Dark Knight

So our office got this Friday off and I decided to go check out this Dark Knight I've been hearing so much about. Usually matinees aren't too busy, but I went with the second of the 12:00 screenings because it was sooo busy. Also, when we got out of our showing, there was already a line going outside the theater for the 3:30 showing.

I have no doubt that you, my good readers, are familiar with Batman and the origins of the character. Directed by Chris Nolan, the film stars Christian Bale reprising his Batman/Bruce Wayne character from Batman Begins. The film starts a year after the events of Batman Begins with Michael Caine returning as Alfred, Gary Oldman returning as Lt. Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman returning as Lucius Fox, Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes (apparently Katie couldn't get a permission slip from Tommy boy to do the film) and Aaron Eckhart as newly appointed district attorney Harvey Dent. You are also no doubt aware that this is one of Heath Ledger's final roles as The Joker.


I'm hesitant to talk a lot about the plot because I love the way things unfold. The Joker approaches the crime organizations of the city about working together to get rid of Batman. After the departure of Gotham's district attorney, Harvey Dent replaces him. Dent is also dating Rachel Dawes, the good friend/ex girl friend of Bruce Wayne. Batman works together with Lt. Gordon and Dent to try to catch The Joker. Gotham is soon plunged into chaos created by The Joker and it becomes harder for the trio to save the city.


I LOVED this movie. I had a discussion last night with someone who really didn't like Batman Begins and prefers the older Batman films. If you like Batman Begins, you'll love this one, too. I really like that Bruce Wayne isn't soooo tormented about his alter ego like Spiderman is in the Spiderman trilogy. He actually seems to really like being Batman, so the film is more about the story and action and much less about his inner conflict. Christian Bale was awesome again as Bruce Wayne and Batman. Everybody else was great again in their returning roles, Gyllenhaal made a good Rachel Dawes and Eckhart was great as Harvey Dent. I cannot say enough about how impressed I was with Heath Ledger, and he was absolutely riveting as The Joker. As The Joker, he was completely unrecognizable and totally sadistic.


There was a lot of action and it was great, but it wasn't the same brainless, shoot em up, bang bang kind of action in most action films. There was a method and a madness behind it and at times I was chewing on my nails wondering what was going to happen next. It will no doubt break box office records and all that, and even at 152 minutes, the film won't feel that long. It's just a really great movie with a great story and really great characters. Closing with a quote from Batman talking about the crime organizations crossing the line in their attacks on Gotham.....

Alfred: You crossed the line first, sir. You hammered them. And in their desperation they turned to a man they didn't fully understand. Some men aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

More ramblings to come.....

Funny.Ass.Shit.

I'm currently in pre-production for a new project, so I am doing a lot of research. I came across this short film while surfing youtube and it's tooooo funny. Warning: It's very raunchy with a lot of vulgar and sexually explicit dialogue, so, NSFW and wear headphones around the little ones. I love it and it's so well done. Screened this year at the 2008 South by Southwest film festival, the short was directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson and features Evan & Gareth, the hilarious and talented duo who will no doubt become superstars very soon. Remember...very vulgar, so just don't click if that isn't your thing......

Love Guru

It was a slow Friday in the office, so we all decided to duck out early to start the weekend. I decided to go see the The Love Guru at the cheap theater. It was either that or You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and I'm kind of Adam Sandlered out.

Directed by Marco Schnabel, the film is co-written by Mike Myers. Myers also stars as the Guru Pitka, who was raised with Deepak Chopra in the same ashram. The Guru Pitka feels he's in Chopra's shadow and longs to be the world's most well known Guru, although he is known as the Love Guru. He has an ever present (and quite attractive) assistant named Rajneesh (Manu Narayan) and a business manager named Dick Pants (the Daily Show's John Oliver).


The story begins when beleaguered Maple Leafs hockey team owner Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba) hires Guru Pitka to reunite her star hockey player, Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) with his estranged wife, Prudence (Meagan Good). Prudence left Darren for one of his rivals, french Canadian goalie, Jaques "le Coq" Grande (Justin Timberlake), and Darren has since lost his game.


I've seen this touted as "Mike Myers' first original character since Austin Powers". I believe this was meant to be another hit like Austin Powers with the possibility of sequels to follow, however, I think Myers has been off the radar too long. Also, the juvenile and bathroom gross out humour just didn't hit with me. There were a lot of funny parts, lots of cameos and lots of great talent in this, but on the whole, it didn't come together. I did get more into it halfway into the film, but there were too many things going on to keep me there the entire time. Overall disappointing given how much great comedic talent was in this.

More ramblings to come......

Baby Mama

Last week, shortly after I had gotten the kids off for the weekend with their father, I immediately looked at the movie listings. I had been meaning to see Baby Mama, which was playing at the cheap theater, mostly because I LOVE Tina Fey.

Written and directed by Michael McCullers, the film is a comedy about a woman's wish to have a baby via surrogate mother. Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey) really wants to be a mother, but is told by her doctor that she has a one in a million chance of conceiving. She turns to an agency to find a surrogate mother to carry her child. Through the agency, she meets a young woman named Angie (Amy Poehler) and her boyfriend Carl (Dax Shepard), who are what some folks might call "white trash". Angie and Kate make a deal and Angie has the procedure done to carry Kate's baby.


However, obstacles do happen, because what kind of a story would it be without obstacles? Angie leaves Carl and shows up on Kate's doorstep hoping to move in. Of course Kate lets her and the Odd Couple-esque hilarity ensues. Kate struggles trying to get Angie to eat nutritiously and treat her furniture with respect (Kate: Did you just put gum under my coffee table? Angie: I don't know. Kate: What do you mean you don't know??") Kate is an executive with an organic foods supermart with a hippy dippy new age-y guy as her boss, played beautifully by the love of my life and future baby daddy, Steve Martin. Kate also develops a crush on Rob (Greg Kinnear), who runs the local smoothie place (which is NOT like Jamba Juice!). There are a few twists and turns in the plot, so I will leave it at that.


I love, LOVE Tina Fey. I also really like Amy Poehler, Dax Shepard, and of course I love my sweetie, Steve Martin. Romany Malco was also great and hilarious as Kate's doorman who is friends with the women and tries to help them out. They were funny, there were a lot of funny moments, however the movie on the whole was not funny. I didn't get totally immersed in it and it felt like something was not quite right. I didn't really like how they wrapped the story up, but you'd have to see the film to know what I mean. In summary, it was "okay", but you might want to check it out if you're a big Tina Fey fan like me. Closing with a quote from when Angie is in the hospital in labour....

Angie: AHHH, it feels like I'm shitting a knife!! Why won't you bitches help me!?!

More ramblings to come......

WALL-E

My boy wanted to check out WALL-E, so we went to see it. I knew very little about it going in, other than it was #1 at the box office this weekend and that it was a Pixar flick. Incidentally, paying almost four dollars for a box of Reese's Pieces is craziness! Anyhoo...

The film was written and directed by Andrew Stanton, the brains behind such Pixar hits as Finding Nemo and A Bug's Life. The film is about WALL-E, a small robot on Earth, who's purpose is to compact and stack the garbage left on the planet. He is the only thing living on earth, besides his pet cockroach. He lives a lonely life spending his day stacking the garbage into building-like structures and collects trinkets he finds from the piles of wreckage. He is also fixated with an old tape of Hello, Dolly!, particularly the love connection of two of the characters.


WALL-E has been alone on Earth for many years until one day, a giant space craft leaves an egg shaped robot before taking off. The robot is Eve, who was left on the planet to determine toxicity levels and whether Earth is livable again. WALL-E falls for Eve immediately (hey, robots need love, too) and begins teaching her about life on earth. The day they find a lonely, little plant Eve becomes inactive until the space ship comes back for her. WALL-E follows them until they reach a mega huge space ship and luxury liner carrying the survivors from earth. I won't give away much more of the plot so as not to ruin it, suffice it to say, the lives of the survivors of earth are extremely sedentary. They are all morbidly obese sitting in chairs that carry them wherever they want to go while a screen of television and communication tools sits about a foot in front of their face and having every meal delivered in a cup keeps them from having to get up.


I really liked it a lot. The film was a very cute love story between two little robots. It was also a startling commentary on the direction of the planet and our lifestyles if things don't change. I was most impressed that they were able to do that with very little dialogue. WALL-E spends his days stacking garbage into skyscrapers and it's never ending. When Eve's space ship leaves, it must break through a big wall of satellites orbiting earth. Also, the screens that the humans are attached to 24/7 have them living life vicariously through it with the screen doing activities for them without them having to get up at all, a la video games. I like it when films can make commentary like that and not be heavy handed like serious apocalyptic films that are downers. This was more or less a gentle nudge on how things will be if we don't change things now. The film is aimed at a younger, family oriented audience, but I'd recommend it for anybody, really. Closing with a quote from the human captain of the ship.....

Captain: I don't want to survive. I want to live.

More ramblings to come........