2. The Machinist = Fight Club
Its quite easy to do nothing while watching The Machinist than marvel at how slight Christian Bale can make himself. Released just a year before he donned the cape and cowl, this (along with The Fighter and the subsequent The Dark Knight Rises) are testament to how hell put his body through just about anything for a role. If you can pull yourself away from that long enough, however, youll realise theres a real familiarity to the plot. Bale plays Trevor, an underweight insomniac who slowly meanders through his grey hued world. Tormented by a new co-worker named Ivan he begins to feel increasingly trapped and hounded. That is until he discovers it is all in his mind and that both Ivan and his insomnia are products of his own guilt for a hit and run a year earlier. When watching The Machinist I couldn't shake the feeling this was skirting very close to Fight Club, to the point where, as it grew to its conclusion, I was almost praying I was wrong. Alas I wasn't. The two films are so incredibly distinct that they feel entirely different, but having a plot so similar to a cult classic, down to an identical twist, detracts from the later film.