films n shit

[sporkles]

I don't really get what you expect from a Batman movie. A brooding billionaire who dresses up as a bat to combat crime...
There are certain roles that were made for actors with a maximum of three discrete emotions in their register:
And I think Heath Ledger has gotten a lot more credit for his Joker part than he actually deserved. Yes, he does it infinitely
better than Jack Nicholson, but the Joker character is so OTT that I think the comparison with Batman is completely unfair.
Heath Ledger was by far a better actor than Christian Bale, but all it takes is an actual register to play on (which rules
out people like said Christian Bale and Keanu Reeves). Even Tom Cruise could have pulled off the Joker. Jodie Foster could
have pulled off the Joker.

Yeah, Heath Ledger locked himself in a hotel room for months to "get in character". Right - that's what legends are made of.

I enjoy the Dark Knight flicks for what they are. I loved Inception; gave me a little bit of the same feeling I had back in
'99, when I first saw The Matrix. But you know what they say: there are people who like Inception, and there are people
who'd rather watch Mel Gibson talk to a beaver.

I'm rambling now, but since we're on the DiCaprio tip: Shutter Island: miserable disappointment. Finally watched it last
week, and it's so utterly predictable. Boooring.

Best film I've seen in quite a while: Castaway on the Moon. Cuuuuuute!

[Machinesworking]

And I think Heath Ledger has gotten a lot more credit for his Joker part than he actually deserved. Yes, he does it infinitely
better than Jack Nicholson, but the Joker character is so OTT that I think the comparison with Batman is completely unfair.
Heath Ledger was by far a better actor than Christian Bale, but all it takes is an actual register to play on (which rules
out people like said Christian Bale and Keanu Reeves). Even Tom Cruise could have pulled off the Joker. Jodie Foster could
have pulled off the Joker.

Don't care that he died, never saw any other movie that Ledger was in, but he nailed the role. There are about ten different reasons for this, the main one is the vocal inflection, the way his voice goes all over the place from calm to high and clown like, to dark and creepy, to sarcastic philosopher etc.
The delivery, the way he paced the lines, and the body language. The tongue always licking the sides of his mouth where the scares are in this nervous habit, just a lot of little tricks he used to ad to the role.
Seriously, the movie besides his role was kinda weak Christian Bale is a joke, absolutely awful in it, but Ledger owns the role, as much as De Niro owned Taxi Driver, or Anthony Hopkins owned Silence of the Lambs. Plus, at the point that Nicholson did the Joker, he wasn't fully a washed up actor. He had at least three movies under his belt where he did really well, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, The Shinning etc, but he sucked as the Joker, always thought it was a pathetic performance. Bale did a great job of portraying a serial killer in American Psycho, there's no reason for him to suck so badly as the Batman, but he does. With all that in mind can you truthfully say that it's a shoe in to play a bad guy or cartoon hero well? I don't think so.

Take a look at youtube and rewatch the interrogation scene and tell me anybody could have pulled that off as well as Ledger did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPuToZT0vfY

Look up the hospital scene, or the scene at the party, all just freaking great acting by any measure IMO. I'm pretty much a movie nerd about acting and plot, so I didn't see this movie when it came out, didn't want to waste money on it. When my roommates brought it home I was pleasantly surprised when the Joker was done really well.

[djsynchro]

Forget all that cheesy Hollywood crap
ENTER THE VOID

[djsynchro]

Did you know that for the theatrical release "Basic Instinct" was 1 sec shorter in the USA than in Europe? Yes the bit where she crosses her legs.

[sporkles]

Surely you jest?

I still think that the Joker part is much easier to pull off than that of Batman, because you can go completely overboard -
people will buy it, because he is mad. "Who does a thing like that?" "A MADMAN, that's who!" "Oh! Stellar performance!"

[LoopStationZebra]

Christian Bale can pull off some amazing performances. That's what's so friggin bizarre about the Batman role. He's utterly LIFELESS.

If you've not seen The Machinist, it's one of the finest performances you are likely to see. His turn as Dieter Dengler in Herzog's Rescue Dawn is fucking amazing as well. Holy Shit. It's like a different actor.

[LoopStationZebra]

And Burton's Batman movies are 1000x better; including Nicholson's performance - which I disagree with you chaps about. It was note perfect when situated within that universe that Burton created. Which, Thank God, left most of the overwrought soul searching behind. Should I be Batman? Am I causing more harm than good? Should I reveal me secret identity? Did I cause Harvey Dent to go over the deep end? Should I match the shoes with the belt? Waaaaa. Waaaaaaaa. lol.

The Batman of the comics is a dude that struggles with this enormous dark side that's always threatening to take over. He's never questioning whether or not he's causing more harm than good, or whether he's making a difference. He's main dilemma is, well, pretty much that he wants to fucking KILL the criminals instead of just roughing them up a bit. It's why Superman is always on his case: Batman is always going too far and skirting the rules. Too much like the criminals. His methods are always threatening to destroy him. To me, that's potent stuff and far more interesting than the crybaby bullshit from Nolan's films. In this last film, Batman decides to go along with Gordon and 'become' the criminal due to circumstances. omfg. I almost puked in the theater. Jesus, can you fuck up the Batman story any further? It should have played out like this, just like in the comics:

Batman's methods are just as bad as the Jokers - potentially worse - so, um, he actually IS a fucking criminal.

Why Nolan decided to make him a fucking crybaby sissy is just beyond me. If he'd gone the route above, you would have had a far more interesting point/counter-point going on between Batman and Joker. Nolan only barely touches on any of this by giving Heath Ledger a few cursory lines like "You're just like me" or something but, honestly, by that point Batman's balls have shrunk to the size of raisins and it's totally unbelievable. We know, based on the past 120min of film we've just watched, that the Joker is the evil/insane one and Batman is prolly wearing women's underwear.

[LoopStationZebra]

One more thang - whilst I'm on a roll.

Another aspect of this movie that was fucking ridiculous was how fucking dumb Batman was....

The Joker is constantly leading him around by the nose like a fucking 10 year old. It was nauseating. NAUSEATING.

Bruce Wayne is a FUCKING GENIUS. F.U.C.K.I.N.G. G.E.N.I.U.S.

Again, the comics play this up perfectly. It's always nearly an even match between the Batman and Joker. The only reason that the Joker loses each time is because he's only slightly more fucking insane than Bruce Wayne.

THAT, citizens, is powerful shit.

Batman/Bruce Wayne getting his ass kicked for 120+ mins because he's borderline retarded is pathetic.

[steko]

For strange reality bending, Dark City FTW.

A masterpiece.
...

Yep, is awesome!

[dhilsabeck]

Ledger owns the role, as much...Anthony Hopkins owned Silence of the Lambs

Don't really know what to say to this one. , I suppose.

But I guess there is some sort of connection to the point that I would like about Christian Bale. Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter was very likable and yet he was the villain (possibly one of the greatest villains ever ). Bale failed at Batman because he is, in my opinion, far from a likable person, which is kind of a prerequisite for the hero. I feel he also failed at Batman because the Nolan versions are shite.

It's like Tom Cruise. He sucks in everything where he tries to be anything other than an asshole. When he acts like an asshole it's very natural which is why Magnolia is his greatest performance ever.

[dhilsabeck]

Bruce Wayne is a FUCKING GENIUS. F.U.C.K.I.N.G. G.E.N.I.U.S.

Yeah, I could see Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne getting into souping up the Batmobile and synthesizing his own secret polymers for the Bat Cape. I do not envision Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne doing this.

[dhilsabeck]

[djsynchro]

..+..
===
..

[Machinesworking]

One more thang - whilst I'm on a roll.

Another aspect of this movie that was fucking ridiculous was how fucking dumb Batman was....

The Joker is constantly leading him around by the nose like a fucking 10 year old. It was nauseating. NAUSEATING.

Bruce Wayne is a FUCKING GENIUS. F.U.C.K.I.N.G. G.E.N.I.U.S.

Again, the comics play this up perfectly. It's always nearly an even match between the Batman and Joker. The only reason that the Joker loses each time is because he's only slightly more fucking insane than Bruce Wayne.

THAT, citizens, is powerful shit.

Batman/Bruce Wayne getting his ass kicked for 120+ mins because he's borderline retarded is pathetic.

Totally disagree on this one. The one thing I liked about the movie besides the Joker was that the simple reality is if there's an even match in a battle, the person least concerned with anybody else, or even his own survival has the advantage. Batman wasn't played as stupid as much as dealing with a villain that while being relatively organized is winging it and has no decipherable motives. You do end up in some weird way liking the Joker a little more than Batman because of this, because he doesn't really care what happens, and thinks it's all a game.

Beyond that, Burtons Batman movies sucked, the only redeeming factor was set design. Plot, and acting? wooden all the way through, just like most of Burtons movies.
Hated Nicholson as the Joker, no bite, and worst of all he played such a similar role to other movies he's done that I couldn't buy his character at all, it was just some famous Hollywood star making money to me, and that's the worst sin of all, when you're so infatuated with yourself that you kill any chances of people forgetting that you're a famous actor. The screenplay was worse, there are about a million great lines in the Dark Knight compared to Burtons Batman, but in the end they're cartoon movies and it's not that big of a deal. Burton is an overrated hack though, Nolan is overrated sure, but not as much as that poncey old goth.

I'll check out the Machinist. My roommates loved it as well.

[Machinesworking]

BTW for a fun movie, Suck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S94xng8QUO4