I loved Batman Begins and have been waiting (im-)patiently since for the sequel. Today, that wait was over.
I will freely admit that when I first heard that Heath Ledger was going to play the Joker, I was skeptical. I will also freely admit that I was wrong. Really, really wrong. This is not the same Joker we've seen before. He isn't Jack Nicholson being Jack Nicholson in makeup. This Joker isn't funny. He's the Joker comic fans know who is a psychopath and when he makes one of his jokes, he's the only one laughing.*
I don't want to give away too much about the movie, so I'll just make a few more points before saying a couple spoilerish things in the comments (that way spoilers won't just show up in your RSS reader).
If you are planning to see this, hit the bathroom first and go for the small soda. It's a long 152 minutes when you get the 72 ounce mega-jug.
I'm still not sure I love the character of Rachael Dawes, but Maggie Gyllenhaal does a much better job than Katie Holmes did.
Don't expect a nice tidy back-story like you got for previous versions of the Joker. Much like in the comics, his story changes depending on who he tells it to. I think I like it that.
Aaron Eckhart was perfect as the "white knight" Harvey Dent and the counter-point to Batman's Dark Knight.
I love that Nolan never really gives us an answer as to whether it's ok that Batman is a vigilante and breaks laws or whether his mere existence creates the new version of criminal like the Joker. It's a morally gray area and we have to figure it out for ourselves.
When you see the mayor of Gotham, what pops into your head: "It's (a) Batmanuel! (b) Luis or (c) Richard Alpert"?
Before the movie, the were trailers for the new Terminator movie (good trailer, not sure if I care about the movie), The Spirit (ok trailer, not sure if I care about the movie), Watchmen (great trailer, and I really want this movie to be good.)
*Unless you were in a theater like the one we were in where people were so used to the Joker being funny (funny ha ha, that is) that they laughed no matter what he said. I kept wondering if they were really aware of just how crazy the guy was. This was scary crazy, not funny crazy.
July 18, 2008
The Dark Knight
July 11, 2008
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
I managed to escape just a little early today, and we went to catch a late matinee of Hellboy II. It's no secret that I love Hellboy. I loved the first movie, loved all the comics I've been able to get a hold of, including the BRPD comics without Red. (You have great storytelling that combines pulp noir with mythology from all over the world, secret organizations, and a big red smart-alec demon with a huge right hand made of stone. What's not to like about the comics?)
Guillermo del Toro, who returns to direct his second Hellboy film, is the perfect choice to helm the series because he has an eye for the fantastic unlike any director working today. The creatures he has created for the Hellboy films (as well as those in Pan's Labyrinth) look as if they had just crawled out of a dream...or nightmare. (This is why I really look forward to seeing what he can do with The Hobbit.)
As with the first film, del Toro worked on the story with Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy. The story, this time, revolves around a prince of elves who wishes to break the truce with humans that has held for years and restart an old war, exterminating humanity once and for all. As he strikes the first blow, the BRPD is brought in to investigate. Where it goes from there, I'll allow you to see for yourself. The story itself works as more than just a way to move from one (admittedly impressive) action- or visual-heavy piece to the next and is strengthened by the fact that the characters are written to show their humanity even if they aren't really human at all.
David Hyde Pierce is hardly missed as the voice of Abe Sapien (this is no knock on DHP, he declined the offer to come back and didn't even do publicity for the first film because he thought it really was Doug Jones' role, not his.), and John Hurt's return as Prof. Bruttenholm is welcome even if it is relatively brief. Seth McFarland (of Family Guy fame) joins the cast as the newest member of the BRPD team, Johann Kraus. Really though, the movie belongs to Perlman who is again pitch-perfect as Hellboy.
The movie isn't without it's flaws, but they are ones I was willing to overlook for something as enjoyable as this was. If you liked the first one, I would certainly recommend this one as well.
July 07, 2008
WALL-E (and other movie-going things)
We went to see WALL-E last week, not long after returning from a trip to my parent's house. Before I got a chance to post about it, a thunderstorm knocked out our power and left us in the virtual dark ages sans lights, air conditioning and, most importantly, internet access.
I could tell you all about the movie and whether I liked it or not (I did), but let's face it: You can find a review of WALL-E anywhere and if you haven't seen it and don't plan to see it nothing I say will really make a difference.* What I can give you that no one else can is the remarkable story of some of the people with whom we shared a theater.
We had hurried to make sure we made it to the 11:00 showing, and by the time I bought our tickets (for the 11:30 show because I'm no dummy) and got in line at the concession stand it was around 10 after. Since we went to the movie early in the day and WALL-E was showing on three separate screens, the crowd was pretty sparse even though it was summer. There may have been 15 to 20 people in the entire theater, but that didn't bother me, I'd much rather have the place to myself than sit next to a stranger.** Most of the people were there with small children***, but our story will focus specifically on a woman who was there with (what I assume to be) her granddaughter.
They sat uneventfully through the movie, and were directly in front of us as we filed out. They tossed their trash into the waiting can rolled out by the employee who was waiting to clean the theater, and, following close behind, we did the same.
"Oh hang on," the grandmother said, digging through the trash, "I want to show them this."
She pulled out the cup for their Pepsi Freeze (a sort of slushy, partially frozen thing...kind of like a Squishee one might get at the Kwik E Mart) and proceeded over to concession stand. Needless to say, I was intrigued and fortunately since we had nothing to do but stand around while waiting for the third member of our party to extricate herself from her seat and actually leave the theater, we got to find out what was going on. It turned out that the frozen beverage had a piece of popcorn in it. "Wait," you might say, "a piece of popcorn? Inside the open cup? Like what might happen if one is eating popcorn in a dark room while holding a cup with a large opening?" And of course, that isn't at all what happened, since the people filling the cup clearly filled it about halfway, took it to the popcorn machine and dropped a piece in and then continued filling it. Fortunately, the people at the concession stand weren't nearly as judgemental as the rest of you, so they happily gave her a refill in her freshly recovered from the trash cup. As we stood, still waiting, the granddaughter came trotting back to the trash can and came away with their popcorn bucket, emptying it of the few remaining kernels.
"Did she just..."
"Oh yeah. She sent her back for the bucket."
"Are you sure she didn't just bring the bucket and dump it out.?"
"No she got it out of the trash."
"But it was in the trash."
"Yes, it was."
By the time we were finally ready to go, they were strolling out of the lobby and into the parking lot carrying a freshly refilled Freeze cup and bucket of popcorn. Which brings me to my question for all of you:
At what point does something officially become trash and become unsalvagable? Me, I think I share Jerry Seinfeld's opinion that adjacent to refuse is refuse and that eating it means you've crossed the line between man and bum, but I guess not everyone feels the same way. Obviously they didn't.
*To make it short: It was very good, just as one might expect from a Pixar movie. I wasn't sure how they'd pull off the sizable chunks of time in which it was all robots who really don't have much dialogue, but it worked quite well. It doesn't come close to being as wonderful as Ratatouille, but considering my feelings for that one, I think it's probably unfair for me to try to make that comparison. Also the short before WALL-E is probably my favorite one shown in front of any of the Pixar movies. Anyway, just go see it, you'll be glad.
**Or behind a stranger. Or in front of a stranger. Really, pretty much anywhere within a 5 seat zone of a stranger.
***Since there were actually three of us, one could argue that we also there to take a child to see it, but that would be rather impolite even if metaphorically accurate.
June 24, 2008
That's Famous Titles
As I mentioned in an earlier post, we went to Chicago recently. While we did visit family and eat at good restaurants, the reason for this visit (at least, the reason for going at this particular time) was because I was making a fool of myself trying to get on Jeopardy. Yeah, that's right, I still am holding on to that delusion.
I had mentioned previously that I had taken the online test and didn't figure it was good enough to go any further in the process. It wasn't, but after 12 months have passed, you can take the test again. I did, and this time either I did better than I realized or everyone else taking the test just sucked. (I prefer to assume the former.) I got an email back asking for me to come to an audition in person. I, of course, very quickly cleared my schedule (of nothing) and confirmed that I would be attending.
When I arrived for the audition, there were approximately twenty of us waiting for the earlier session to end. After completing our paperwork, and having our pictures taken (I did not want to have that picture taken, and yet if I got my way, I'd end up on TV...that really doesn't make sense, but I suppose I rarely do.), we went into the main room where we were introduced to the people who would be running the session. All of them were incredibly friendly and made us feel very comfortable. They briefly took us through some of the types of clues we should expect and gave us a chance to show that we knew how to answer them. Unlike when you were in school and getting someone to answer a question was next to impossible, the clue would not even be complete and an entire room full of Martin Princes were raising there hands saying, "Pick me teacher. I'm ever so smart!" Once we had this down, it was time for another test. We had all done well enough on the online test, but to narrow us down even further, there were 50 more questions and only 8 seconds to answer each one. After finishing the test, we went up in groups of three to play a very brief version of the actual game. After a few clues, they asked us questions about ourselves to see how we handled them and to see if we were so boring that people would fall asleep or change the channel if we make it to the show.
So, how did I do? Well, I think I did ok on the test and while playing, but let's face it if you're here reading this, you are pretty well aware that I'm a fairly boring individual and I don't have much I can say about myself that would be worth talking about on TV (which brings up a question: if you're aware of how boring I am, why are you still reading this?). Unfortunately, it doesn't matter how I feel I did because I don't get to make the decisions. At the moment, I know nothing and get to wait for 18 months to find out if I did well enough to be on the show or if I should just try the test again. I guess in the end it turns out that auditioning for Jeopardy is a lot like dating: There's a lot of waiting for the phone to ring, a lot of hoping that someone else thinks you are good enough, it's going to include a little humiliation and it's probably going to end in disappointment.
June 19, 2008
We'll Get Wild, Wild, Wild
June 18, 2008
Topolobampo
We went to Chicago last weekend (more on the why later), and while we were there we went to eat at Topolobampo (one of the restaurants owned by Rick Bayless the host of Mexico: One Plate at a Time). We had eaten at Frontera a few years ago, but this was our first visit to the more "upscale" Topolobampo. The atmosphere, service and food were wonderful.
Here's a quick rundown of what we had. (Descriptions lifted from the online menu at the restaurant website and slightly blurry pictures taken in low light with a cameraphone.)
I started out with the Sopa Azteca (not pictured, because we didn't think to start taking pictures until our entrees arrived.): dark broth flavored with pasilla, with grilled chicken, avocado, Meadow Valley Farm hand-made Jack cheese, thick cream and crisp tortilla strips.
I can say without hyperbole that it was one of the best if not the best soup I have ever had.
I ordered the Puerco Pibil: achiote-marinated Maple Creek Farm pork two ways: grill-roasted loin and slow-cooked shoulder in banana leaves. Guero chile rajas, black barley, habanero-dressed "shoots" salad, pickled red onions.
while Melissa had the Langosta al Mojo de Ajo: pan-roasted Maine lobster with red chile mojo de ajo (olive oil-poached garlic). Giant butter beans, roasted fresh favas and "ancho crunch."
For dessert I can't simply steal the names and descriptions of what we had from the website because the dessert menu isn't online, so you're stuck with what I remember (which is certainly not the names since they were in Spanish).
My dessert was a chocolate-almond cake with caramel/cashew ice cream and Melissa's was a rhubarb tartlet with coconut ice cream.
When we left, we did see Rick Bayless in the restaurant talking with some friends, but decided not to get the cameraphone out to take an intrusive picture. We had a good time and enjoyed the food, and I personally really look forward to going to Frontera or Topolobampo again.
June 16, 2008
That's Infotainment!
Picture it: Sicily, 19...Wait. Sorry, I was reading from the wrong script.† Ok, let's try again.
