Equilibrium (2002)

In a city where feeling anything gets you arrested, Taye Diggs smirks through his entire performance and nobody writes him up. That’s Equilibrium: a great idea with logic held together by tape. It borrows the book burning from Ray Bradbury, the giant face on every screen from George Orwell and the long coats from The Matrix, then hands everyone dialogue so solemn it could be carved on a tombstone. But Christian Bale makes it work. Watch his face the first time Preston hears Beethoven on an old record player, like a man finding out color exists. A puppy rescue in the middle of a raid turns the sternest cop in the city into a softie. Then there’s gun kata, a made-up martial art that treats shooting like choreography, and the final showdown is gloriously silly. It made only $1.2 million in America on a reported $20M budget. A 6.4 because the borrowed parts creak and the original parts rule. $34.71 says you try a gun kata pose in the hallway tonight and immediately pretend you were stretching.

What works: Christian Bale sells every quiet flicker of feeling, and the gun kata fights are inventive, stylish and unlike anything else from that era.

What doesn’t: The world is stitched together from older, better stories, and the dialogue is so grave it slides into unintentional comedy.

Who it’s for: People who rewind action scenes to study the choreography and don’t mind a plot they’ve seen before.