Christian Bale: 5 Awesome Performances and 5 That Sucked

We flip the coin of Christian Bale's career and take a detailed look at the heads and tails of it.

By Stuart W. Bedford /

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Christian Bale has travelled far from his humble beginnings in the tiny county district of Pembrokshire, Wales. He€™s been to the past, the future, to Gotham and back and he€™s taken us along for the journey every step of the way. Bale€™s been at the acting game for many years now, with his first notable international appearance being as Jim €˜Jamie€™ Graham in Steven Spielberg€™s Empire of the Sun in 1987. The rest is not quite history, but that was certainly a healthy start. It wasn€™t what you€™d call a meteoric rise to prominence. Nearly two decades isn€™t exactly a short career but over those years Bale has been continually honing his craft down to razor sharpness, to the point that today, he could easily be considered one of Hollywood€™s top personalities. From Bateman to Batman, Christian Bale has provided us with some truly mind-blowing performances across his illustrious career; he€™s also provided us with some less than great ones, albeit not quite so many. And with the world€™s eyes turning on him once again with the recent release of The Dark Knight Rises, this list just felt right. So let€™s skip the chatter and get right to the prestige €“ five of Bale€™s on-screen performances that blew our mind€ and five that didn€™t.