I think Bale is a very good actor and besides Terminator: Salvation (he's actually signed up for three of them), this year he will also be appearing as FBI agent Melvin Purvis along side Johnny Depp as John Dillinger in
Public Enemies.
If you want to read an excellent book about Purvis, Hoover, Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Barkers, Baby Face Nelson, Alvin Karpis, and other good guys and bad guys from the 1930s, get ahold of Bryan Burrough's PUBLIC ENEMIES. It's one of the best true crime books I ever read. It's over 500 pages long and has some vintage photographs of Bonnie & Clyde in the morgue, Dock Barker in prison and some other interesting stuff. You will have a hard time putting it down once you start reading it.