Maybe you should look into the movies that seem to have cult followings undeservedly so. That might be an interesting article. I don’t know, it is weird when people really get behind movies that are just kind of…blah. Little Miss Sunshine, Boondock Saints, Equilibrium. I am sure there are others, I just can’t think of any right now.

I suppose the reason I’m more than a little down on EQUILIBRIUM is that the movie is pretty bland and stupid, but there are people that LOVE it. It IS at best forgettable. It’s certainly not aggressively terrible. It’s just a mishandled, derivative minor work of science fiction.

I guess it’s the same reason I give THE BOONDOCK SAINTS such a hard time. It’s an underwhelming mess that, beyond logic, has a huge fan base. To the point, there are worse films polluting then system than Kurt Wimmer’s dumbness. It just aggravates when boring things get love.

What?…Too mean?

At the end of the day, I like Equilibrium but I can also see it for what it is. It’s a flawed film, that uses a lot of story ideas from other sci-fi stories. But, for me it’s entertaining. If any movie needs a beatdown it’s ‘The Truth About Charlie’ or even ‘Napoleon Dynamite’, but ‘Equilibrium’ should be far down on the list. It is at worst a forgettable film; the hatred seem unwarranted. My opinion at least.

On the character front, you should know by now exactly what kind of character you will be watching when Christian Bale is on screen. The dude is a one trick pony, and his trick are dour and mopey. He spices things up by changing his voice, but the character is always the same(lone exception being American Psycho).

I honestly don’t recall too much from Goldeneye(most Bond films seem to run together for me) so I admit I had forgotten about his acting in that. Of course, he too seems to play the same generic ‘thug/bad guy’ in all his movies so maybe it was the change of pace that sets his small role in Equilibrium apart for me.

Let’s get down to business. You are defending a movie with a Taye Diggs performance. He’s FINE. And he does provide a good counterpoint to Christian Bale’s “Every Sci-Fi Hero Ever” character. But do you know where the movie fails?

EVERYWHERE.

Specifically, there is a monumental battle in a dojo where Taye Diggs consistently beats down Christian Bale while they discuss their respective points of view. Taye Diggs keeps up with Bale beat for beat and proves that his character is equally as powerful as Bale — or at least can throw down with the absolute best of them.

In the next scene, Taye Diggs loses the ability to blink without even a sword stroke on his behalf. Sorry if that was a spoiler. I’ll warn you next time.

**SPOILER**

This movie is shit.

**END SPOILER**

As far as Bean goes, are you really ready to put this performance up against GoldenEye? Are you?

I will give Kurt Wimmer some credit. He wrote The Thomas Crown Affair, and he has shown that he can make small budget films look like big budget films.

But all of that goodwill gets tossed out because he made Equilibrium. This is a movie that will star in a future beatdown article.

There is a difference between refusing to kill a dog over moral grounds and choosing the life of a dog over the lives of eight men. This movie can go to hell.

But I will admit, Below is an awesome suspense film.