Tunnel : Beach Drive : Rock Creek ParkOn my way home from my parents the other day, I snapped this photo from the "safety" of my dashboard while driving.
And now, for a change of pace on Photo Friday, a review of a movie...
*****
I'm getting old.
If I'm going to spend $10.25 for a movie, I want to get something out of it.
This week, Bee, the EcoFellow, and I saw Batman: Dark Knight. Batman: Dark Bleh is more like it. Or, Batman: How Men Screw Up the World, Then Try to Fix It Only to Screw It Up More and Still Think They've Done Us All a Great Favor might be a better title.
DK had several potentially important, philosophical scenes that really could have been the meat of this movie. As it is, it was just an overinflated comic book story that went on about 45 minutes longer than it should have. Plus, the sound effects sometimes overwhelmed the dialogue and the fight scenes were just a blur of bodies. At times it was hard to tell who was where and fighting whom. This movie was a mess. Oh, and the scene with Bruce Wayne arriving at a fundraiser for D.A. Harvey Dent with three beautiful women on his arm was so gratuitously testosterone laden, it was just stupid and added little to the movie except to let you know that Batman/Bruce Wayne's human flaw is, he has a tiny dick.
In short, this is a movie--as my longer, recommended title indicates--about men who make a mess of the world, try to clean it up, and make a bigger mess in the process. It did no favors in elevating men or women to a plane higher than their stereotypes. Not that I expected it to be on scale with a movie like Match Point or Lars and the Real Girl (neither of which are fair comparisons because this is a comic book action flick), but it was so gratuitously awful and missed so many opportunities to have some deeper meaning, I can't recommend it all that highly. It's certainly worth seeing on the big screen for all the effects, but I wouldn't pay full price. See it as a matinee.
As for Heath Ledger, his performance as The Joker was very good, but I'm not 100% sure I'd call it Oscar-worthy.
Out of five stars, I'll give this a one.
Happy (Photo) Friday, friends!
Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential
10 comments:
Well, this is among my top ten reasons why I don't go to movies anymore. I don't know where in the list the price to get it is, but it's there. What used to be a fun, nice place to go for something to do belongs to the ages. It's not anymore.
I loved it, but agree that the action scenes were confusing.
I'd read the very same thing about the action scenes. Too bad -- I lived Batman Begins and I'm dying to see the Joker (he'll at least get nominated since he's dead...). Also, there's my abiding crush on Bale.
Anyway, I loved Wall-e and I just took Jasper to see Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D. I had low expectations, but it was surprisingly fun.
I LOVED Batman Begins, no lived.
Geez, almost blew my superhero/transgender cover...
Comics should stay in the comic books. I don't get everyone's facination with putting comic lines onto celluliod. It's beyond me.
The last movie I went to see was Indiana Jones, it was good, not great, no where near the first film. Shia LeBouf rocked.
Ledger will get the nod and probably the little gold statute because he's dead. Sad on all accounts. And I am apparently a cold fish this morning.
Lucy: I'm increasingly leaning in your direction--there's very little worth to be had in going to the movies. One of my biggest peeves are rude, destructive teenagers. But that's a subject for a whole other post.
Will: I think, to grasp the action scenes, I'd have to see it another three or four times.
Adriana: Batman Begins was quite good! I enjoyed that one much more than this latest iteration. Heath Ledger is worth seeing, but again I wouldn't pay full price. Wall-e is on my list of to-see, but I'm a little skeptical about Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Cele: I thought Dick Tracy was a decent adaptation of a comic book, even if it did have Warren Beatty and Madonna. But I agree, some comic books should just stay that way. I haven't seen the latest Indy film. Read too many bad reviews to risk the money. As for Heath Ledger, I think, if he was still living, he'd receive appropriate platitudes for his role as The Joker, but I doubt he'd get an Oscar nod for it. If he does get one, it will be because he died so young and tragically. What's really sad is, there are so many wonderful roles he likely would have portrayed in his career and they are lost to us by his untimely death.
Thanks for the insights. Hubby wants to see it but I may use your review to try to talk him out of it or go matinee, as you suggest.
I loved this movie. Loved it! But I also get that it's not for everyone. I thought it was really well-written, and it's hard to see any kind of action movie these days without a lot of blood and guts - so I appreciated that.
"How Men Screw Up the World, Then Try to Fix It Only to Screw It Up More and Still Think They've Done Us All a Great Favor"
Ha ha! I KNEW I wouldn't like this movie. Thanks for saving me some money and time. I've heard that so many people liked it, I was tempted to go see it. My son, in his characteristically minimalist way, summarized the movie in one word: "intense."
Lacochran: If the hubs still insists on seeing it, send him with his guy friends.
LG: I know you did! I read your review and was pleased to hear you enjoyed it. I really liked Batman Begins, but this one was too, too... just too. You are right about the lack of graphic bloodshed. That was nice. It's one of the things I like about James Bond films.
Phoebe, I presume? Glad I could save you some time, money, and brain cells. Although, that last one is a bit inaccurate. This was a smart film with a lot of intellectual potential, but it fell a bit short. As for your son, he's right. It was intense. Intensely loud and overlong! Ha!
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