Movies With Butter

After last week’s deluge of new releases, it’s very nice for certain movie column writers to have a week with just one new release (that’s not a big-name release that people have been clamoring to see for months, that is) to write about.

This weekend’s solitary release is Out of the Furnace, a gritty revenge flick starring Mr. Christian Bale as your blue-collar everyman, working a job he doesn’t particularly like to care for his family, consisting of a very sick father and an enlisted brother (Casey Affleck) in Iraq. When said brother returns home, he gets involved with a particularly brutal crime lord (Woody Harrelson) and disappears; the investigation dead-ends, so Bale’s everyman gets to go on a blood-soaked rampage to find him.

The critics of Rotten Tomatoes were not terribly fond of the film, rating it at only 52%. Despite a cast packed with acting talent—Willem Dafoe, Sam Shepard, Zoe Saldana, and Forest Whitaker also star—the film sticks to predictable thematic elements, and the plot falls a little flat as a result. With all of the blockbusters currently in theaters, the Box Office Guru predicts only $5 million for the film over the weekend.

• Prev:  'Indiana Jones' Sequels Could Be Released by Disney
• Next:  Apocalypse Coming to the 'X-Men' in 2016