Blu-ray Review: Out of the Furnace
Disclosure: I am a Fox Home Entertainment Insider and was provided with a review copy of Out of the Furnace in exchange for this post. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.
I didn't get to see Out of the Furnace when it was in theaters, because it was not screened for the general public. It's been on my list for a while now, however, because the trailer looked good, and also because of its fantastic cast: Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Forrest Whitaker, and Casey Affleck, just to name a few. So I was excited when I received a copy in the mail from FHE to review.
The synopsis of this film from IMDb is: "When Rodney Baze mysteriously disappears and law enforcement doesn't follow through fast enough, his older brother, Russell, takes matters into his own hands to find justice."
There were a lot of things I liked about this movie and some I did not.
Likes: Fantastic cast and acting. Christian Bale was totally believable as a man searching for his brother, and Woody Harrelson stole the show as a thug whom Bale's brother (Casey Affleck) worked for, as a street fighter struggling to pay off a debt.
Dislikes: It was very slow-paced, and if you're a longtime reader of my blog you know my feelings on slow-paced movies. (they're hard for me to watch/sit through)

The Blu-ray edition has some neat stuff on it that you won't find on other versions. These include:
- Featurette on the casts' inspiration for why they do what they do (acting)
- Featurette on Scott Cooper
- Crafting the Fight Scenes
- The Music of Out of the Furnace
Ultimately, if you can stand the slow pace, I'd give this movie a Yes to see, because of the character development and acting. The ending was a little shocking to me as well, but I can understand the character's motivations for doing what he did (sorry for being vague ...). The scenery/cinematography and the music in the film were great as well. This movie was kind of overlooked at the box office, it seems, but it has a respectable 52% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this writing, and 59% from "Top Critics."
Out of the Furnace is rated R with a runtime of 116 minutes. 3.25 stars out of 5.