Why so serious?

So we had a great time revisiting Batman Begins yesterday, and then poking fun at Batman: The Movie. There's a lot to enjoy in the camp performances of Adam West, Burt Ward, Cesar Romero, Lee Meriwether, Frank Gorshin and Burgess Meredith.

Today, we went out to see The Dark Knight, which we all really enjoyed as well. The story was excellent, and Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is worthy of the posthumous Oscar nomination that has been thrown around in the mainstream press.


It's a dark movie, to be sure - as far removed from the camp of the old TV series and even the lows of the 80s series. Compare Aaron Eckhardt's Harvey Dent to Tommy Lee Jones or Ledger to Jack Nicholson's Joker, and there's no comparison.

I had a few quibbles here and there - notably in the manipulation of the final footage of the Joker, and I can't help but wonder if they truly had wrapped on his performance when he died. Nevertheless, the film is not lacking for closure nor for solid performances throughout.

It will be interesting to see where they take the series from here - in the mean time I look forward to watching The Dark Knight again on the big screen.

TR2N

Sometimes, even the worst quality video is worth checking out...



Wow.

This guy is a genius...

So many ideas, so little time.

While you're sitting home watching Dancing with the Stars, take a look at what David Friedman has come up with. Don't just read the first few - there are tons of amazing ideas presented on his web page.

Frankly, I have never seen a greater collection of brilliant ideas collected in one place. If we could all help bring just one of these ideas to life, can you imagine what a better place our world would be?

Welcome home, Maria

"There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator."

An amazing thing happened this last week, as footage long believed lost from Fritz Lang's Metropolis - almost a quarter of the film - was discovered in Buenos Aires. This is the most important cinematic find of the 21st century, and it probably doesn't even rate a mention on news programs that regularly blabber on about this week's box office results.

It's amazing to think that a BluRay release of a complete, restored version will be in our hands in 2009. That will definitely be worth our having a silent Mad Movie Party (along side the recently restored, beautiful Kino print of Nosferatu.

Here's a German news story that actually includes some of the previously-believed-lost footage:

What the hell were we thinking?

The Batman Movie Party was scheduled to coincide with the release date of The Dark Knight long before Star Wars Celebration Japan was finalized.

In retrospect, it was silly for us to have the July party so soon after the June party (which was a smash hit - shame on you if you missed it!).

As a result, I've bumped the Batman party until Saturday July 26th, a few days after Stan and I return from Japan. Don't worry, we'll sit in the back row and try not to snore.

Don't forget to vote on which Batmen you'd like to see that night - the poll is to the right and ends soon!

Battle of the Bat(men)

As you may know, our next Mad Movie Party is scheduled to coincide with the release of The Dark Knight. That said, we're planning to revisit Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins. As for what else we show, that's up to you.

I've setup a poll to see which Batmaterial you're most interested in watching.

To set the tone, Martin has forwarded this link to a Battle of the Batmans video.