There are a couple of people you really don't want to piss off. Osama Bin Laden, for instance, looks as if he could get a bit cranky. An annoyed Robert Mugabe may prove less than reasonable. And Christian Bale might turn just a little intense.

Just ask his mother, who pressed those assault charges last year. Or the 'Terminator: Salvation' crew member who put him off during filming, triggering a firestorm of F-bombs.

"What the f*** is it with you? What don't you f***ing understand?" the actor raged.

"I'm going to f***ing kick your f***ing ass!"

Director of photography Shane Hurlbut ultimately escaped the behind the scenes beating. But Bale shows no such mercy to his on-screen foes. Bringing those anger management issues to the role of John Connor, he's all seething intensity, drop-dead stares, growled dialogue and big guns.

Never mind Hurlbut, those Terminators don't stand a chance.

Just one problem: the machines have already taken over the world and transformed it into a nuclear wasteland, leaving the few human survivors of Judgment Day to run and hide — or, in true Bale style, fight back. Set in 2018, leader-of-the-resistance Connor is on a mission to find Kyle Reese, the man he'll later send back in time to 1984 to romance his mother and become his father. Got it?

Actually, never mind. This slightly different take on the same story already told in three previous films and 31 episodes of a TV series doesn't make much sense. Or — with clunky dialogue, a short-circuiting narrative and an overload of inconsequential characters — isn't particularly well told.

'Charlie's Angels' director McG is more interested in creating a post-apocalyptic playground for visual insanity. The stunts — including a heart-stopping motorbike chase — are astounding. The machines — and not just the giant robots — kick 'Transformers' in the ass. And the fights — especially involving the magnetic newcomer Marcus Wright — are amongst the most visceral in the series.

"F***'s sake man, you're amateur," Bale ranted at Hurlbut. Mechanical storytelling aside, 'Terminator: Salvation' certainly isn't.

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