Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Who knows?
Not me
We never lost control
You're face to face
With the man who sold the world

A furious storm had its way with Bozeman last night. I don't think I have seen a storm quite like it before. The best I term I could think of to describe it was "hurricane," ignoring the fact that Bozeman is 1100 miles from the nearest ocean.

Three-quarter inch hail fell, trees were knocked down and the rain fell in sheets. It was like standing in a car wash. Two substations were knocked out, and much of the city lost power for one to three hours.

We were eating at the mall, waiting to see the Dark Knight when it hit. The power went out. Everyone went to the windows and doors to gape in awe at the storm.

As quickly as it came, it was gone. It was like the Tasmanian Devil from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons.

The power returned in time for us to see The Dark Knight. Overall, it was a good movie. Let's get this out of the way first: Heath Ledger was absolutely freaking awesome. He deserves an Oscar. I (and everyone else who has seen it, apparently) was absolutely captivaed every moment he was on screen. I am not saying this just because he is dead; his performance was incredible. It ranks up there with the all-time movie villain performances. It is a shame that he won't be able to reprise his role in the next one.

But... for as good as he was, Maggie Gyllenhall was awful. Casting her was a worse decision than Ron Burgundy drinking spoiled milk on a hot day. She was an unwelcome distraction every moment she was on screen.

The movie was dark, both in tone and cinematography. The lighting did Maggie Gyllenhall no favors, especially during close-ups in which her face was twenty feet tall. Listen, I liked her in Secretary, and I loved her in Donnie Darko, but she sucked the big one in this movie. She met her demise in an explosion, and I was thinking, "Thank God."

It was a little too long, but the effects and action sequences were fantastic. I dug the Batcycle, and I shed a tear at the treatment of Bruce Wayne's Lamborghini. The rest of the cast was also pretty good. Christian Bale was solid; Aaron Eckhart was pretty convincing as Two-Face. And it never hurts to have Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman hanging around.

In sum: Heath Ledger- A+++; Maggie Gyllenhall- F; The movie as a whole: A-/B+.

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Friends, family: I still have no internet at home, and have no way to check my yahoo mail, so if you really need something, call me.

4 Comments:

Blogger Paulette said...

I agree 100% with your Dark Knight review. Ledger was stellar. Maggie G. was miscast. We saw a late night showing in Hartford where the audience was 90% under age 25, and every time there was a kissing scene, they literally groaned, coughed, or barked.

Hope your getting out from under after your move. We'll be helping the kid move apartments this weekend. Crossing our fingers for low heat/humidity and no rain.

10:11 AM  
Blogger DJ MotorCityMonk said...

No internet access from home - that's an outrage!

Looking forward to seeing DK soon.

6:31 AM  
Blogger Gretchen said...

thanks for the review. We're looking to see it sooner rather than later.

No internet? Quite the mixed blessing. We did without it (and television) for a couple weeks. It was a nice break.

Have a great weekend.

8:56 AM  
Blogger Eve Grey said...

I really liked Mags at first but after seeing her in about the fifth movie, her actions & voice started to grate on me. Also, she is no great beauty so the sexy vamp act is a little overplayed at this poiont.

5:35 PM  

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