Category: Review

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Review: Batman Dark Knight (Spoilers)

Some background first…… I think I saw the original Batman on TV at some point, but currently own and saw in the theatre, Batman Begins. It is one of my favorite movies. Batman fans will probably agree that I was foolish to buy the original 4 movies having really enjoyed Batman Begins. I tend to like more believable movies and not really into cartoons or animation.

After seeing Indiana Jones at a sold out Saturday showing at the AMC Uptown in Cleveland Park, I knew that Batman, if it came to the Uptown, being a single screen theatre decisions by management are necessary, would be another one to see on the huge screen. In fact, the IMAX theatre at the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA is and has been sold out since opening with only 11 PM showings available this week. There is a sold out showing at 5:30 PM on Sunday! Perhaps that is because tickets are only $12.50, or that the 5 story movie screen is a little bigger than the screen at the local Regal Cinema.

Oh, but best part about the Uptown…..people are actually courteous? WOW, no cell phone conversations or rude patrons talking throughout the show. I was totally amazed and happy. The Uptown is definitely the movie theatre to go to!

Here come the spoilers……

Apparently Wayne mansion is not completed yet and Wayne tower seems to have a new look. Gotham has been cleaned up with no graffiti to be found. The new base for Batman is lacking bats, but the new toys are cool. The coolest was probably a cell phone sonar device which allows them to listen in on calls and actually see through walls to locate people.

Most of the main characters exist in the movie with their original actors and actresses. I thought that Rachael Dawes had packed on a few pounds in her face, but it was actually a different actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal instead of Katie Holmes. Heath Ledger did a great job as the Joker. I have seen him in a few movies, and he is an amazing actor. I had no idea he had a dark side to him. Jack Nicholson on the other hand, I could see as the Joker. He definitely as a mean streak as I saw in A Few Good Men.

I was a little surprised to see that Rachael had a boyfriend and was not holding out for Bruce. She probably thought that Bruce would always be needed as Batman and that would keep them apart. Hmm…sounds like Spiderman, Superman. Why cannot people be superheros and have wives? LOL.

When it came down to splitting up and saving Rachael and the new Commissioner, I was a little shocked that Batman chose to save the Commissioner. This was probably because the Commissioner was the good guy that Gotham needed to replace Batman so that Bruce could live a normal life and get the girl 🙂 I am glad that Alfred burned up the note which was to be given to Bruce that she had decided to stay with the Commissioner and was hurtful by stating that Bruce would always need Batman. Ouch. I think that was just way to say that she liked Aaron Eckhart more than Christian Bale.

Amazing CGI

Did I mention that the CGI was amazing?! Unlike the Mummy where the “being’ is regenerating as he is eating up those who woke him which I actually could stomach to look at, the CGI on Two Face was almost sickening! Getting his face half burned while being rescued by Batman while Rachael dies in the other building, he refused skin grafts and basically you see his eyeball and teeth and inside his closed mouth. The liquid spilling out. I am glad that was brief!

The Sequel

Just when you think Batman is ready to hang up the towel, by burning any and all evidence in the wall furnace…hmm..a little odd to have one of those in there along with all the modern technology I would have suspected a quadruple pass diamond cut shredder or some kind of particle demoleculizer since charred paper is still readable. Guess the effect would not be the same.

With the Batmobile destroyed…what will be next? Perhaps a flying vehicle? For now the motorcycle should suffice, but seems to be a little more dangerous and less armored than his previous mode of transport.

With Two Face dead, I was half suspecting him to be the villain in the next movie, and the Joker potentially in custody, what is next? Hmm…guess we will just have to wait for a copy of the script to leak out.

Impression

While I do think that Batman Begins is still my favorite of the 2, this movie was excellent. I did think the movie was over before it was which means my ADHD attention span was exhausted, but Titanic still has me for that. Checking my watch every few minutes to see if it was over yet! At 2.5 hours, it was long, but was very engaging the entire time and did not give me a chance to get that beverage refill or go to the boys room for fear I would miss an integral part in the movie.

Waiting inline for 2 hours in front of the smelly dumpster was worth it. After the first few breezes past the dumpster, either the smell went away, or my nose got used to it. I am hoping it was the first. Mind you, my nose is usually plugged from allergies, so my ability to smell the dumpster meant it was really a BAD smell.

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Review Wall-e (Spoilers)

I caught a matinee at the Regal in Potomac Yard today at 3:30. At that theatre, all movies before 6 PM are matinees unlike Gallery Place where I think it is 11 AM! There is only one showing of a movie as a matinee there.

My partner came with me though he said he already saw the first 2. I was thinking to myself…there were 2 more before this? He was referring to Short Circuit and Johnny 5. There is a strange resemblance, check out this wheels and face with the strange “eyebrows.” While the movie seemed to be for all ages, makes the older crowd laugh more with the sounds and sights from recent technology. For example, when Wall-e is fully charged from his solar panels, Macintosh users will recognize the “gong” sound when a Mac is booted. You will also see an iPod which helps play old movies from beta tape. Zippos make an appearance and Wall-e disposes a diamond ring and keeps the fuzzy case for his collection along with rubber duckie and bobble head dog.

Movie buffs with notice a score from Indiana Jones….From the Raiders of the Lost Ark I believe.  2001: The Space Odyssey is alluded to as well.  Check out the Robot that is assisting the captain.  Notice the red light?

Finally, lights on the floor direct robots all over.  Perhaps this should be an improvement in the next generation Roomba.  Seriously, it reminded me of a robot kit I assembled as a kid which followed a pen mark on paper.  I thought it was pretty cool, and in this case, ensured safe operation of vehicles kind of like how air traffic controllers or a metro control center steers planes and trains.  On a few occasions a “MOP” robot, charged with cleaning, hopped off the “track” following the contamination left by Wall-e as he rolled around the ship.

Lessons to learn from the movie

  • Recycle!  Earth is vacated due to the over abundance of trash from shopping at a store such as Costco or BJs.  Wall-e is meant to clean up the Earth while the humans are away by compacting and stacking, much like the Egyptians stacked blocks to make the pyramids, in the shape of skyscrapers.
  • Get off your butt!  On the 5 year temporary home for the human which turned into 700 years, everyone relies on the robots and just sits, eats, and rides around on hover crafts and have evolved to not be able to walk or have a neck!
  • Meet friends for dinner.  Until they were disrupted, the auto piloted hover crafts with a heads up video display complete transfixed the rider.  No one socialized and there was no personal contact.  Hmm…without interaction with others, there would not be “nocturnal activities” and the population would cease to exist!  So get out from behind the computer, pick up a phone or meet friends for dinner.
  • Cockroaches will outlive every species on the planet.  There was only one plant that survived, but cockroaches abound!  Not surprising since the planet was covered with garbage.  We all know that cockroaches have been on this planet for a very long time, reproduce quickly, and can survive without food for a month.  Oh..twice in the movie the cockroach gets run over…and twice, even though is squished, it got up and scurried off. Yuck!

Verdict?

Go check out the movie.  This is one I am going to pick up as soon as it comes out on DVD.  Too bad it is Disney and that HD-DVD did not make it.  I will have to get the standard definition for now.

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Movie Review: “Wanted” (Spoilers)

So this time, in an attempt to find a theatre where patrons understand the term “courteous,”  we travelled to Silver Spring, MD by hopping on the Metro Rail.  I was not aware of the acquisition of “Consolidated Theatres” by Regal Entertainment Group so this is another theatre to use the $7.50 movie tickets from Costco 🙂  Silver Spring is definitely up and coming and very busy tonight.  After dinner at the Austin Grill, which had a surprising Tex Mex menu, we caught the 7:25 showing of “Wanted.”  The previews got me interested.  Any spy like movie with Angelina and Morgan is definitely worth watching.  I have yet to see a bad movie starring either actor.  

I have to admit the beginning 30 min or so seemed to go on for a long time.  This was when the main character was introduced and his situation explained.  This movie seemed to be directed in a similar manner as “Batman Begins” and “Spiderman,” some of my favorite movies.  

To begin, this is not a movie for young children or those who are very sensitive to “swear words.”  The “f-bomb” is dropped a number of times.  The opening scenes reminded me of the classic “Office Space” complete with a miniature red stapler.  A guy stuck in a dead end job in a cubicle with an annoying nagging boss.  After a few run-ins with the “Fraternity” he grows some cojones by telling his boss off and breaking half of his ergonomic keyboard on his coworker’s face.  His coworker has been cheating on him with his girlfriend for quite some time, even leaving his wallet in the apartment!  Once that happens, he realizes his life is going to change and starts the training to become a member of the “Fraternity” of assassins.  

Morgan freeman is the head of the fraternity which gets kill orders from a 1000 year old loom which spells out the individuals to be killed in binary code.  The flaws in the weave reveal the the code.  No one questions the loom and the code dictates the swift assassination of those selected in order to save lives.  

The stunts in the movie are incredible.  A very strange twist is a recovery room.  This room seems to have multiple wax baths which speed recovery of wounds.  The main character wakes up disoriented unable to move.  

The main motivation for the joining of the fraternity is the main characters father who was said to have been killed.  He did not know his father.  He is trained and sent to kill his fathers’ assassin.  Hanging from a derailed train over a ravine, he does shoot his target who oddly enough catches him just a few minutes before preventing his fall.  As he is dying, he reveals that he is truly the father.  A friend of his father connects the dots for him and it turns out that he is on the wrong side and the loom actually has revealed that all of the current assassins in the fraternity are slated to be assassinated!  

Standing in a room looking for the leader, he becomes surrounded by a group of assassins and leader orders him to be killed.  After explaining what he has found, and a rebuttal by the leader that if it weren’t for him, they all would have been killed and he is now choosing who is to be assassinated.  One of the assassins decides to forego “the code”, but before he shoots, Angelina bends a bullet which ends up killing all of the assassins as it travels around finally striking her in the head upholding the code.

Morgan escapes, but in the end, goes on a hunt to kill the rogue assassin….but, in the same way his supposed dad was killed, Morgan is killed!  

So now that I have spoiled the movie, go see it!  It is a great one!

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Review: Mario Cart for Wii

I must begin by telling you all that I am NOT a video game person.  As a kid my brother and I played with an Atari, original Nintendo Gameboy, original Sega Genesis and tray loading Sega CD.  Recently I purchased a Sony PS2 and Nintendo Wii.

My brother definitely was more into the Gameboy and Sega than I for the most part.  I do recall enjoying “Night Trap” for Sega CD.  I had the version that was recalled due to the violent nature of sucking blood from the victims when you failed to trap the intruders.  I typed up a list on our IBM portable “Sewing Machine” personal computer with the keyboard screen cover and dual 5.25″ floppy drives and printed it out on our dot matrix tractor paper Epson printer. WOW…that was a long time ago!  

I purchased the Play Station 2 just to play Dance Dance Revolution.  I don’t recall ever using the controllers and used the full size dance pads and the eye toy camera.  I could never get the camera to work with the DDR, but the Anti Grav game was really cool with the camera. It identified your face and hands and was the way you controlled your floating hover board.  As you can see, I was more into the games that did not use the standard thumb numbing controllers.  So..when the Wii came out, it is no wonder that I picked one up as soon as I was able to.

The initial games were great.  I remember getting sweaty with the boxing game and really enjoying bowling.  I moved to a new apartment in Sept of 2007 and until 2 days ago, did not pick up the Wii.  Mario Cart is the number one selling game for the Nintendo Game Cube which is why I considered buying it.  The fact that it came with a steering wheel and actually felt like driving as opposed to arrow keys on a standard controller, sold me.  So on Monday I headed to Costco to get a few things and stopped at Best Buy to see if they had the game in stock as most online retailers were sold out and was fortunate enough to get a copy.  So I turn on my HD projector, lower my 80″ screen and race the mythical worlds of Nintendo!  

Next….Indiana Jones, the lego version.  I am going to rent this one before I take the $50 plunge.  Until next time, have a great summer!

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