Review of Out of the Furnace (2013) by Caesar B — 02 Apr 2016

'Out of the Furnace' is a prime example of a high-quality cast (barely) managing to drag a poor film onto its feet.

This is certainly an intense and dark film, but unfortunately, the script struggles to convert this vibe into something authentic and memorable and, instead we're left feeling like this is a pretty standard genre re-hash, covered up with a strong cast.

Fortunately, it really is a strong cast. Bale suits the action frontman role perfectly and Affleck's acting fits well with his character, to the point where I could just about forgive how overly-melodramatic his character was compared to the tone of the rest of the film.

Harrelson probably stole the show here though as the villain but, unfortunately- it really was just a villain. I've forgotten the character's name because he was only ever 'that mean guy' to me.

There's clearly an attempt at something ambitious here but there just wasn't enough in there to pull it off. Unfortunately, much of this film just isn't good enough.

Nonetheless, the film had potential and the strong cast each squeezed as much of it out as they could, given what little they often had to work with. As a result, I'd say that this is a decent action flick with a darker edge, but it was clearly going for something far more impressive, and on that front, it failed.