LATE KNIGHT

wanna see a magic trick?

you complete me

The Dark Knight ***** I joined the massive throng at the midnight showing of Christopher Nolan’s Batman sequel and two and half hours later I emerged into the early morning having seen the greatest superhero movie to date. It’s so layered and dense and well- written, and brilliantly performed, it doesn’t even register as “comic book film” in any way; it’s just a great film.

Heath Ledger’s Joker is a performance for the ages, and joins the short list of unforgettable film villains. Bale, Eckhart, Oldman, Caine, Freeman, Gyllenhaal, all create believable characters in a believable Gotham, and the ethical questions posed have no easy answers.

This, the darkest of the Batman films, is the truest to the character and his world. This is the best film I’ve seen in 2008 by far.

is that your cell phone?

The Ruins *** If you have Botanophobia, I don’t recommend watching this horror flick, produced by Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Films, about a group of vacationing graduates who are quarantined atop a pyramid entangled in a killer vine. It sounds ridiculous, but the film is directed well, and the performers do a good job of getting the audience to believe their predicament. There is gore galore, but it’s not the traditional horror slice and dice, but gore begat of necessity. I was impressed with the one location storyline based on the bestselling novel by Scott Smith.