“How about a magic trick?  I’m gonna make this pencil disappear…
Ta-da! It’s… gone!” — The Joker

Let’s see… how should I put this?  I loved this movie!  I have seen it twice now and both times I thought it was great.  It is really fast paced, and very intense.  This is not you’re normal happy-go-lucky Batman tale.  There is much more depth and emotion.

In fact, I thought it felt a lot more like a gangster/crime drama than a super hero movie.  So please pay attention to the movie rating.  It is PG-13, and I don’t think it is appropriate for anyone under 13.  But otherwise, it really is a good movie.  And it gives you a lot to think about as well.

And of course, Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker will go down in movie lore.  It really is good.  Every time he is on the screen you’re either laughing at his odd sense of humor, or you’re wondering why this Joker guy is so insane.  His opening introduction to the crime bosses is classic, even if it is a bit morbid.  I admit, it made me laugh out loud.

I may even go see it again sometime.  It would be good to see on the IMAX screen, so I may have to find time for that.

Rating:

I’ve had a chance to see a few movies over the last 6 weeks or so, both in the theaters and on DVD.  There’s not much else to blog about at the moment, so I thought I’d post some brief reviews.  So here we go, in order of viewing, on a 4 star scale:

Iron Man
Excellent.  I thought this one was a lot of fun, and a great way to start off the summer.  It had a lot of good action, and was funny.  Robert Downey Jr. was a perfect actor to play the part.

Get Smart
Date night movie and there wasn’t much else to see.  It was funny.  Steve Carrell could read a phone book and it would be funny.  My main two problems with it were 1) it seemed like a lot of the “spy scenarios” were only there to setup a gag.  They didn’t always seem to fit with the plot.  And 2) some of the funniest parts are in the trailer, so I had seen them already.  I hate it when that happens.

WALL-E
Pixar is perfect.  I saw this by myself in San Francisco, and again when we got back.  It really is a perfect movie.  The voice work is great and the animation is simply amazing.  If you haven’t seen it, go see it.  I put it up there with Toy Story (1 & 2), Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.  And the short film before the movie (Presto!) was hilarious.  That might be worth the admission all by itself.

Wanted
This was our date movie in San Francisco.  I just didn’t ever quite get into it.  Some of the effects are cool, but I thought the concept was a little lacking.  And especially when it was revealed who/what was giving them the targets… I just didn’t believe it.  But beware, much language and violence.

Definitely, Maybe
Cute little film.  It worked pretty well.  I admit, I didn’t have the mom figured out until just before the reveal, but once the reveal happened I knew exactly how it was going to end.  Still, it’s worth a rental.

The Bucket List
This movie had me laughing, and laughing often.  If it were anyone but Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman this movie probably wouldn’t have worked.  But with the two of them it was hilarious.  And a good moral to the story as well.  Yes, it ends sad, but that should be expected if you know what the general concept of the story is.  Defintely a good rental.

I Am Legend
Josh got this DVD months ago and I just barely sat down and watched it.  Elena couldn’t handle it.  In fact, she stopped watching it at a certain point in the movie.  And I admit, I was pretty intrigued and scared up until then as well.  But that scene seemed to be the high point, and then it was all down hill from there.  It seemed like they got to that point and went “well, this has gone on long enough, let’s end it” and in the next 20 minutes — done.  Up until that point, easily 3 stars.  But then it just lost my amazement.

Kung Fu Panda
Elena had book club so the girls and I went and saw this one.  I actually liked it a lot.  It’s the same age old story of reluctant master and bumbling student that has been told over and over again, but it worked.  And Jack Black just fit into the Panda part seamlessly.  It’s definitely worth a matinee viewing.

Last night’s episode of the Colbert Report had me laughing pretty good.  Cookies are no longer the number one snack food for children, it’s now fruit.  This is of course a disgrace to Mr. Colbert and he blames the primary culprit of the Pro-Cookie Agenda… Cookie Monster himself.  I’ve watched the video a couple of times now and it still makes me laugh.

“Me have crazy times in the 70s and 80s.  Me like the Robert Downey Jr. of cookies.” — Cookie Monster

Big day… 19 years in the making. A group of all the people that work with me at Tomax went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at the 11:00am showing today. So what did I think?

I liked it. It is no Raiders of the Lost Ark (which I can still sit down and watch at anytime), but I put it on the level of The Last Crusade. It was certainly fun to see Indy back. I admit that when he first appeared on screen I thought Harrison Ford was looking a little too old to play him. But as the movie progressed I thought it filled in nicely.

A lot has been made about the source of the relic that they are chasing. (Trying not to give away anything…) For me it was OK. I didn’t mind it, and I didn’t think they over did it. And I thought it fit with the 1957 time frame pretty well.

We took Emma to it. She got a little restless, and she did not like the part with the ants at all. (Although I thought it was great )

My Rating:

Just over 90 days until Indy returns. I’m getting really psyched, but I should probably tone it back a bit. Still not sure what to expect. Probably better to go in with average expectations. But I will admit, the new trailer looks good. Same old Indiana Jones. I’ve even ordered the teaser poster for an addition to the theater.

I took the plunge. I had DirecTV come install a new dish and receivers so that we can get high definition programming. It caused some frustration for Elena. The installation guy came last Friday morning while I was at work and Elena was home. I had left what I thought were pretty straightforward instructions, but Elena had to call me a couple of times to talk to the installation guy. I had to apologize several times.

But if I may say, the result is worth it. I watched NBA games on ESPN HD that night (unfortunately not Jazz games) and it was awesome. And then we broke it in for real in the theater on Sunday. Elena and I sat downstairs and watched episodes of Discovery Channel’s Planet Earth in HD. The picture above is from that series. High speed camera footage of a shark leaping out of the water to catch a seal. The scene is pretty cool just as it is. But in HD on the projector? Holy cow. Definitely a humbling geek moment for myself.

We’re even watching Discovery’s Dirty Jobs right now on the TV in our room and it just looks great. Crisp and clear with a high level of detail.  Now when Transformers comes on the HD pay per view I can get it!

I would like to thank Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg for allowing me to make such good use of the new theater. We bought the Transformers DVD and I watched it for the first time over the weekend. It was this scene (pic above) at about 1:49 into the movie that made me really go “wow”. It is just too cool. This scene was the start, but the last 30 minutes of the movie are just too cool. Especially for a geek like me.

And that’s only with standard (upconverted) DVD. My projector will only do 720p HD, but I am dying to find out what it would look like. But I’m not sure I’m ready to dump $200+ dollars into a HD-DVD player. I’d spend it today if the stupid Blu-ray/HD-DVD format wars weren’t going on. But it’s hard to justify the money when it will only play half of the movies I would want to see. Why can’t they all just get along?

Elena and I went to see Monty Python’s Spamalot at the Capitol Theatre last Saturday. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it did win a Tony Award and all the reviews have been great. And I have certainly seen the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail a number of times.

It was very funny. I was laughing almost the entire time. It was a bit crass at times, but then so was the movie. Certainly anyone that has seen the movie and even mildly laughed at it would enjoy this show. However, I’m not sure if it would be that great if you haven’t seen the movie. It’s just 100% silliness on stage without too much of a real plot. Certainly not your typical Broadway fare.

But there’s still nothing funnier than a large cow being thrown over a wall, or a vicious, blood-thirsty rabbit attacking an unsuspecting knight.

I took this online movie quiz. 80% isn’t bad. I thought I would get a little higher, but there were a few questions I had to just guess on. Interesting quiz. Go take it yourself.

80%The Movie Quiz

FilmCritic.com - Movie Reviews

… since the last Indiana Jones movie. I must admit that I am very excited for this next year. Even if Harrison Ford is old… he’d still kick my butt. And Indy is still Indy… just a little older. But you have to admit, he still looks like Indy, and there is this picture out there to prove it. Plus there’s a new video that has been running around the internet of everyone on the film set. Next year can’t get here soon enough.

UPDATE: Here’s a link to a news article on CNN about the current filming.