Out of the Furnace

... we receive an aimless, generic crime drama that cuts itself off at the knees early on and scrambles for relevancy thereafter.

Christian Bale still makes this rather run-of-the-mill proposition appealing, regardless of how oddly unfashionable he may currently be.

The varied performances yield much kindling for warming the heart, especially the scenes between the two brothers.

It's the lead performances that are the thing here, not the clichéd screenplay. And boy, these boys are acting so hard they almost sweat their fake tattoos off.

With little in the way of originality, and much that is mockably macho, Out of the Furnace requires a fair amount of heavy lifting from the cast to elevate it from well-worn mundanity.

It never sings. The script is clunky, its outcome peculiarly futile.

Bale is just as heroic here as he is as Bruce Wayne.

This tale of brothers who can’t stay out of trouble trots out all the clichés of America in its economic malaise: the lack of blue-collar work, and every genre cliché of Westerns, brothers protecting brothers and the need to take the law into your hands.

Out of the Furnace considers a bleak outlook on economic disparity and how it shapes the lives of those affected, but the film’s methods are obvious and timeworn.

If it did nothing else than rub America's nose in the abominable treatment of soldiers returning from war, "Out of the Furnace" would more than justify itself. While it's a depressing story, it's also chock full of actor's actors and therefore engrossing.