"Dark Knight", Heebie. "Dark Night" is a graphic novel about two-fisted Carmelite monk Juan de la Cruz, who battled religious doubt and a sense of growing distance from God's grace as CROSSMAN.
I should have known all the characters would die pointlessly in the end, because it was a Godard film, but still, I was surprised.
1: Oh yes. Like Necht Ruprecht. Fixed that.
I shouldn't even be here! I didn't even know it was a Godard film!
and I was never quite clear on who the sexy devil woman was, or what happened to Frank Langella at the end.
Um, if 2 is accurate, maybe some people will prefer to avoid said spoiler??
I haven't seen the movie yet and am going to skip the rest of the thread to maintain ignorance but cannot resist noting that in the early-mid-'90s I worked for UNC's helpdesk in a windowless basement across the main quad from the building where most of UNC's servers were housed. There was a red, keyless phone that was a direct line between our two offices and whenever it rang we would invariably answer with some Batman reference that would piss off the Very Serious Sysadmin Gnomes on the other end so that they usually just hung up and called back later. It was a riot every time; it simply never got old.
You dare picture the Batphone No 2? NO 2??
I want the original. No 1 or nothing!
And for the record in the Dark Kanigit the batphone was not yet invented. Wayne mansion was not yet rebuilt and Gordon was still using the simplex bat light, a write-only device if I've ever seen one.
I was surprised to find out that the Joker is Batman's father.
Don't worry Di, 2 isn't true. An asteroid, which neither the audience nor major characters are aware of, is just about to kill them all after the rest of the movie's events resolve, but then Superman shows up to prevent it from colliding with Earth, setting up the eventual sequel.
5: This is supposed to be a thread where spoilers are allowed. But I can re-emphasize that in the front page fluff piece.
Di,
Comment 2 is merely a red-herring, or perhaps not. Maybe it is true. Have great doubts though. It spoils nothing. Unless it does.
But seriously, everyone, by all that is holy please go now, right NOW, and see the frigging movie! I MEAN IT!
Di, it says spoilers in the post.
I felt bad for the actor playing Harvey Dent, because his role has been mentioned in only one review (which commented that he'd been missing from all the other reviews.) And I thought he did a good job, though I was surprised that his whole arc was finished in this movie.
I was surprised to find out that the Joker is Batman's father.
...and that Joker is really a woman. And that Batman had really been dead the whole time!
I thought the best part was where Lucius Fox gets pushed too far and goes all, like, kung fu on those forty Joker thugs, like POW! POW! POW! "How you like me now, bitch!" KA-POW! That was pretty awesome.
Also, the scene with Batman and the taffy. And all the scenes with Paris Hilton. And the Joker's homage to Fire Marshal Bill has to be seen to be believed.
12: I felt bad for the actor playing Harvey Dent,
But not bad enough to remember his name? Cold.
Aaron Eckhart, for the record. Who was quite good as the bad guy in the admittedly shitty Paycheck.
...and that Joker is really a woman.
Did Madonna really do that scratchy voice? Her finest achievement yet as an actor.
I knew his name, but I wasn't sure anyone else would, because everyone forgot he was in the movie.
And who would have thought that "Rosebud" was his childhood bat-sled?
And the twist where it was revealed how Batman did the Vanishing Man trick? I was shocked, though I should have seen it coming.
I made this comment deep in another section so will repeat it here.
A terribly tiny minor quibble I had was I thought the tongue-flick mannerism for the Joker was maybe a little too much of an obvious choice given snake - garden-of-Eden - agent of chaos connection.
Moving ahead to the third Batman movie, Orson Welles is all wrong for the Riddler, no matter how good his magic tricks are.
12: Perhaps people don't want to overshadow his triump in The Core.
So, since I was whining to Heebie about the lack of a proper outlet for yammering about this, let me start. Heath Ledger is a frigging juggernaut and I had no problems with Dark Knight's Joker -- true to the source material, particularly The Killing Joke, without being derivative of previous on-screen performances -- but I was slightly disappointed with DK's Two-Face, my personal favorite Batman villain. All the best Batman villains -- roughly Two-Face, the Joker, Ra's al Ghul, quasi-villain Catwoman, and the Scarecrow -- along with a couple of the second tier represent aspects or mirrors of Batman in some respect, and I think that's truest for Two-Face. I feel like they kind of wasted that in this; if, as the Joker says in The Killing Joke, the difference between him and Jim Gordon is one very bad day, the script really could have done more with playing that up in the end. It would have helped pacing issues, too, and they could have had a built-in villain for the inevitable third movie instead of having to go to someone like Bane or Hugo Strange that the great bulk of movie-goers have never heard of.
Tongue flick didn't bother me at all, nor did it seem particularly snake-like.
17: Mmm-hmm.
The scene with Batman and Jessica Biel in the carriage was really touching.
20: I found the tongue-flick mannerism reminded me of Pete Sampras, also maybe too obvious a choice on similar grounds.
It's gonna be hard to make another sequel after Ozzy Osborne bit off Christian Bale's head in this one, but if there's an attempt it will have to star a Catwoman and the film will need to be about S&M and redemption. (And yet, they already featured Maggie Gyllenhaal.)
The film had a natural ending when the Joker turned Dent into Two-Face.
The whole movie was plausible, except for someone that young who was a successful politician being named "Harvey". That should have been updated to "Josh Dent" or something.
snarkout,
Yeah. I really bought the Joker, but the Two-Face back story didn't ring true. There was not enough explanation of why the guy had the nickname Two-Face and his turnaround seemed phony. I wonder if some of that was in the original but editing out for pacing reasons. The movie was long. Worth it, but long.
If Bruce Timm managed to invent, popularize, and eventually get into the canon, Harley Quinn for The Animated Series, what's stop the Nolan's from trying the same for a new villain? Or they could ask Bruce Timm to do it for them.
They'll probably use Hush.
22: Yeah. I thought they did a good job of one aspect of Dent with the whole white knight/law and order vs. dark knight/vigilante aspect. Before the Joker visited him, I had really figured the movie would end with Dent in a hospital room, beep-beep-beep go the machines, flip-flip-flip goes the coin, and he'd be the star of the next movie.
The last half-hour felt rushed.
On a related subject, will Watchmen defy the odds and be a halfway-decent movie made from an Alan Moore comic, or will it it be a steaming pile like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?
It does seem to be something of a phenom based on its 9.6 rating at iMDB (next highest is Godfather at 9.1, although there always is an initial "overrating") and the fulsome praise from my kids who generally tend to keep their ironic distance intact. Per my youngest this morning, "I'm not going to see another movie for 10 years, because I know no other movie will be as good."
I've never seen Batman Begins, they rented it afterwards and were disappointed. So apparently this is a big step up from that one?
Did not realize until looking it up kust now that Bale was Jim in Empire of the Sun.
The film had a natural ending when the Joker turned Dent into Two-Face.
If they were going to end with that, they should have had the Joker cut Batman's hand off too.
Also, to get nit-picky and spoilery, the Joker's plans involve him knowing what everyone is going to do far in advance of it being possible. In particular, when he is in a warehouse burning all the money, (which is really soon after he breaks out of jail) he has already planted bombs in the hospital (though "kill Reese or I blow up a hospital" had to be improvised after Reese announced he'd reveal Batman's identity on TV), either planted them on the bridges and tunnels or decided that he's going to bluff about it, and planted them on the ferry's, which he somehow knows are going to be used to evacuate people (and possibly knows that one of them will be used to evacuate the prisoners).
i was disappointed with Maggie Gyllenhal, who I love for all the wrong reasons.
On a related subject, will Watchmen defy the odds and be a halfway-decent movie made from an Alan Moore comic, or will it it be a steaming pile like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?
From the director of 300? I think you know the answer.
30: No. No, it will not.
They'll probably use Hush.
Oh God.
The last forty minutes or so had way too much going on -- the criminals vs. citizens Mexican standoff, the raid on the skyscraper, the final Batman/Joker confrontation, the final Batman/Dent confrontation. The Nolans could have tightened it up considerably by leaving full-on Two-Face for another movie (or, in the suggestion I made to Rfts, having Dent brutally gun down the Joker's men and, who after all he has every right to be pissed with, and then exit stage left). The treatment of Dent in Jeph "Heroes" Loeb's The Long Halloween really hits the mark better - Loeb's Two-Face has all the rage and weird binary view of the word of Batman, but without the titanium superego that keeps Batman from spiraling that last half-inch into utter madness.
The Joker's disappearing pencil trick was great. The rest of the movie couldn't live up to it.
JP,
IMHO Batman Begins was good, maybe real good, and Dark Knight is excellent. Brilliant even.
And on the tongue-flick - you gotta do something, I know, although one could argue that the make-up itself is a big enough "mannerism" to establish the Joker character. I'm not about to argue with brilliant actors and Directors though. It really was a superb job.
The whole Two-Face thing was pretty well integrated. The decision to make Harvey Date's fate the ultimate point of the conflict between Batman and the Joker was clever, and the setup for Two-Face's eventual madness is there and not oversold. I like the fact that in a sense, the Joker basically wins in the end.
The obvious choice for sequel villain would be someone non-obvious. The Ventriloquist & Scarface! Calendar Man! But they'll probably go for something lame like The Black Mask.
On a related subject, will Watchmen defy the odds and be a halfway-decent movie made from an Alan Moore comic, or will it it be a steaming pile like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?
I thought V is for Vendetta was great. The preview for Watchmen makes me think the movie will be visually stunning, if nothing else.
37: I liked "No, I'm the one who kills the bus driver."
The Ventriloquist & Scarface! Calendar Man!
Clayface! The Film Freak! Killer Moth!
the Joker's plans involve him knowing what everyone is going to do far in advance of it being possible.
Not impossible for . . . dun dun dun . . . the Devil!
Not fair, I suppose, but it is a fantasy. We just haven't seen Alfred wake up and recall his dream yet, that's all.
I was prepared to buy into the Joker's plausibility-stretching, extraordinary planning—after all, this is a story about a superhero whose only strength is to be better prepared than his enemies. The specific Reese trigger for the hospital was improvised, sure, but the plan might have been that he'd set these bombs everywhere and come up with a threat later.
33: Also, to get nit-picky and spoilery, the Joker's plans involve him knowing what everyone is going to do far in advance of it being possible.
One might also wonder where the Joker gets the resources from to do all this stuff; for example, how he manages to keep hiring thugs given that he must have a rep for a certain devil-may-care-attitude toward the lives of his employees. And what's the source of his fortune, which must indeed be vast if he can feel free to burn large piles of cash at a whim.
Michael,
i was disappointed with Maggie Gyllenhal, who I love for all the wrong reasons.
I know what you mean. Not even a single erect nipple in the entire film. Bummer.
The obvious choice for sequel villain was the Joker, since he survives the film. Dammit.
33: He's supposed to have planned the jail break, too, so there's room for a fanwank about how he already had bombs everywhere (it's easy to improvise when you can blow up everything.) It doesn't make a lot of sense if you think about it too hard, but I did like that in this movie, whenever they had a choice between careful plotting and blowing something up, they went for the big boom.
The Film Freak. Ah, that one makes me mist up.
how he manages to keep hiring thugs given that he must have a rep for a certain devil-may-care-attitude toward the lives of his employees
The ones after the opening bank job are apparently recruits from Arkham, as mentioned in an aside. He clearly has magic lunatic-cozening powers.
Saw this last night and OMG so much better than I thought possible. Loved it, although agree with the third act pacing issues.
Love Christian Bale but skeptical of the new Terminator flick.
I liked V for Vendetta, but if it had been based on a story I had written, I would have been mad about it, too.
41: The "Why so serious?" monologue is way better in context than when it turned up in trailers.
The whole Two-Face thing was pretty well integrated.
Just the sort of opinion I'd expect from a Skrull. You want to walk away from the movie with a simple summary of why Two-Face went bad, and having seen it twice now I can't exactly say—all the pieces are there but rushed and badly stated.
Plus it was a damned short career for one of Batman's greatest villains! If they give Crazy Quilt such short shrift in the third movie I'll protest.
53: a simple summary of why Two-Face went bad
Driven-but-already-slightly-unbalanced guy goes over the edge when corrupt cops sell him and his girlfriend out, leaving him deformed and her dead. Seems simple enough.
You're right about Crazy Quilt, though. That's the quintessential Batman villain! They'd better get that one right.
or, in the suggestion I made to Rfts, having Dent brutally gun down the Joker's men and, who after all he has every right to be pissed with, and then exit stage left).
Specifically, we were thinking that it could have worked well to combine a number of the end-game elements for a tighter finish, along the lines of the following:
- The who-will-explode-whom deal with the ferries shouldn't be a whole separate episode with a bunch of ordinary citizens. Instead, the Joker has it set up with Gordon and his family vs. some cops, including the crooked ones, and when he frees Dent, he sends him off to guard the cop group. Then Batman corners the Joker in a trimmed-down version of the Trump Tower sequence.
- Then, when Batman dispatches the Joker, the mutually assured destruction groups are still set to explode. So off the Batman rushes to save Gordon and his family, and Gordon and Batman head to the cop location. They arrive almost too late! But then Dent flips his coin, it comes up tails, and he shoots the henchmen of the Joker who are there with him.
- "Harvey! Thank god!" But Dent gives them a cold look, flips the coin again, and shoots the cops, too. "Harvey Dent is dead," he says, and exits dramatically.
- You wrap up with Gordon and Batman having the same realization as in the end of the actual movie, and sure, deciding that Gordon will have to lay the blame on Batman.
I realize this is in the "omg soil excavation doesn't work that way" vein of quibble, but during the Hong Kong / Mr. Lau sequence, I kept thinking, "Jeez, a joint venture in China? What is this, 1995?"
Apparently Christian Bale has been arrested for assault.
I have liked Aaron Eckhart at least since seeing him as the biker househusband in Erin Brockovich
Publius has a reading of TDK that I could kiss & lick like a forever popsicle. Unfortunately, his awkward religious references allowed the thread to be hijacked, although Early Modern Theology/Philosophy (hereafter "EMP" as in what kills electronic life) is like critical to understanding the Joker. But hell some commenter mentioned "State of Exception" What can I say? Thread coulda been a contender.
I guess I'll have to pray the Webloggers engage TDK.
You guys, Two-Face didn't die. Didn't you notice that he was just lying there on the ground? They didn't say he died, and nothing so drastic happened (e.g. being in a building that exploded) that he had to die. I thought it was obvious that he would be back.
Driven-but-already-slightly-unbalanced guy goes over the edge when corrupt cops sell him and his girlfriend out, leaving him deformed and her dead. Seems simple enough.
I think they could have played up even more than they did the extent to which Dent was willing to bend the rules to get results; the Loeb version is better at this, and it would have highlighted (without needing to hammer it quite so explicitly) what I took as the script's central critique of the Batman-as-police model: crazed billionaire decatheletes with a fanatical devotion to a weird moral code are not a solution that scales. (For that matter, I'd've liked a little more attention paid to the doofs in hockey masks. The script too loose, thinking about it; Ledger's performance and the momentum of the middle third kind of disguise this fact.)
omg soil excavation doesn't work that way
Hilarious.
I liked that the movie was vertically cast. The action was either set in sky-high towers or in their shadows, with implications for the movie's themes. That might seem kind of obvious but it's a different take on Gotham City than the Deco mood set that Tim Burton used.
I felt bad for the actor playing Harvey Dent, because his role has been mentioned in only one review (which commented that he'd been missing from all the other reviews.)
Aaron Eckhart was fine, but his performance was merely highly competent, in a movie with some really excellent performances. Whatcha gonna do? I thought Gary Oldman was great, and his Gordon was miles better in this than it was in Batman Begins.
One of the great pleasures of seeing the movie was experiencing the way the quality of the audience's attention changed completely when Heath Ledger was on screen. It seemed for all the world that everyone was plenty into the movie and paying full attention--and then the Joker appeared and all around me I could feel everyone's focus condense into a hard, tight beam.
What options for villain in the next movie could be any good? Ra's al Ghul again, I suppose. (Talia was never mentioned in Batman Begins, right?) I hope they never bring Bane into the films; I hated that attention-grabbing story arc. Two-Face really deserves another film. But much as I once loved Batman comics, I have to admit that most of the villains are pretty dumb. It seems like some of the most interesting stories involved him dealing with ordinary criminals, not costumed freaks.
Or they could go anachronistic and reintroduce the KGBeast and the NKVDemon!
59: They had a funeral/memorial service for Dent.
60: It's not that it doesn't scale. It's that people aren't really happy with it, even though crime is down. They need crime to have come down in the right way.
Batman-creating-the-Joker by creating a power vacuum (not, say, by dropping a kingpin into a vat of Magic Acid) was great.
what I took as the script's central critique of the Batman-as-police model: crazed billionaire decatheletes with a fanatical devotion to a weird moral code are not a solution that scales
I thought this was a clever hook to hang the movie on, as it's very much in keeping with the Batman ethos and preoccupations I find most interesting, while also being an aspect of the story I haven't seen given a whole lot of explicit attention in other Batman stories.
62: There's not getting accolades, and there's no one noticing your villain is in the film.
I'd be thrilled if Two-Face weren't dead, but rather Gordon/somebody's squirreled him away to some secret vault in Arkham where they're rehabbing him by replacing his coin with dice. Still, looks like his arc as a villain is ded.
It has to be Catwoman in the next film because fans aren't going to buy a villain who poses the same sort of mortal threat as the Joker played by Heath Ledger.
It's that people aren't really happy with it, even though crime is down. They need crime to have come down in the right way.
That too.
57: Hey, financial sector joint-ventures have only been allowed for a few years now, and even there it's been heavily restricted in terms of which foreign companies are allowed substantial ownership stakes (and nothing over 40-50% I believe). Maybe Lau's business was in banking?
I'd be thrilled if Two-Face weren't dead, but rather Gordon/somebody's squirreled him away to some secret vault in Arkham where they're rehabbing him by replacing his coin with dice.
"You're nothing but a pack of cards!"
59: Gordon and Batman clearly think he's dead, since otherwise the noble lie ending makes no sense. It's hard to see how they'd be wrong about this, but it's possible.
Further to 69: Also, the International Finance Center is fucking insane. More urban stuff should be shot in Hong Kong.
63 - They've burned through all the good ones except Catwoman, who isn't really an antagonist any more. You can't build a good movie around the second tier of folks like Mr. Freeze or the Penguin, and I think the remaining decent-ish villains (Hugo Strange, Mr. Zsasz) are too obscure to be pulls in a movie. Doing something to highlight Batman's status as the "World's Greatest Detective" would be great for me, but I'm a comic book dork.
59: They had a funeral/memorial service for Dent.
See 55.iii - Harvey Dent is dead. Long live Two-Face! (But yeah, even he seemed pretty dead.)
67 - "Who cares about you anyway? You're nothing but a pack of cards."
Pwned by rfts and Grant Morrison! Curses!!
More movies should feature a hero who flips big trucks end over end. I hope Dr. Manhattan gets to flip over a truck. That was awesome.
The whole audience gasped at the disappearing pencil trick. shivbunny really liked the Joker's make-up, especially how it becomes progressively smeared throughout the film.
especially how it becomes progressively smeared throughout the film.
More annoying nit-picking: the police didn't want a makeup free photo of the Joker?
69: Well, it was the "We're bringing Wayne Enterprises into... the future!" aspect of it that got to me. (JVs might be required by law, but that doesn't make people enthusiastic.)
That reminds me, the bit with Freeman and the blackmailing accountant was great.
75: I'm pretty sure there was a point where the makeup was reapplied, maybe when he was in the nurse uniform.
He was just in a holding cell. It's not clear how compressed the timelline is.
Besides, nitpickers are going to be on the next big truck that flips.
78.2: Batman's next nemesis... the Nitpicking Brigade!
63: It looked like they may have been setting up the third film to be Batman vs. Society, which could be either brilliant or a total failure.
Also, Catwoman.
I'm guessing that that apropos-of-nothing line about how Batman's armor will protect him against cats is an allusion to the next film. It's obviously gotta be Catwoman, but I fear they risk losing some of the message by having her bring him back into the fold. Gotham City welcomes back its police-vigilante overlords!
omg truck flipping doesn't work that way.
I'm going to come back and read this thread after I see the movie, and if I find out you got off topic and discussed something interesting and not spoiler-related, I swear to God I will hunt you down and cut each and every single one of you.
And what's the source of his fortune, which must indeed be vast if he can feel free to burn large piles of cash at a whim.
I think the Joker got some pretty large equity and option grants in addition to his salary back when he was CEO of Halliburton.
**Spoiler alert:** The Dark Knight and millionaire Bruce Wayne are teh same person!!!1!
(Would have worked better if it had been #1, but I was working instead of watching for new threads. Damnit.)
80: It looked like they may have been setting up the third film to be Batman vs. Society
Batman vs. Trucks!
Is it okay that I have no interest in seeing this? I'm not agin' it or anything; I just don't care.
Please don't cast me out of the garden.
87:Batman vs the Proletariat. He is a billionaire, ya know. Must maintain that social order.
88: No, we'll just make obscure references to it every thread until you're forced to see it in order to understand what anyone is saying. Like when Dr. Jonathan Crane showed up again for no particular reason.
88: I don't care either, Kraabie. Let's you and me ditch these comics nerds and go smoke a bowl behind the schoolbus garage.
Maybe Cillian Murphy signed some kind of newfangled two picture deal where it's the actors option instead of the studio's.
And what's the source of his fortune, which must indeed be vast if he can feel free to burn large piles of cash at a whim.
He did take a lot of money from the bank at the beginning.
And it seems like that's also the only time when he kills his own goons.
73: Zsasz appeared in Batman Begins, albeit unrecognizably, so I think they've rendered that character useless. Hugo Strange could be fun, but unfortunately I think you're right that they'll only go with more well-known names to draw people in.
Yeah, why was Cillian Murphy there, and as a regular drug dealer, to boot?
91: Awesome, but I really don't care about pot, either. Cupcakes?
Batman v. Superman, like in Miller's Dark Knight?
Make the next villain a true-blue good guy, and the film can continue to develop the self-critical fascist-vigilante Batman theme without worrying that its next villain will never live up to Ledger's Joker.
Instead, the Batman fights the golden child as he continues to struggle with his own (necessary) alienation...
Cupcakes?
Yeah, sure, whatever. I was just hoping we would make out.
I forget what happened to Crane at the end of the last movie, but if he ended up in the asylum, could his cameo be intended as a hint to the Joker's backstory? A couple of his henchmen seem to be lunatics.
Or maybe it was just a way to wrap up the previous story, since he was still on the run at the end. (I honestly can't remember.)
Yeah, why was Cillian Murphy there, and as a regular drug dealer, to boot?
Because he was still loose at the end of the first movie.
Without a Ra's al Ghul in the picture, that's just the sort of petty criminal that the Scarecrow is.
Pwned by all these comments! They are most excellent!
I was more a Superman reader myself so maybe this is stupid but what about the Riddler? Are mind-games and puzzles passe after The DaVinci Code and their ilk?
could his cameo be intended as a hint to the Joker's backstory?
The Joker doesn't have a backstory, intentionally.
104: Right, that's why it would be just a hint.
Further to 104, no one can agree about who created The Joker for the comics.
If the Joker has to have an origin, he'd rather it be multiple choice.
Question: is the disappearing pencil trick the best villain entrance of all time? What are the other contenders?
the disappearing pencil trick
Totally adopting this for my next editorial meeting.
A Batman movie? With Harvey Dent? Didn't they make one of those like 20 years ago? I forget. Actually I don't forget, I just didn't care because the bits I saw were not so great. Which means they recycled a movie I didn't care about in the first place. NEAT!
Lot of that going around.
Now you can chat on your new The Dark Knight party line till your heart's content! Gab to all your friends about who's dreamy and who makes you gag, in the latest Batman thriller to hit the silver screen. Spoilers ahoy, girls!
I am totally picturing Joe Lieberman calling McCain on that phone and warning him about antisemitism in the Democratic party. Followed by giggling about Obama being weak.
max
['Save me John McCain, you're my only hope!']
is the disappearing pencil trick the best villain entrance of all time?
OK, for that I might see the movie.
A Batman movie? With Harvey Dent? Didn't they make one of those like 20 years ago?
And TV shows and comic books with him too! It's a corrupt, debased system.
Which means they recycled a movie I didn't care about in the first place.
Is this not better than remaking a movie that you thought was pretty much perfect to start with?
Question: is the disappearing pencil trick the best villain entrance of all time? What are the other contenders?
Orson Welles as Harry Lime in "The Third Man".
Gab to all your friends about who's dreamy and who makes you gaggay
Fixed.
Can we all agree that the probability of Heath Ledger winning Best Actor for his performance of the Joker is basically 1?
115: Best Supporting Actor is more likely, isn't it?
Can we all agree that the probability of Heath Ledger winning Best Actor for his performance of the Joker is basically 1?
Nominated, sure, though who knows if he'll actually win. The Oscars are a long way off and we still have all the pre-Christmas "serious" movies to get through before then.
115: Best Supporting Actor is more likely, isn't it?
Doubt it.
The Oscars are a long way off and we still have all the pre-Christmas "serious" movies to get through before then.
What's more serious than dying?
115: I'd say basically 0. It's a movie based on a comic book and that tends not to bode well.
>Orson Welles as Harry Lime in "The Third Man".
Great suggestion.
120: ?? But basically every known person in the universe agrees that the performance was fucking brilliant. And that's beyond the whole sudden tragic young death thing.
Maybe this prediction of mine can go on punditpredictions.
Question: is the disappearing pencil trick the best villain entrance of all time? What are the other contenders?
Barbara Stanwyk descending the stairs in Double Indemnity. The post-facehugger Alien.
120: It's a dead guy in a movie based on a comic book. And in a performance everyone agrees is great (unlike Brandon Lee in The Crow who was beloved only of Goths). This could very well put it over the top.
is the disappearing pencil trick the best villain entrance of all time? What are the other contenders?
Aside from Harry Lime, there's: Darkness stepping through the mirror in Legend. Darth Vader in the first Star Wars movie, of course. Khan in The Wrath of Khan. Bill in Kill Bill, Vol. 2, which is my nominee for the best, with Ledger in second place.
Is the Alien really a villain? It's just lashing out at a group of hostiles that are trying to kidnap it for scientific experiments.
What counts as an "entrance" here? Shouldn't "whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stranger" be the Joker's real entrance?
I remember finding Hannibal Lecter's first scene mesmerizing, though I don't think it had the same gotcha moment as the disappearing pencil trick.
Orson Welles as Harry Lime in "The Third Man".
Orson gets another top n villain entrance in A Touch of Evil.
And Henry Fonda in Once upon a Time in the West has to be up there.
129: Muffled, masked and sinister figure removes its gloves, then it scarf, revealing a cruel slash of a mouth. As Ricardo Montalban's full face comes into view, Chekhov's terrified whisper: "Khan."
Along Armsmasher's lines, I really liked the way the tall Chicago daytime was used: it's a whole city of fear, not just a nighttime Gotham with monsters out from under the bed.
The somewhat confused ideological back-and-forth made me think that superhero movies are fascist movies made, at least in this case, by liberals. It's very much a child of the Obama-Bush transition. Terrorism is everywhere, capable of manifesting itself with ease. We have the illiberal means of defeating it--and trust us, we'll use it just this once, 'cause we're the good guys.
But yeah, that truck was awesome, and so was HL.
The somewhat confused ideological back-and-forth made me think that superhero movies are fascist movies made, at least in this case, by liberals.
You, sir, are going to be so magnificently disappointed by the Watchmen movie.
The big ape crashing thru the jungle, seen only in Fay Wray's facial expression. The Drums, DRUms, DRUMS, silence, scream helped a lot.
The big ape crashing thru the jungle, seen only in Fay Wray's facial expression. The Kevin Drum
In the picture accompanying this post on the front page, what is the tool in front of the box and why is it there?
In the picture accompanying this post on the front page, what is the tool in front of the box and why is it there?
Ballpoint pen? Couldn't tell you why.
OK, I see it as a pen. The clear part towards the ball was not obvious and it looked like it might be a screwdriver or exacto knife or something. Poor resolution on the 12" screen of my ten-year-old laptop. As a pen, I'd assume it's there for scale.
Everyone with a functioning brain is going to be so magnificently disappointed by the Watchmen movie.
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Best NetFlix recommendation ever:
Jimmy Bruno: No Nonsense Jazz Guitar
Because you enjoyed:
Nosferatu
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141: Is anyone actually expecting it to be good, though? I'm mildly curious to see how a story that dense can be adapted into a movie-length work, but I don't have any expectations of the movie being anything other than terrible.
I wish HBO had done it as a long mini-series. If they needed to axe something, trust me: none of you will miss "True Blood". At least not if the pirated pilot I saw is the one that airs. "I'm named Tara! Pretty ironic, to have a black girl named after a plantation, huh?" Apparently the dialogue is all culled from Standpipe's blog.
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Weezer is aware of all YouTube traditions.
(via C&L)
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Wow, I finally saw Dark Knight and came back to make good on my threat, but the thread didn't veer off topic. I guess everyone lives, after all.
