these days, so I don't see why not.

Eli Price (08:16.883)
Yeah, so yeah that that that was my but man Christian Bale in that movie he's like he even kind of has some range in it from like It's like expressionless like quietness To like there's some rage. There's Some like I don't know. I just really really love his performance and that he really sells it

Jean-Pierre (08:44.442)
And it's one of those movies where when you go back and you rewatch it, you kind of notice the subtle differences between the two brothers that he plays. And some of the visual and script trickery that they, some of the clues that they give you about who is who and when. So I got to give it to you, that's a solid one for sure, yeah.

Eli Price (08:52.065)
Yes. Absolutely.

Eli Price (09:03.809)
Right.

Eli Price (09:08.001)
Yeah. Go ahead with your second pick, go ahead and win the draft if you want to.

Jean-Pierre (09:12.25)
Okay. Well, okay. So my second pick, I feel like there's some pretty obvious ones. But one of the ones that I always go back to that I think is much more of a subdued performance from Christian, where he plays a bit more of an everyman type character and someone who is kind of put into a leadership position, but I don't...

Eli Price (09:16.161)
you

Eli Price (09:21.601)
Mm -mm.

Eli Price (09:34.753)
Okay.

Jean-Pierre (09:40.282)
but I feel like it's pretty obvious that he kind of just does it because he has to, not because he necessarily wants to have this position. I really have always loved his performance as Quinn in Rain of Fire. It's a movie, you know, I watched many, many times as a kid and I kind of rewatched pretty recently, I feel like, and you know what? It's still an absolutely badass movie. It's really a shame because it was...

Eli Price (09:52.417)
Okay.

Jean-Pierre (10:08.986)
it was affected by a lot of production woes. There was an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in England where they were filming. And so it originally had a much bigger scope and scale, and they just were never able to meet that because of that. So it is really sad. I think it's a movie that really would do well for a modern remake, but some of the special effects of the dragons and stuff in it are still great. Also features a...

Eli Price (10:15.393)
Ooh, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (10:38.842)
arguably even better Matthew McConaughey performance as well. When, when, my God, bro. Okay, literally, it's just, it's Christian Bale and an absolute scenery chewing Matthew McConaughey fighting dragons. It's awesome. It's amazing. It's great.

Eli Price (10:42.305)
Okay. Yeah. I haven't seen that. Yeah.

Eli Price (10:53.793)
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I'll have to check it out. Yeah. All right. I man. So.

Eli Price (11:05.825)
This is hard. So I have like my list here, but I don't necessarily have them in any particular order. And it's really, really hard to choose where to go. I think I'm going to save one or two maybe for later. I think I can get later. And I'm going to go with one that I think he's great in, more recent, I guess.

Jean-Pierre (11:13.434)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (11:35.713)
Recent yeah, pretty fairly recent in the last five years and i'm gonna go with his performance as ken miles in ford versus ferrari Which I think is really really fun. He's like it's a very like I it's a very different performance for him than a lot of the stuff he's in he because he's He's more like he's more doing like a comical

and dramatic performance in it. Like I rewatched the scene with him and Matt Damon fighting their little tussle earlier today. I was kind of like watching like some scenes to refresh on some performances. And yeah, I just really like him in Four Versus Ferrari and it was a really fun movie, a really like fun performance. And yeah.

Jean-Pierre (12:23.002)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (12:35.681)
I think it's up there in his performances and it's in like a big loud.

racing movie. I guess not racing movie, but a car movie that is like maybe not a typical venture for him. And I think you like him and Damon together like really are great.

Jean-Pierre (12:45.434)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (12:57.786)
Yeah.

Yeah, I still not got around to seeing that one, but I'm sure he's great. I mean, it's hard for him not to be.

Eli Price (13:04.769)
Yeah, he's great in it. Yeah.

All right, your third pick.

Jean-Pierre (13:10.842)
man, I feel like there's a big obvious choice that we're both kind of skirting around right now, but I'm trying to get some, I mean, I didn't want to go, I mean, I picked one really obvious take. I didn't want to go with the other really big obvious one, but we both kind of feel the same way. We're trying to highlight some of these lesser known performances maybe. So another one that, and I saw this movie in theaters when it came out and,

Eli Price (13:18.913)
We are. Yeah.

Eli Price (13:31.489)
Mm -hmm, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (13:40.218)
I really enjoyed it. It's a really, it feels kind of like a bit of an intimate movie. It's like very intense in some parts. And it's, I don't know, it's like really hard to describe. I haven't seen it for a while, but I did see it when it came out. I really love his performance as Captain Joseph Blocker in Hostiles. Again, a bit more of a subtle performance from him.

Eli Price (14:03.265)
Okay. Yeah.

Eli Price (14:08.321)
Mm -hmm.

Jean-Pierre (14:08.506)
But a really interesting transformation as far as his character goes, without really spoiling too much. Essentially, he is tasked with transporting this native chief from one place to another back to his... I think he has cancer. They're trying to bring him back to his cultural grounds so that way he can pass away. And...

There's a lot of reasons why, you know, Captain Blocker like doesn't, doesn't want to do that. And he kind of starts out like really hating the task, really not caring for it. But it's kind of one of those movies where like they kind of come to an understanding and respect for reverence for one another. And I remember really enjoying it when I saw it, when it came out. To be honest, I haven't seen it since then, but I mean, it was, it was a really great bail performance. Plus.

phenomenal facial hair. Like just just a glorious, the huge mustache with like it's really more of a beard stache because he's got the mustache with the stubble. Phenomenal, phenomenal. I don't know if that was real or if that was that was hair and makeup but either way I hope so. It was phenomenal. It was this glorious stache for sure.

Eli Price (15:09.217)
Okay, yeah, that's a huge mustache.

Eli Price (15:15.777)
Yeah, yeah. Mm -hmm. Yeah.

No, no, no, it's probably real. Yeah. I, I did. Yeah. I didn't have a chance to go back and like watch any scenes from that. I saw, I remember seeing it in theaters.

Jean-Pierre (15:33.754)
New draft, top 10 Christian Vail facial hair looks. There you go.

Eli Price (15:37.569)
Yes. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I just don't, I don't, I didn't remember this one enough to like really consider it. I did, I'm pretty sure I saw this in theaters, but I just don't remember. Yeah. And I didn't have time to go like look up some. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember enjoy, I remember enjoying it. Yeah. yeah. Yeah. So,

Jean-Pierre (15:53.914)
It's a bit of like a revisionist Western. It was a little controversial when it came out, but I liked it. Yeah.

Eli Price (16:08.385)
I guess I'm going to have to go ahead and there's a reason that there's a reason that Christian Bell is known for one particular role. It's I feel like if I let it slip any further, everyone will be angry at us. And plus it'll probably like help me make up for you getting American psycho.

Jean-Pierre (16:33.53)
And I think we can both agree that we know what you're going to go with. And I will respectfully allow you to take it, even though there's three options, technically. But I'll let you take one out of the three.

Eli Price (16:36.961)
Yeah.

Eli Price (16:43.585)
Yeah, well, I mean, so I think you have to I think you have to consider it as a whole. Like it's a it's a performance. Obviously, I'm picking him as Batman as Bruce Wayne slash Batman. And I would say the Dark Knight trilogy, you can't really. I guess you could take them separately, but like. Right, and you know, that's intentional and that's.

Jean-Pierre (17:06.842)
There's definitely some growth that occurs in the performance, for sure.

Eli Price (17:12.609)
part of his perf - performing like I don't know I I I was thinking of this as like a whole one whole performance as the trilogy I guess technically like we didn't make that stipulation so you could still take take one I guess I'll yeah I don't know I I'm just gonna say him as Batman Bruce Wayne in the trilogy I guess

Jean-Pierre (17:38.586)
Yeah, it's all good.

Eli Price (17:41.601)
And, yeah, he really does. Like, he really is great. I mean, he's, he still is to this day, the best Batman, in my opinion, best Batman, Bruce slash Bruce from Bruce Wayne. you know, people have their opinions on that. Who's the best Bruce Wayne? Who's the best Batman? But I, I think it's Christian Bale on both.

Jean-Pierre (18:01.21)
I mean, I mostly agree. I like, I like Batfleck for his own reasons. I like, I love Batinson for his own, for his own reasons. But I don't know. I think, I think it's just cause you know, maybe Bale has just always been my Batman. It's kind of how I feel about Henry Cavill being my Superman. Like he just, that's just who it's been, you know? And so, yeah, no, I concur. I mean, one of us.

Eli Price (18:08.449)
yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (18:20.769)
Sure. Yeah.

Eli Price (18:27.521)
He's great. And I mean, he's doing a lot. You know, he has to play two personas. He has to growl a lot. But I mean, he, you know, we, we can make, we can laugh at like the Batman voice, but like, you know, it, it's just good. His performance is good. It's a very physical performance. it's, you know, and then his, his,

Jean-Pierre (18:37.69)
Where are the other trucks going?

Eli Price (18:56.705)
turns as Bruce Wayne are very like, what's the word I'm looking for? He does a lot of little different stuff as Bruce Wayne. He has his cocky moments. He has his lonely, depressed moments.

Jean-Pierre (19:16.698)
I love, I think one of my favorite Bruce Wayne scenes. Yeah. I think my two favorite Bruce Wayne scenes are both in the dark night. There's the one where he walks into the restaurant and he sees Rachel and Harvey Dent and he's like, we should pull some tables together. And Harvey's like, I don't think they'll let us. He's like, well, they should. I own the place. And then my other favorite one is when the Joker invades the little cocktail party.

Eli Price (19:19.265)
Nuance does the word I was looking for. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (19:46.714)
and he walks into that back room and there's the couple putting their clothes back on. And he presses the button on the wall and the panel opens. She's like, my God, a panic room. Thanks. And he just looks at him and he just walks in. And just, yeah, I just, it's great. It's so great. Yeah, no, phenomenal. I mean, somebody had to pick it and I would respectfully allow you the coverage of that trilogy.

Eli Price (19:51.297)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (19:59.809)
Yeah, close, is it? Yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (20:12.961)
All right, your fourth pick.

Jean-Pierre (20:15.194)
So my fourth pick, and again, we're talking about Bale's performances specifically. Although this is a movie that I think might be my favorite from this franchise, which I think is another hot take, but I've always really liked it. I think Christian Bale does a great job as John Connor in Terminator Salvation. I think he brings a... I mean, firstly, I guess when you compare him to the other versions of John Connor, we've gotten like...

Eli Price (20:20.225)
huh.

Jean-Pierre (20:44.41)
kid John Connor in Judgment Day. And then you had the other guy that played like grownup John Connor in Teeth Terminator 3. But like that movie is not great. And I don't really like the performance from that guy that a whole lot. The best part about that one is like at the end where he's like, we were never meant to stop Judgment Day just survive it and like they're in the bunker together or whatever.

But no, I think Christian Bale does a really good job of portraying John Connor and the grizzled nature. You understand why people want to follow this dude. He does have that charisma that he gets to display. And of course, infamously, he had the blow -up on set during this movie, which I think...

You know, having worked on sets, I feel like a lot of that was probably taken out of context. I mean, obviously, you know, you probably could have been a lot kinder in his response. But it is, it is, there are certain levels to it that I can definitely understand. But, you know, overall, I know a lot of people didn't really enjoy this movie. I've always really liked this one. I think it's probably my favorite of the Terminator franchise. And I think he does a great job. I mean, you also have Sam Warlington who puts in a pretty decent performance and...

Eli Price (21:47.169)
Mm -hmm.

Jean-Pierre (22:07.418)
Also, you have Bryce Dallas Howard who plays his wife in this movie as well, and she's also great. But yeah, I mean, yeah, I think he does a really good job of selling John Connor as the charismatic leader that he really has to be in order to convince people to follow him. So I think it's a great performance from him.

Eli Price (22:10.529)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (22:23.329)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I'm pretty sure I saw this in theaters, but another example of like, I don't really remember it very much. so yeah, I'll just like, I'll have to take your word for his performance. Big G. Lord. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (22:39.002)
Directed by Mick G, which I don't know last time he made a movie. I think he did the he did the Charlie's Angels movies he did the babysitter which was for Netflix, which I didn't watch but I heard some people liked it So that's interesting

Eli Price (22:48.865)
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm pretty sure I saw that in theaters, but don't remember really much about it, to be honest. But yeah, so...

Man, I have some choices to make and I'm gonna go.

Jean-Pierre (23:09.914)
I'm kind of the same way. I'm like, I don't know what I want to pick for my last one here.

Eli Price (23:14.625)
Yeah, you have one more. I still have two. None of us have picked any of his Oscar nominated roles yet, which is funny. And I'm going to continue that trend. And I'm...

Jean-Pierre (23:28.826)
To be honest, it's because most of his Oscar nominated movies I actually have not seen. So I'll try to go off ones I've seen, you know.

Eli Price (23:33.697)
Yeah, I've seen two of the four. Right, I've seen two of the four. One of them was the one that I wanted to catch up with, but didn't have the time to. But yeah, I'm going to go. So yeah, I'm looking between two movies right now that I just struggling.

Eli Price (23:56.673)
I think I'm going to roll with a move. I watched both of these movies in the past few weeks preparing for this. And I think I'm okay. I think I'm going to go with, a movie from 2006 directed by, Verner Herzog, who is, a really like well -regarded phenomenal director, called rescue Dawn.

it is a movie where Christian bell plays a character named Dieter Dingler, who is a, American born, German, that, or anyway, he's, I think he has maybe dual citizenship. Maybe he was born in Germany, but moved to American early on something like that. anyway, he's in the U S air force. and he.

Is shot down over it's during the Vietnam war. He's shot down over Vietnam and is trying to survive and is captured and his performance and this is so good. It's like a slow descent into madness. And like his he's interacting with others and his little. Prison facility like little.

imprisonment that he's in and they're like crazy in their own ways. there is some like wild over, over the top sequences where he's just like going nuts. There's some very like subtle sequences. there's like, an emotional range. There's just like really strange, surreal ending. yeah, it's he's, he's really, really great in it.

Jean-Pierre (25:38.714)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (25:53.185)
And I thought it was a really good movie. So yeah, this is probably more of a recommendation pick because I doubt a lot of people have seen this movie. But it's worth checking out.

Jean-Pierre (26:03.81)
I think I've definitely seen it at least once, but it's been so long. I mean, obviously I believe he's probably great in the movie, but it's been so long that I couldn't really willingly pick it because I couldn't remember.

Eli Price (26:13.505)
yeah.

Eli Price (26:21.057)
Yeah, he's great in it. But yeah. So yeah, rescue Don. That's my pick. Probably is not going to get me any votes, but I felt like I could do that after picking Batman. So.

Jean-Pierre (26:30.842)
Okay.

Jean-Pierre (26:35.546)
I mean, yeah, you got your, look, I got my one really strong pick. You got your one really strong pick. Everything after that's kind of, you know, just, just, people's preferences. man, I'm like kind of torn between a couple, a couple solid ones for my, my last performance, my last pick here. there's another really, that's true. That's true. There's another really solid Western I could go with, but I already have one Western pick. So I think.

Eli Price (26:57.761)
Yeah, we'll do honorable mentions, but yeah.

Eli Price (27:05.057)
That's true. There is one. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (27:06.874)
I think I gotta go with...

Jean-Pierre (27:12.25)
You know, I think what I'm going to go with is I'm going to go with one another one where it's like the movie overall is not the greatest thing in the world. But Bale's performance, as always, is is pretty great. I will say this one specifically is not the most original concept. There's a lot of movies kind of similar to this. But I have got to go with.

Eli Price (27:23.585)
Mm -hmm.

Jean-Pierre (27:41.85)
equilibrium. Really solid kind of like early 2000s action flicks. I mean, it's got some really cool action scenes in it for sure. But the overall concept of like, you know, it's yeah, it is kind of it is kind of one of those like post matrix ripoffs, but specifically where it's like, the dystopian future with a totalitarian government and like people take drugs to, to keep their emotions at bay and like,

Eli Price (27:42.945)
Okay.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Eli Price (27:53.025)
very matrix -y.

Eli Price (28:02.273)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (28:09.306)
It's a very like Fort Fair and like, you know, you can't have art and books and all this stuff. So it's like very like Fahrenheit 451. There's just a lot of movies that have a very similar, a very similar vibe. But, you know, he looks pretty kick ass in the action scenes with like the gung fu and stuff as John Preston is his character name in that movie. One that I haven't seen in a while, but you know,

Eli Price (28:13.345)
Right.

Eli Price (28:22.881)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (28:29.441)
Mm -hmm.

Jean-Pierre (28:37.754)
Is it cheesy? Yes, but it bails a fun part to watch. There's another movie I was thinking of maybe going with that I would kind of say the same thing where the movie overall isn't great, but his performance is solid, but I'll save that for the honorable mentions.

Eli Price (28:53.345)
Sweet. All right.

So...

Man, last pick. This is really tough. Because there's like, there's three I'm looking at that I'm like, I could go with any of these three.

Man.

What do I do? So one of them, he's more of like a...

Eli Price (29:25.185)
more of an ensemble. There's a couple of ensembles that he's in that I think he's really good in, but also like not the main focus of the movie.

Jean-Pierre (29:31.002)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (29:43.137)
You know what? I'm going to go off the rails and pick something that probably most people aren't expecting. I'm going to go back to the superhero well, and I'm going to pick them as Gore, the God Hunter and Thor love and thunder because he is going a hundred percent as Gore. And I really, I really loved it. I really loved it.

Jean-Pierre (29:55.546)
no. no.

Jean-Pierre (30:08.41)
Okay, I'll give you that he is the best part of the movie. But even, but this movie, like he just feels so wasted, not just as an actor, but also the character is such a great character in the comics. But like, but I'll give it to you. I mean, his performance is a fun time to watch. I think of the scene that sticks out to me the most is,

Eli Price (30:29.153)
yeah, it's a great performance.

Jean-Pierre (30:36.794)
where he has all the kids in the cage and he kind of like appears in the shadows and he creeps them out a little bit. That was like a really good scene, but for the most part.

Eli Price (30:39.457)
Mm -hmm.

Jean-Pierre (30:47.354)
Yeah, the less we talk about Thor, Love and Thunder, the problem is better because this will just turn into another 30 minutes of me ranting about how terrible that movie was. It made me visibly angry when I went and saw it with my friends. They're like looking over at me and seeing how pissed off I am. They're like laughing. that movie was, it frustrated me. And I love Ragnarok. I love Taika Waititi. I don't know how Thor Ragnarok was great. And then like,

Eli Price (30:51.553)
the

Eli Price (31:06.209)
That's funny. That's funny because I like it.

Jean-Pierre (31:17.338)
I don't know, you just turned it up to 11 and just didn't work for me. But anyway, but I'll give you, I'll give you the best performance in it is the best part of the movie for sure.

Eli Price (31:24.865)
It's great. Yeah, for sure. The other, so the other move, I guess we're like in, before we list them off, we can do some honorable mentions. The other main one I was looking at there was the Machinist. Yeah, he's great. And the Machinist, really, really good.

Jean-Pierre (31:37.466)
Mm -hmm.

Jean-Pierre (31:41.882)
not seen it, but I've heard it's one of his best performances.

Jean-Pierre (31:50.234)
Also, I want to say rescue Don was like one of the last times that he did the big physical transformation and he decided he couldn't really do it anymore because he had just come off of Batman Begins. Goes into rescue Don. So he goes from the machinist, we had to be really skinny. Goes to Batman Begins, we had to put on a bunch of weight and then he had to lose a bunch of weight again for rescue Don. Well, that too, yeah.

Eli Price (32:02.241)
Well...

Eli Price (32:07.169)
Mm -hmm. Well, he did the fighter the yeah The the fighter he lost a lot of weight for which was After Dark Knight Yeah Yeah, cuz the fighter was 2010 That's the one that's his Oscar winning performance. I have not seen it. I just I didn't get around to it

Jean-Pierre (32:34.49)
I mean, I've not seen, like literally some of his big performances over the last couple of years. I still haven't seen Ford Ferrari. I didn't see American Hustle. I haven't seen Vice. I'll tell you what though.

Eli Price (32:36.545)
So, yeah.

Eli Price (32:44.065)
Yeah. I haven't seen vice either. He's good in American hospital. It's just been a long time since I've seen it. So.

Jean-Pierre (32:51.578)
I am really excited for next year's The Bride, where he's playing Frankenstein's monster. I mean, Maggie Gyllenhaal's directing, I just know that's gonna be a banger. But I mean, okay.

Eli Price (32:57.473)
Yeah. Yeah. yeah. That's gonna be great. Another I was looking at was the Big Short. I really like him in the Big Short.

Jean-Pierre (33:09.882)
Yeah, still haven't seen that one either. I really I have not gone around to seeing out of the furnace, but I've really come to really like Scott Cooper's work. So Scott Cooper, not bail related, but one of the movies he has that I really loved is antlers, which came out a couple years ago. And it's kind of like a horror movie like when it was about like a when to go. I don't know why it did not do great like.

Eli Price (33:34.017)
Mm -hmm.

Jean-Pierre (33:37.978)
critics wise, but I loved it. I'm a big monster movie fan though, which got Cooper also did hostiles. He did black mass. He did out of the furnace and the other movie I was going to say was kind of one of the ones I was, it was either going to go with equilibrium or the pale blue eye, which was a Netflix movie that came out, 2022, January, 2022. It's not amazing. I think I gave it like a three stars or yeah, three stars. But Bale's performance is great. And another phenomenal.

Eli Price (33:58.881)
Yeah, 22, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (34:07.418)
piece of facial hair. If you want to see Christian Bale walking around in like Victorian clothing as like a detective trying to figure out a crime that happens at a West Point in 1830s. Yeah, maybe it's for you. But overall, the movie was a bit a bit underwhelming. He's also done a little bit of voice work over the years I was looking and I was thinking about maybe picking one of these. He was in Mowgli, the

Eli Price (34:09.025)
Yes.

Eli Price (34:19.137)
Mm hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (34:27.681)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (34:32.858)
Then I was another Netflix movie that Andy Serkis directed with a lot of motion capture About the book the Jungle Book story, but like the real version of it I liked it a lot At the time the voice cast is pretty stacked. It's it's it's Supposed to be more true to the story of the Jungle Book not like the musical from Disney and it came out the same year as like their quote -unquote live -action version of it But I thought it was it was a good time. He plays Bagheera

Eli Price (34:36.737)
Yeah, haven't seen that.

Eli Price (34:44.033)
Okay.

Jean-Pierre (35:00.666)
And then he was also in the English voice cast for Howl's Moving Castle. But he is in Pocahontas. I mean, you got 310 to Yuma is another great performance of his, which was the other Western I was thinking of, Public Enemies. But I will say.

Eli Price (35:07.489)
He's great in that. He's also in Pocahontas.

Eli Price (35:17.537)
Yes. Yeah. I thought about that, but yeah, I don't, I don't love his performance in public enemies. I watched that, in the past few weeks too. And, apparently it's like, it's good because it's a lot like that the real guy it's based on, but I just, I learned that I learned that after the fact, like while I was watching, I was like,

Jean-Pierre (35:28.666)
Mm -hmm.

Jean-Pierre (35:38.33)
Maybe she didn't like the real guy.

Eli Price (35:44.993)
He feels really like he's just like phoning it in for this movie. It didn't, but yeah, maybe that's just the way that care, that actual real person was like, I don't know.

Jean-Pierre (35:48.186)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (35:55.322)
Yeah, well, I will say one movie that I've seen and is the only time I watched a movie where I was like, this honestly makes Christian Bale look like a bad actor. Exodus, Gods and Kings. I watched that, I think last year. Talk about a garbage movie overall. The only, I mean, the thing about it was I actually really liked Joel Edgerton's take.

Eli Price (36:12.705)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (36:24.378)
on Ramis, he's a second, like I enjoyed his performance, even though it is literally whitewashed to like, you have this white guy, you know, Joe Edgerton playing an Egyptian pharaoh and this Australian guy, but Christian Bale specifically, I just, I don't know if it was a him thing or if Ridley Scott just didn't direct him properly, but I don't know what he was doing. But it is pretty much the only time I've ever seen a role of his where I was like,

Eli Price (36:25.921)
Yeah, sure.

Eli Price (36:31.777)
Right.

Jean-Pierre (36:53.882)
This makes him look like he's a really bad actor. Do not really recommend the movie. There was a couple of cool sequences, although some of the special effects even for 2014 look kind of dated. But I don't know. It was just the one where I'm just like, wow, I know he's capable of way better than this. So.

Eli Price (36:57.633)
Yeah.

Eli Price (37:06.561)
Yeah.

Eli Price (37:12.577)
Ha ha.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you can't want them all, I guess.

Jean-Pierre (37:22.394)
I just feel like he's one of those actors where if he's in a movie, like it's probably going to be worth watching. Like as far as like honorable mentions, like if you, if the biggest takeaway for your audience, you know, with these last few episodes, you know, the empire of the sun in this one is that, you know, he is someone that nine times out of 10, you know, 9 .99 times out of 10, you're going to enjoy his performance regardless of the movie.

Eli Price (37:29.569)
Yeah, at least his performance. Yeah.

Eli Price (37:45.217)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (37:49.569)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (37:50.426)
So, you know, if you see his face on a poster on streaming and it's a movie you've never seen before, maybe, maybe, maybe give it a, give it a shot. You most likely will not be disappointed.

Eli Price (37:54.689)
Just go for it. Yeah. I would be remiss if I did not shout him out as Lori and little women. So my, you know, my wife would not be happy if I didn't at least shout him out for that. That's the 90s version. Yeah. The version with Ronald Ryder.

Jean-Pierre (38:05.178)
Mm.

Jean-Pierre (38:10.266)
Which version of that, little woman? Okay.

Jean-Pierre (38:18.106)
He's also in Newsies, but I think he's one of the few that didn't do any singing.

Eli Price (38:21.921)
Yeah, I didn't, I've never seen Muses, so can do that. And then the other one that I do want to shout out, it's like, it's a Terrence Malick film called Night of Cups. It's one of Malick's probably like least regarded films. Terrence Malick is a director that I think is just like a master.

Jean-Pierre (38:25.146)
I haven't either, but you know.

Jean-Pierre (38:48.346)
big fan.

Eli Price (38:51.361)
huge Malik fan. he does hardly says anything in the whole movie of night of cups yet he's like on screen for a large portion of the movie. and it's just like an example of like, he is kind of like just a muse for the voice. He does do the voiceover work for his character, which Malik does a lot of, voiceover stuff.

Jean-Pierre (39:21.018)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (39:21.025)
over visuals. And so just being like a visual muse and, yeah, just that sort of performance. it wasn't like, it wasn't enough for me to be like, I've got to pick this, but I feel like it's enough to give a shout out of like, something very different that he's doing for that movie.

Jean-Pierre (39:45.306)
Well, so here's kind of a finalizing question for this episode about Christian Bale, arguably, like we said, one of the best actors to ever do it. What is either a genre that maybe he hasn't done or a specific role that he hasn't done that you would love to see him? It could be a fictional character, a historical figure.

Eli Price (39:51.137)
Yeah.

Eli Price (40:04.033)
Hmm.

Eli Price (40:11.873)
Mm -hmm.

Jean-Pierre (40:13.082)
What is something he hasn't done that you think he really would love to see him do?

Eli Price (40:17.921)
Yeah, that's a good question. It's a you're you're putting me on the spot. But, you know, I. If they're if they're going to keep making Lord of the Rings movies, which apparently they're going to do like ice could see him as like a human like King. I don't like I think.

Jean-Pierre (40:34.618)
Mmm.

Jean-Pierre (40:45.402)
He hasn't really done a lot of fantasy.

Eli Price (40:46.881)
No, he hasn't. I think he could do an El for a dwarf or whatever they asked him to do. He could do it well, but I really could see him as like a king. Like if they ever go back and do like the big war, like he could be like... man, my mind is blanking. Is it Elendil?

Jean-Pierre (41:16.57)
You talking about a video of a film about the war in Palo Norfio? A Sealed Door.

Eli Price (41:16.769)
That cuts the ring off. Yeah, that cuts the ring off. Sildor, that's who it is. Yeah. like, I mean, just like a kingly man. I think he could play that part really well. That'd be fun. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (41:29.178)
Yeah, that'd be sick. Yeah, I think when you look at his career, he did some fantasy kind of earlier on as a kid, and then he's done some Shakespeare adaptations, but once he kind of became more of an established actor, he's mostly stayed in drama, thriller, and he's done a good bit of sci -fi, obviously.

Eli Price (41:37.281)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (41:46.593)
Yeah.

He hasn't done any straight horror, like straight horror. He's done some thrillers, but.

Jean-Pierre (41:53.466)
Yeah, which, you know, I guess some people look at American Psycho as a horror, which I'm like, I don't really think so.

Eli Price (41:58.753)
It's not, yeah. It can be gory, but it's not a horror movie.

Jean-Pierre (42:03.578)
Yeah, so I would say I think a horror, like a straight up horror movie would definitely be interesting. I also agree with you that like some kind of big grandiose like fantasy franchise would be cool.

Eli Price (42:18.529)
Yeah. Did you, did you see the invisible man? The newer one with Elizabeth Maw? So, so like the, the man that plays the invisible man in that movie, like he could do a, like that's a horror movie and he could do a role like that really well, I think.

Jean-Pierre (42:23.098)
The 2020? Yeah, that movie's phenomenal.

Jean-Pierre (42:37.018)
Yeah, no, I thought that that movie was, I think I gave that a five star review. I mean, I thought it was the perfect way to update the concept for modern audiences. It also had a very strong like female empowerment message that wasn't overbearing. And I feel like it was actually done really, really well and talked about a topic like abuse, but not in a, you know, in an overbearing way. It was like in a very realistic way. And like, yeah, I thought that movie was.

Eli Price (42:42.921)
I loved that movie, yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (42:51.201)
Yes. Right.

Eli Price (43:01.761)
Right, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (43:05.978)
And I think that's, gosh, what's the director there? Because he also did upgrade. Yeah, he did upgrade, which I actually recently watched. I also really liked. And I think that guy's going places. He's definitely got an eye for it.

Eli Price (43:10.913)
Liguanelle.

Eli Price (43:20.613)
Yeah. Yeah, but Aldous Hodge plays the guy that's like the invisible man and like, Bill could like knock a performance like that out of the park, I think. Just like menacing and like, but like sly and being able to switch between like menacing and like polite when other people are around, like he could do something like that in a horror movie super well.

Jean-Pierre (43:25.53)
Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (43:33.626)
Yeah, yeah.

Jean-Pierre (43:44.762)
Yeah, definitely.

Jean-Pierre (43:48.73)
Yeah, I definitely agree. Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to think of my own question now. Yeah, I don't know. He's just one of those guys I'm like, I just think he would be great at anything that he's asked to do. But...

Eli Price (44:04.129)
What's the skinniest character you can think of?

Jean-Pierre (44:07.61)
I don't know, maybe some kind of like, you know, yeah, like some kind of like skinny, you know, spirit type character or something like some kind of cryptic, you know, like the skinny man, you know, but I love, you know what I would love? I would love to see him in some kind of like Guillermo del Toro, like fantasy horror film. I think, I think that would be super sick. Put him in some prosthetics or something, you know.

Eli Price (44:09.121)
Let's get him to play that. Elastoman. I don't know.

Eli Price (44:28.961)
yeah. Yeah. yeah.

Yeah, I'm all about that. I'm down for that. Yeah. Sweet. All right. That, that was a fun, that was a fun question. I appreciate that. yeah, I'm going to go ahead and read out the final results and then yeah, we'll wrap it up. JP ended up with American psycho rain of fire, hostiles, terminator salvation and equilibrium.

Jean-Pierre (44:38.25)
So, but yeah.

Eli Price (45:05.633)
And I ended up with the prestige Ford versus Ferrari, the Batman trilogy, rescue Dawn and Thor love and thunder. And keep in mind, we are drafting the performance, not the movie. So even if you don't like the movie, just take into account the performance. but yeah, that's, that's all we have for the, a lot of honorable mentions. yeah.

Jean-Pierre (45:23.034)
Hehehehe

Jean-Pierre (45:30.234)
and so many honorable mentions.

Eli Price (45:35.649)
We, I mean, yeah. And there was even like, we didn't really talk much about, like we mentioned the fighter, which we haven't seen vice. I have not seen, but apparently he's, he's good. there's some apparent good performance that neither, neither of us have seen. So you can, you can email at establishing shot pod at gmail .com and tell me why, like I'm so terribly wrong. Cause I haven't seen this movie. Yeah.

Jean-Pierre (46:03.514)
And tell Eli why you need to take his Cinephile card away.

Eli Price (46:06.561)
Yes. Yeah, let me know. But yeah, JP, do you want to go ahead and share again for those maybe that didn't hear the end of last week's episode, what you're up to, maybe where people can follow you to see what you're doing and all that kind of thing.

Jean-Pierre (46:25.402)
Yeah, well, I'm always up to something and usually it's no good, so to speak. No, I'm just kidding. No, the easiest place to connect to me is on Instagram. You know, just my full name, Jean -Pierre Boudreau over there. And yeah, I might have my own show coming out soon called Thanks for Letting Me Rumble. And you know, definitely got to have Eli on now at least five times is the goal. Right, right, right, right. I owe you, you know.

Eli Price (46:28.545)
Ha ha ha ha ha.

Eli Price (46:46.305)
Yeah, I've got to pay you back.

Maybe we can record like one like 10 hour long episode and that'll make up for it.

Jean-Pierre (46:55.706)
Yeah, yeah, we'll just do like a Lord of the Rings extended edition marathon. And we'll do our own commentary while we watch it. my gosh, did you know that he broke his toe when he kicked the helmet? Like, yes, everybody knows that now. So anyway.

Eli Price (47:02.017)
Yeah. I mean, we can ramble, you know.

Eli Price (47:13.025)
That's great. Yeah, I'll make sure to link that in the episode notes and Yeah, like I said last week, hopefully you you've got some some links to that. Maybe you'll have an episode released by the time this episode comes out and We'll see But either way be on the lookout go look out for that go follow JP on Instagram because I'm sure he will be keeping you updated on that project

Jean-Pierre (47:14.778)
Well.

Jean-Pierre (47:29.306)
Maybe soon, maybe soon.

Eli Price (47:42.497)
But that is all we have for this week. I, and go, I'm planning on, going ahead and, for, before our next episode, maybe, gaining, 50 pounds or so for that episode. And then I'll maybe lose 60, for the episode after that. So that's my plans for what's upcoming next.

Jean-Pierre (48:05.05)
There you go.

Jean-Pierre (48:09.402)
He's on that Christian Bale workout routine.

Eli Price (48:13.089)
no, but in all, in all seriousness, we do have our episode on Indiana Jones and the last crusade coming up next week. So be on the lookout for that. I plan on weighing right about the same that I do right now, for that. but that is all we have for this week. I have been Eli Price for JP Boudreaux. You have been listening to the Establishing Shot. We will see you next time.