Me and Mrs. Aristus just got back from seeing "The Dark Knight".

[Aristus]

Wow.


And Heath Ledger? Double wow.

[Saboburns]

1. Yep

That movie fukkin' rocked.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear Aristus!

That is on my list of must-see flicks!

There's Oscar buzz for Heath Ledger, too...

[charlie and algernon]

3. I'm worried about that Pacino-Deniro movie

the academy loves to go to the old standbys. If Heath is nominated, I fear Pacino and Deniro sweeping best and supporting actor.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Which movie is that?

[charlie and algernon]

7. Righteous Kill

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034331/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. Thanks! I had not heard about this one...

I think the buzz is bigger for The Dark Knight...

Especially since Heath Ledger is gone.

We shall see...

[charlie and algernon]

10. oh yeah, it's definitely bigger for Heath

but unless Righteous Kill totally bombs, Deniro and Pacino will almost be nominated by default. Hopefully the Academy will see the brilliance of Heath's performance and he'll win.

[leeroysphitz]

20. Don't worry. It will totally bomb. With these has beens it's almost like clockwork. n/t

[DS1]

17. oh fuck those two

DeNiro = say everything twice
DeNiro = say everything twice
Pacino = yell at UNEXPECTED MOMENTS during the DIALOGUE!

[Aristus]

5. Well deserved buzz, too. Just be warned, CalPeg: VERY violent movie.

Not graphic violence; just a lot of intensely violent scenes. And more than a few disturbing ones. Mrs. Aristus says she enjoyed the film, is glad she saw it, and doesn't want to see it again.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Thanks for the heads-up!

I've heard about that.

Violence is OK as long as it's not gratuitous. If it serves the plot, I am OK with it.

[Frank Cannon]

13. I share your wife's opinion

And I'm a HUGE Batman fan. Have been since I was a toddler.

It was a good movie, but not one I care to see again. I'll probably buy it on DVD just to see the extras.

[rebel with a cause]

23. I agree with both of you,

and I also will probably rent the DVD to watch it again. Because I was bothered by the laughter from some in the audience during most of the more violent scenes and found it hard to concentrate on the dialog much less the action. I enjoy my subtitles and rewind features of home watching.

[SeattleGirl]

9. Wow is right!

So is double wow!

Great movie, and Ledger just blew my socks off as the Joker.

[peekaloo]

11. Nurse's uniform.

I now look forward to 'Burn After Reading'.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. I disagree.

I thought it was totally depressing and pointless violence.

Nothing but people threatening others with knives and explosions.



I think the point is:
Welcome to BushWorld: We will buy you off. If we can't buy you off, we will kill you. Even Batman can't be trusted.

Incredibly depressing.

The next night I saw HANCOCK and got my good mood back.

[Frank Cannon]

14. I agree. It was relentlessly depressing.

Good movie, but just a fucking downer.

I never thought I would say this, being a lifelong Batman fan, but I actually think I liked "Iron Man" better this summer.

[Aristus]

16. That's what my wife said: 'I think I liked 'Iron Man' better."

Less relentlessly downbeat, I guess.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

18. I would argue against the "Good" qualifier.

So technically, it's good, even though the camera is too close to see the fights.
And everybody is busy threatening other people with violence, or blowing them up. Fortunately, I didn't see any blood, just threats of violence.

I would say that if it had nothing positive in it, and no plot to speak of, just increasing violence and revenge, that it is not a GOOD movie. The girl who could be a plot pivot between Batman and Harvey Dent, gets killed pretty early in the movie, and she's the only female in the movie. People identify with a person of their gender in the movies. They just killed off the person that half your audience can identify with.

Heath Ledger was quite convincing as the methodical psychopath. His lines were spoken very deliberately and his logic was quite good, although twisted. But I don't think that performance was enough to redeem the movie.

You may disagree, but I refuse to go see depressing junk like this again. I only saw it because I went to see the X Files, got there five minutes late, and nobody had shown up, so they canceled the showing. So I sat around waiting for a late showing of The Dark Knight. That's the only reason I saw it.

Now I'm wondering why in the hell people got so excited over a pointless, violent movie.

As I said: If you're good, you get killed. If you can be bought off, we will buy you off and corrupt you utterly, just for a pile of money.

Like I said, I got my good mood back the following night by seeing HANCOCK with Will Smith.

I stand by my were they trying to do?

[Frank Cannon]

19. Well, it did provide food for thought

Like, where should a vigilante draw the line? What is insanity, if there's actually calculated logic behind it? Can someone do the right things for the wrong reasons?

And it was, as you said, technically excellent. Superb, really.

But I'm totally on board with your not wanting to see it again, or thinking that other movies are much better. I agree on both counts.

[JackDragna]

21. You missed the entire point of the movie.

True, it's not supposed to be a happy, go-lucky movie. Gotham in the comic books is a pretty nasty place for many of its residents. Batman is the embodiment of the sacrifices people make to bring a little justice to a place where so little of it exists. In the end, Batman sacrifices his good name to save the reputation of a good man and the people of the city chose what at the time seemed certain death to killing others and giving in to the jungle. On top of that, Batman chooses to save the Joker's life, even after the Joker killed a woman he loved and held the city hostage. Batman, as well as Jim Gordon, represented a sense of goodness and decency in a place where such things were in short supply.

[YankeyMCC]

15. Mr Aristus

your analysis is spot on! I concur with your wow!

[vixengrl]

22. The Dark Knight actually blew me away--

blew me--away. I thought the whole cast was good, but while Margan Freeman, let's be honest, is always good, Aaron Eckhart, Christian Bale, and goood-god-damn, Heath Ledger did a hell of a job with a story that had a few levels. More than a few. The violence was the point, and it was unpleasant--sorry--that was the point.

See, violence is bad. Batman exists because he witnessed the violence of his parents' deaths when he was still quite young. He knows violence exists and he hates it--but he has to also accept the strength of his weapons in order to fight the evil. He has to be violent to try and stop violence, and not let the violence take over who he is. He is, still, somehow, Bruce Wayne. A billionaire and a very smart individual. The trick is keeping these two personae in balance. But it's hard. Because Bruce Wayne deserves love, and a life. Batman is a symbol, and a mask. How do you live as a mask? You can't, not really. Bruce likes the idea of Harvey Dent's purity and open-approach to fighting crime because it is an alternative to his own vigilantism. He also sees that if Dent becomes the face of crime-fighting in Gotham, he can retire Batman, be himself, and maybe even get the girl.

All natural things to want. But crime is chaotic, and the face of crime is the Joker's. A twisted one. Unpredictible. Warped, and arbitrary. And Heath Ledger tore that role up.

He embodied a chaotic force and pulled the drama of a psychopath down to the silver screen where people could see. He "channelled" that crazy energy and made it work. He expressed a nerve of vital destruction working out the endorphins, letting you feel why destruction was a viable alternative--

If you really did not like his Joker, then you really got his Joker--every quip, every slap and suck in his speech, and the made-up stories about his scars, and his rant in nurse's uniform in front of a graphically (great make-up) wounded Dent, all of these contrive to let you know what dangerous, mad, bad crazy is. He just did things--and he claimed he did not have a plan--but wasn't the very first scenes of the bank heist proof he did plan? And his little game of playing the mob? He lies a lot, and that's his secret--he isn't honest. Dent was. Batman wishes he could be. When Dent is damaged, he gets a rousing pep-talk from the Joker, and he is turned.

Batman is a mask--he gets to be seen as a villian, but he knows inside he is doing the right thing. Because he is anonymous, he has the freedom to accept being reviled--Dent didn't--he was all too human. Because he was a man, he is remembered well--because Batman is a mask, he doesn't have to be.

Because Joker is insane, he confesses, and ends up in Arkham, probably--the fates are unkind. Ledger was so brilliant, he should have lived to reprise this darker than the dark knight villian. He really showed himself off here. He had a lot of promise--such a waste.

I loved this movie, and kind of want to see it again to memorize every great Joker Line. It was that good.

[rebel with a cause]

24. My son would agree with you wholeheartedly.

He went to see it four times, taking different people with him each time. He will explain the whole thing to me, all the twist and turns that I did not catch in my own viewing. Of course, movies and other entertainment sources are his special interest when it comes to critiquing them, having worked as an entertainment reporter at one time.

[ChoralScholar]

25. Yep...

Heath Ledger.. who knew?

I never saw Brokeback Mountain, so the last thing I saw him in was "10 things I hate about you"

You can imagine how his Dark Knight performance floored me. It is literally one of the best performances ever. Ledger was transparent. He WAS the joker.