Maybe you’re somebody who has no qualms when hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on a movie that amounts to a couple great chase scenes and a rock ‘em, sock ‘em fight with the hero’s girlfriend tied to some time-sensitive death contraption. But I always feel teased. Like I just got back from a date where my interest was exploited for a free meal. The Dark Knight is a diamond in a mound of cubic-zirconia gemstones, two and a half hours of blockbuster at it’s finest, a movie worth the price of a concert ticket.
Please, allow me to clear my head of my immediate reactions: The Dark Knight is the shit! It is so awesome I can not stare into the light of its awesomeness without seeing spots. Better than I hoped–and I was hoping for a lot–there were even points where I sat looking at the screen thinking, “Can Christopher Nolan (writer/director) possibly sustain my amazement any further?” The answer: Yeppers, and with a choke-on-its-way-down ending. I’ll shut off the blathering even though I want to keep going.
Christopher Nolan does what I wanted Jon Favreau to do with Iron Man. Kick ass and kick more ass while always staying a step ahead of me (Heath Ledger as The Joker is as mystifying and sensual as Hannibal Lecter). Then–so I don’t feel he just took my money for a couple great chase scenes–he knocks me in the head. When I walked out of the theater I couldn’t balance out the world. I laid awake in bed rethinking the Iraq war based on something a guy in a bat costume said, and that’s when I knew I’d gotten my money’s worth. …Read more
Anne Thompson points to the above picture documenting a “viral” Dark Knight marketing stunt described by a tipster thusly:
I saw these guys pull up on a corner, in a van right in the middle of downtown with big signs and bullhorns shouting to people to vote for Harvey Dent as D.A. The van was covered with Harvey Dent posters with Aaron Eckhart’s picture. Of course people had NO idea what they were talking about. They probably thought it was a real campaign.
How far in advance of the movie’s release do you think Warner Brothers will pull the correct strings in order to allow the Dark Knight campaign and the presidential campaign to merge? When can we expect Harvey Dent to endorse McCain? Or vice versa? Now that Warner Brothers is taking advantage of election season to sell their Batman sequel, at what point will real politicians start taking advantage of a new Batman sequel to sell themselves?
Jessica Alba may be appearing in a lot of movies these days, but I wouldn’t exactly say she’s been keeping busy. It can’t be too much work to play the role of “Eye Candy” again and again and again. This time she plays a girl who is used in exploited for a vengeful ploy by a husband (Aaron Eckhart) to invoke jealousy in his cheating wife (Elizabeth Banks). The character could have been played by any pretty face (in fact Alba replaced Lindsay Lohan in the role), but Alba seems to be the most appropriately cast, because she’s one of the hottest actresses right now and yet she seems to be easily accessible to any filmmaker who wants to employ her. Last week we looked at another movie starring Alba, The Love Guru. In that she seems to have a more disposable role — she’s not really introduced until halfway through the trailer, and even then it’s unclear what purpose her character serves other than to invoke erectile gags from Mike Myers.
Meet Billpremiered last fall at the Toronto Film Festival, where it was merely titled Bill. Apparently it wasn’t met with much excitement, despite the obvious appeal of watching Eckhart as a sad-sack (unlike Alba, he’s cast against type) in a comedy that looks part classic screwball and part Rushmore (with roles switched all about). The odd thing about this trailer is that with Alba playing the part of “Eye Candy”, she ought to be featured wearing lingerie for marketing purposes (see trailers for Good Luck Chuck)rather than Banks. Sure, Banks is also gorgeous, but Alba is the one that Americans obviously prefer to be objectified.
Maybe you’re somebody who has no qualms when hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on a movie that amounts to a couple great chase scenes and a rock ‘em, sock ‘em fight with the hero’s girlfriend tied to some time-sensitive death contraption. But I always feel teased. Like I just got back from a date where my interest was exploited for a free meal. 
