The Joker

[LemonMacPhisto]

When did they stop using "thumbs up/down"?

I am excited, to say the least.

[u2popmofo]

Originally Posted by LemonMacPhisto When did they stop using "thumbs up/down"? I am excited, to say the least.

I don't know, but that review gave me 1 movie-boner up.

[LemonMacPhisto]

Originally Posted by u2popmofo I don't know, but that review gave me 1 movie-boner up.

Hah.

I'm loving these rave reviews... they seem more genuine than the usual hyperbole, you know?

And the comparisons to Heat have me going a bit gaga.

[u2popmofo]

Originally Posted by LemonMacPhisto And the comparisons to Heat have me going a bit gaga.

[LemonMacPhisto]

Originally Posted by u2popmofo

'Cause he's got a...



GREAT ASS!

[lazarus]

I heard Heath Ledger is almost as amazing as Henry Rollins was in Heat.

[LemonMacPhisto]

Originally Posted by u2popmofo Any of you douche-whistles seen this yet?

I'm watching this tonight, asshat.

[u2popmofo]

I tried to rent it tonight, but it was out. Picked up Be Kind, Rewind and Control instead.

[LemonMacPhisto]

Originally Posted by u2popmofo I tried to rent it tonight, but it was out. Picked up Be Kind, Rewind and Control instead.

It was alright, nothing to write home about. Most of the animation is slick and cool to watch, but the vignettes are a mixed bag. They get better as they move along, but the first two are pretty meh-tastic. It's great to hear Kevin Conroy as Bats, and some of the other voice work is solid, so that's good.

I was expecting some sort of Animatrix-esque lead-in to The Dark Knight, just know you won't get it hear. You see Bats/Bruce, Lucius Fox, Alfred, Gordon, one of the Maroni guys, Deadshot (!), Lizard, and Scarecrow (!) - and while the progression from Begins is hinted at, it's never fully realized.

I'd watch it for shits and giggles one night, but wouldn't keep it, you know?

[lazarus]

Was it better than Season Two of Clone Wars? Because I loved how that led right into the opening of Revenge of the Sith.

[LemonMacPhisto]

Originally Posted by lazarus Was it better than Season Two of Clone Wars? Because I loved how that led right into the opening of Revenge of the Sith.

No, but it wasn't bad by any means.

[major_panic]

Review: The Dark Knight

WARNING: HERE BE SPOILERS, Y'ARRRR

This film has been widely touted for the sheer brilliance of Ledger's acting, and so it was difficult to go in without high expectations - expectations that were, indeed, met and possibly even surpassed. The Dark Knight shines as a film, not because of the explosions or the plot, but due to the excellence of the acting by almost all involved. Ledger absolutely shines as the Joker, and perfectly captures the character as portrayed in classic Batman comics like "the Killing Joke".

However, it's not just Ledger who carries the film. Eckhart is amazing as Dent - portraying the confident, focused DA right up to the moment of his scarring and the formation of his identity as Two-Face, whereby the character's personality undergoes a startling shift that was very well conveyed. Freeman and Caine are, as always, a pleasure to watch, and Oldman as Gordon did a good job. Bale, as before, showcases the character almost naturally; however, Wayne / Batman seem a little underdeveloped and two-dimensional in the film.

The only disappointment was Gyllenhaal, replacing Holmes as Rachel Dawes. Neither really shone as Dawes, and the character herself seems very flat and uninvolved.

The film itself could be held up as the ultimate epitome of the Batman comics - dark, depressing, showing the darkest of humanity; but through it all, a small ray of hope shines. Batman, as always, struggles with his inner doubts, although these seem to be rather glossed over and he quickly returns to action once Dent takes the fall for him.

All in all, the movie did drag on a bit at times, with some rather cut-and-paste action sequences (barring, of course, the extremely cool new Batcycle), but it was a genuine pleasure to see the characters from the comic books portrayed so well that they seemingly leaped off the screen into reality. Does Ledger deserve the Oscar? In my opinion, he's a damn good candidate for it.

Nine out of ten for the film, nine and a half out of ten for the performances.

[MrsSpringsteen]

I got my ticket online yesterday for Fri afternoon. Since it's PG13 it will be packed with out of school kids and I'll probably have to get there and hour early to get a good seat, but hopefully it will be worth it to see it early. As of today they still have tickets available for all showings and for the Thurs midnight, probably because they don't usually put them online until late Wed or Thurs so people don't know yet.

I can't even venture a guess as to what it will make over the weekend, it will be astronomical.

NY Times

July 12, 2008
Holy Cameo, Batman! It’s a Senator!
By PAM BELLUCK



The senior senator from Vermont is in a large room packed with people when an unruly citizen bursts in making loud, unreasonable demands.

Anyone can see that a gavel to order is not going to work with this joker. He’s harassing people, and he’s got a gun.

The senator steps forward. “We’re not intimidated by you thugs,” he says. The man, saying, “You remind me of my father — I hated my father,” grabs the senator’s head, and thrusts a knife to his face. The senator freezes, eyes wide.

Not your typical Capitol Hill brouhaha. No, this scene is pure Hollywood, straight out of the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.” But that really is the senior senator from Vermont: Patrick J. Leahy — Democrat, Judiciary Committee chairman and lifelong Batman fan — has a cameo in the film and gets to be held at knifepoint by Heath Ledger’s Joker.

Bam! Kapow! Biff!

“No matter what they say, I don’t wear tights or a cape or a mask,” Mr. Leahy said in a phone interview. “Not that kind of movie. Not that kind of guy. My wife would have killed me.”

The 68-year-old six-term senator says he has been big on Batman since he was 4, when, one Sunday after Mass, his parents stopped at a little drugstore in Montpelier, Vt., his hometown, and bought him a comic book for 10 cents.

“I can vaguely picture it,” Mr. Leahy reminisced. “One of the scenes had Bruce Wayne down in the Bat Cave to work on the Batmobile.”

Batman became his favorite superhero because “he has no superpowers,” Mr. Leahy said. “He had to use his own brains and his own knowledge. He could have had an entirely different life. As a billionaire, he could have done anything.”

Mr. Leahy had a nonspeaking cameo in the 1997 film “Batman and Robin,” did a voice-over for the part of a governor in a Batman cartoon, and wrote the prefaces for a “Batman” anthology and a Batman comic book about the danger of land mines. Once he was spotted doing wheelies on his grandson’s toy Batmobile down the long marble hall outside his Senate office.

He donates all Batman earnings to the children’s wing of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier. Mr. Leahy, who is legally blind in one eye, said that his daily trips to the library, then in a basement, made him a precocious reader as a child. On Saturday, the movie will have its premiere at the library, which will receive the proceeds from a reception and 350 tickets being sold to the screening, at $50 apiece.

The filming of Mr. Leahy’s scene in a Chicago restaurant last summer took “all night long,” he said. Mr. Ledger would “punch or throw me halfway across the room,” and Mr. Leahy was propped up by another actor “with an arm like an oak tree” who was “brandishing a gun in my face.”

It took the senator a couple dozen tries before he got his line right.

“We tried it two different ways — one was authoritative, the other one was with a lot of fear in my voice,” Mr. Leahy said. Ultimately, he was directed to act like the prosecutor he once was, with a take-charge attitude.

So how did Mr. Leahy manage to find his character’s motivation? Was he thinking of Vice President Dick Cheney, who in 2004 used profanity to curse Mr. Leahy on the Senate floor?

“No, I wasn’t visualizing Dick Cheney,” Mr. Leahy said. “They can’t use that dialogue in a PG-13 movie.”

Wham!

[the tourist]

35 hours and 37 minutes!

[theFly51]

Its almost here!!!!!!!!!!!