The Dark Knight

Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, Davis S. Goyer, Bob Kane (Characters)
Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman

Tayster's Six Pack Rating:




I saw this movie twice on Friday. I went with a bunch of my friends at midnight and then I took the day off work and saw it with my wife later that day. When I returned from the midnight showing, I happened to cath my wife just as she was getting back into bed from feeding our baby. She asked, "How was it?" I said, "Don't believe the hype. The hype doesn't even do that movie justice."

With the exception of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, I haven't had expectations this high for any movie. I'm happy to report that The Dark Knight not only met those expectations, it blew them completely out of the water. When the credits started rolling at the midnight show, I turned to my friend, Trav, and said, "Chris Nolan did it again."

Most people are talking about Heath Ledger as the Joker...with good reason...but the rest of the cast were equally incredible. Before I get into the rest, let's talk about Heath for a minute.

It's unfair to compare Heath's Joker to any other Joker before it. People like Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson - and even Mark Hamill in the animated series - all played brilliant Jokers, but they are more along the lines of a whack job guy that dresses as a clown and does bad things for a living.

Heath's Joker is a whack job clown also, but you laugh at him more in a nervous way. (His "magic trick" is a good indication of what I'm talking about. You had to laugh at that, but at the same time, it was terrifying.)

Heath is that believable. There are very few actors that can lose themselves in a character the way Heath did. In fact, I don't think I ever thought to myself, "That Heath Ledger is amazing" while watching this movie. I just kept thinking, "That Joker is amazing."

As I said, most of the hype of this movie is Heath, but Aaron Eckhart is just as good as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. The difference is, Harvey is not an anarchist clown, so he's not going to steal the show. (Ditto on Gary Oldman. The guy is wonderful as James Gordon.)

The Good...
Pretty much everything from the cinematography, acting, story, costumes, music, special effects, etc.

The Bad...
I'm still not convinced that Rachel Dawes needed to be in this movie - although I know why she was - but I thought Maggie was a great replacement over Katie Holmes. (NOTE: I didn't really hate Katie, just her character. I did think Katie seemed miscast in that role, but I didn't hate her like the rest of the world did.) I also had a problem with Bale's Batman voice this time. He seemed to be trying to hard or something.

The Ugly...
There's nothing to report here.

Final thoughts...
I could watch this movie another 14 times in the theater if, for nothing else, to watch the scene where the Joker first talks about how he got the scars on his face. The scene is heart-wrenching and Heath is simply terrifying in it.

In fact, I think I should give this movie a twelve-pack of Dr. Pepper.

Yes, it's really that good.

p.s. This movie is rated PG-13, which means that you probably shouldn't take any kids under the age of 13 to see it. This is not your happy Adam West dancing with Burt Ward while words like "POW" flash on the screen. This movie really is "dark."

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: George Lucas, Jeff Nathanson, David Koepp
Cast: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf


Tayster's Six Pack Rating:




Raiders of the Lost Ark was, to me, one of the greatest movies ever made. There are a few special effects that look cheesy by today's standards, but overall, the movie is amazing.

I have probably watched Raiders nearly 100 times. There are only a handful of movies that I have seen more than that. (Star Wars IV, Batman, The 'burbs)

Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom was not one of my favorites. In fact, I have only seen it four times. (In the theater, on video, in the theater as a trilogy and on DVD.)

Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade brought me back to the Indy world in a huge fashion and I have probably watched it 40-50 times.

Having said all that, I can't say that I'm planning on ever watching Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull again.



Don't get me wrong, there are some terrific things in this movie. I mean, just seeing Indy with his whip and hearing the John Williams theme is almost worth the price of the ticket, but there is so much about this movie that I just plain disliked.

The Good...
The first part of the movie really felt like an Indy film. It just had this old-style filming to it. Even the fear I had of Indiana Jones being older now than his father (Sean Connery) was in Last Crusade was completely forgotten when I saw him in his hat and heard the theme playing. It was like Harrison Ford was just wearing makeup to look older because he sure didn't act like he was 66-years-old.

Like I said earlier, just to see Indy and hear the awesome music of John Williams is worth the price of a ticket.

The Bad...
The biggest problem for me was the CGI. I understand that it's a lot more cost effective to make explosions and sets and even characters on a computer. And with movies like Star Wars or X-Men or even King Kong, it can help things out. But it just doesn't work in a movie like this.

See, Raiders has a feeling of a 1950's-type adventure. Like my friend Trav said, "That movie was made by people at the top of their game." The stunts were done by real stunt men, the sets were real sets.

KOTCS doesn't have that feeling. It feels more like an episode of the "X-Files", except Fox & Mulder were too busy chasing a ghost that week so they brought in a very special guest, Indiana Jones, to find the meaning of the skull.

I mean, I can suspend all belief when I watch a movie. When John McClane is on the back of a jet in Die Hard 4, it's cheesy, but I can overlook it because I enjoyed the rest of the movie. With this one, I started getting annoyed by little things (Marcus Brody's statue, vine swinging, sword fighting, multiple waterfalls) that by the time the big Señor Spielbergo moment happens, I was just looking at my watch wondering if it was almost over. (For those of you that don't watch "The Simpsons", Señor Spielbergo is the "non-union Mexican equivalent" of Steven Spielberg.)

The Ugly...

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***

The revival of Marion Ravenwood is a great concept, but after a few minutes, I wanted to poke a pen in my ear so I didn't have to hear Indiana Jones calling someone "honey" and actually meaning it as something more than deragotory.

Also, there are just too many people with Indy all the time. Even with Marion in Raiders or Short Round and Mrs. Spielberg in Temple of Doom and Connery in Last Crusade, there was plenty of time when Indiana Jones was on screen by himself and eventually saving the world on his own. There's really none of that here. It's almost like the Scooby Doo gang all came to solve the mystery of the crystal skull.

Before you take my word for it, remember that it is currently sitting at 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, which means that most of the critics love this movie and out of my friends who saw the movie last night, most of them enjoyed it.

I guess I just expected a better story after 19 years of waiting.

Iron Man

Director: Jon Favreau
Writers: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway
Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Faran Tahir

Tayster's Six Pack Rating:



Let's get this out of the way. I knew two things about the Iron Man comic before I saw this movie:

1) His real name is Tony Stark
2) He's a billionaire playboy (Sounds kind of like a DC Comics superhero I know a bit about)

I mean, I had friends that read the comic so I knew what he looked like inside and outside of the suit, but I knew nothing about the background of Iron Man.

Having said that, when I saw the first picture of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark I thought it was a perfect casting choice. Some of you Iron Man fans may disagree, but if you saw this movie and thought that Downey was a poor choice, you're an idiot.

The guy was freakin' amazing!

There's a lot of people out there that are claiming that this is their all-time favorite Superhero movie. I don't know if I would go that far. I don't even know if I would put it as my top Marvel Comics film spot (that spot belongs to X2), but Iron Man is so much fun, you can't help but smile when you leave the theater.

The cast - from Downey, Jr. all the way to the voice of Paul Bettany - is excellent. Even Gwyneth, who usually drives me nuts, was really good in this movie.

The only reason I didn't give this movie a full Six Pack is because I knew who the "bad guy" was the first time I saw him. (And remember, I didn't know anything of the story prior to sitting my butt in the seat on Saturday night.)

But overall, I enjoyed myself for the first of what I hope to be a long string of great movies this summer. (Prince Caspian is next.)

Oh yeah, make sure you stick around through the credits. (You should do that anyway, you ungrateful movie goers.) There's a nice little scene at the very end that you may want to see.

Ratatouille

Director: Brad Bird
Writers: Brad Bird, Jim Capobianco, Emily Cook, Kathy Greenberg & Jan Pinkava
Cast: Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Janeane Garofalo, Peter O'Toole, Brian Dennehy

Tayster's Six Pack Rating:

There's a rat in mi kitchen what am I gonna do?
There's a rat in mi kitchen what am I gonna do?
I'm gonna fix that rat, that's what I'm gonna do
I'm gonna fix that rat.

Sorry, I have UB40 stuck in my head.

You know, I wish the rest of Hollywood would take some notes from Pixar.

In most people's minds, rats are horrible creatures. Yet, somehow, Pixar was able to take a rat and give him more depth than almost any other character that is currently on the big screen.

And Pixar does this in every movie they do. Just replace "rat" with "monster" or "toy" or "car" or "fish" or "bug".

I saw Ratatouille on the 4th of July with my wife. We planned on taking our two girls with us. That morning we asked our second oldest if she wanted to go to the movie or go to her aunt's house with her little brother. She informed us that she wanted to go to the aunt's house.

On the way there, our oldest daughter informed us that she would rather stay with the aunt also.

As we were on the way to the theater, my wife asked if I would rather see something else since we were going to be childless. I told her that I really wanted to see Ratatouille, so our plans were not changed.

It's amazing to me how Pixar can make me start to believe that I'm not watching an animated film. You see, when I watch something like The Little Mermaid, the entire time you know you're watching an animated film. Don't get me wrong, that's a good thing. There's nothing better than a really great animated film.

Pixar, however, makes it so realistic that you're watching the movie and you have to stop and remind yourself that the rats aren't really talking. (I have to do this every time I watch Toy Story. I have to remind myself that the toys don't actually talk and move around.)

The animation is beyond stunning - even down to the streaks in Collette's hair.

Once again, Pixar proves that not only are they the best animated movie company out there, they are one of the best - if not the best - movie company out there.

p.s. As an added bonus, you get to see the Academy Award nominated Pixar short, Lifted.

Back to the Future

Director: Robert Zemekis
Writers: Robert Zemekis & Bob Gale
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christoper Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson



Tayster's Six Pack Rating:






Back To The Future (BTTF) is one of my favorite movies of all-time. I admit, it may have to do with the fact that I grew up in the 80's and this movie epidomizes the 80's: skateboards, Deloreans, Michael J. Fox, the casual use of '1985', etc. It may have to do with the fact that I thought 'George McFly' was one of the greatest characters in history. Maybe it's just that I had a crush on Lea Thompson. For these reasons and more, I loved the entire BTTF Trilogy.

Besides Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, the rest of the cast (Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson, etc.) were all great. I try to watch this entire trilogy at least once every six months, and I just enjoy all three movies thoroughly.

Yes, even Part II.

P.S. While you're watching Part II, watch closely in the part where Marty goes into the 80's cafe and plays the video game. One of the kids is Elijah 'Frodo' Wood.

Beverly Hills Cop

Director: Martin Brest
Writers: Danilo Bach & Daniel Petrie, Jr.
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton

Tayster's Six Pack Rating:










I admit, I haven't seen this film for a few years now, but I remember seeing it the last time and thinking, "This is as funny now as it was in 1984!"

I have always thought Eddie Murphy was one of the funniest people in Hollywood. From his days on S.N.L. to his comedy albums that I had to listen to with headphones, so my mom wouldn't get mad at me for listening to such filth. And then came his movies: 48 Hours, Trading Places. I thought Eddie was fabulous. When I saw Beverly Hills Cop, I knew right then that his career could only down from there.

Don't get me wrong, he's done some funny stuff since then, but none of it comes close to Axel Foley in this movie. Not even the sequels came close...then again, very few sequels ever do.

Still, I'd have to say one of my favorite parts of this movie deals with Axel meeting Serge (Bronson Pinchot) for the first time. I laugh just thinking about it.

Do yourself a favor. Watch this movie. It is extremely funny and sure to please.

Oh, and by the way, remember that the Eddie Murphy in this movie is the pre-Nutty Professor/Dr. Dolittle/Shrek Eddie Murphy. This is not a show for your kids!

Grease

Director: Randall Kleiser
Writers: Jim Jacobs, Warren Casey, Allan Carr, Bronte Woodard
Cast: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway

Tayster's Six Pack Rating:






Okay, if you've never seen Grease, you really have to ask yourself, "Why am I surfing on a movie database when I obviously don't watch movies?" Grease is one of those movies, like Wizard of Oz, Sound of Music and Star Wars that everyone should have to watch before they watch really any other movies. They should even show them in schools, just as long as they show it before the kids realize what "Grease Lightning" is really about.

Totally off subject, but do you remember seeing this film as a youngster and loving it, and then you decide to watch it when you turn 16 with a group of friends, and you were shocked about some of the things they say & do?

Anyway, back to this review. Grease is my favorite musical. (FYI: Little Shop of Horrors is a very close second place.)

The Top Ten Reasons why I Think GREASE is the Best Musical:

10. Grease 2: If it weren't for the popularity of Grease, we wouldn't have Grease 2 and I probably wouldn't know who Michelle Pfeiffer is.

9. The T-Birds: When I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, my three usual answers were "Jedi Knight", "Pittsburgh Steeler" or "T-Bird".

8. Olivia Newton-John

7. Pink Ladies: As the T-Birds were to me, millions of girls made Pink Lady jackets and wear them every Halloween.

6. Grease Lightning: Who wouldn't want a car like this that promises the stuff it promised?

5. Sandy Olsen is HOT!

4. Music: From Frankie Valli singing the theme song, to Sha-Na-Na performing cover tunes, the soundtrack is one of the best.

3. Lorenzo Lamas: Before he was a "renegade", Lorenzo was Tom Chisum, the ultimate jock who's "brains are in his biceps."

2. Danny Zuko: John Travolta was ten times cooler as Danny Zuko than he was as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever and Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction combined.

And, of course, the number one reason why I love Grease... ...Olivia Newton-John as Sandy Olsen: Olivia is the only woman I'd leave my wife for, especially when she's wearing the cheerleading outfit. I know, a lot of guys will say her black outfit at the end is the selling point, but it's the whole innocent factor that I love this woman.

Anyway, there you have it. A totally unbiased review of the greatest musical of our time. Any questions?