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#127

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

With an estimated 2nd weekend opening of $23,150,000 (which puts it SQUARELY in the #1 position!), this can be considered nothing less than a phenomenon.

I personally found it completely lacking - the only time I was awake was when Heath was onscreen, and he wasn't even all THAT! - but there's no denying the impact it's having.

I wonder what that says about . . . well, a lot of things.
#130

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

Weekend estimates are around 75 million, which puts it a few hundred thousand behind Iron Man. It looks like The Dark Knight might be able to crack 400 million.
#131

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

Oh, it'll crack $400 million easily within the next few days.

$75 million for a second weekend is absolutely incredible.

Heck, $75 million is more than most films could ever hope to make in their first weekend. Or even their entire runs.
"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."

The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
#132

Updated On: 1/15/09 at 07:42 PM

#133

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

Poor 'Hellboy 2' my ass. It looks simply cracking! Just because something won't make as much money as something else doesn't mean it isn't going to do okay.

Why oh way can I not find an "I believe in Harvey Dent" badge on eBay? Well, there are a few, but they don't match the one on the poster and they won't ship to the UK. Booo!

Notes from the Earlham Street Gutter
#134

Updated On: 1/15/09 at 07:52 PM

#135

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

Hellboy 2 did have a production budget about 100 million bucks less than The Dark Knight, so that film is only about 20 million away from recouping the production budget with just the domestic take. It should turn a modest profit with the international box office.
#136

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

So I saw this last night and I honestly thought it was one of the most boring, slowest, most tedious superhero movie ever. It had a fair amount of intense moments, all provided by Heath Ledger, but overall I was fairly disappointed to say the least.
I thought it was incredibly repetitive (Joker does something bad, Batman goes after him, Joker gets away, then Joker does something bad again...etc, etc, etc for THREE HOURS!!!). The female lead is incredibly underwritten and as with most superhero films, a simple tool for the men to prize or fight about. Christian Bale earns the prize for most uninteresting hero... boring! Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine are expectedly great if inconsequential. Aaron Eckhardt does a wonderful job, even when he is stuck with a trite self-righteous storyline. Gary Oldman is fantastic. The movie belongs to Ledger who makes the most of the role, and is incredibly creepy and scary. I wish the movie had been about him really.
I must agree with Rosscoe that the film suffers from the Jonathan Larson syndrome.

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

Updated On: 7/28/08 at 11:35 PM

#137

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

Ray - I'm with you and Roscoe on this one.

But it seems we are in the EXTREME minority!

Oh, well - been there before, and will probably be there again Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker
#138

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

Ray and DG, Welcome to the Dark Side!

:)
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist. Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino. This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more. Tazber's: Reply to Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
#139

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

FINALLY saw this movie tonight!

It started off pretty slow... and I wasn't really following it--but it picked up about 20 er 30 mintues into it and I absolutely loved it. Well... not loved it, but it was an incredible film. I'll have to try to see it again at IMAX! :) Was not disappointed.

I don't understand how a few of you say it was boring/hard to stay awake... were you just tired? I mean--it's a pretty thrilling movie, I think. All the loud noises made me jump and the suspense of the movie had me constantly sitting on the edge of my seat with my hands close to my face.
"If it walks like a Parks, if it wobbles like a Parks, then it's definitely fat and nobody loves it." --MA
#140

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

I'm seeing it again in two hours. :3 The structure is interesting; somehow it feels more like watching a high-budget miniseries in a single sitting than like watching a movie (and I already said that, sorry; ain't gonna delete it though Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker). Batman himself is proper boring this time round, but Comissioner Awesome and Harvey totally make up for that. And I did like Ledger's Joker a lot, because of what he did with the role, not because he's dead. :P

Notes from the Earlham Street Gutter

Updated On: 7/28/08 at 05:56 AM

#141

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

I'm a member of the club, DG, Ray and Roscoe ... BORING! I was ready for it all to end after the first half hour.
#142

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

Parks, there is no denying that the movie was LOUD, and had lots of ACTION. The main problem with the movie was that it insisted on pretending that there is anything at all interesting in that Batman/Bruce Wayne guy, at least as embodied by the Block Of Wood Formerly Known As Christian Bale.

When the Joker was onscreen, the movie was terrific, fast and funny and scary/shocking. Unfortunately, there were just way too many other people, only very few of whom had very much interesting to say.

On the other hand, I have been considering seeing it again, just to see if I missed something the first time but mainly to get another hit off of Ledger's performance.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#143

Updated On: 1/15/09 at 09:01 AM

#144

Halloween '08: The Year of the Joker

Oh, ok--good. Atleast you liked Heath. I thought everybody was fine in the film. I didn't think Christian Bale was bad... just not amazing.

I didn't really like Batman using a different voice from Bruce Wayne. Is that in all of the Batman films? I was about ready to walk out of the theater at the beginning of the movie when he was talking like that.
"If it walks like a Parks, if it wobbles like a Parks, then it's definitely fat and nobody loves it." --MA
#145

The Dull Knight, or Why best12bars Is Sticking To TCM

I didn't open this thread earlier, because I hadn't seen the movie yet. I was worried about "spoilers."

If only you'd stopped me from going today!!!

I was bored out of my mind. The only actors doing anything interesting on screen were Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Morgan Freeman.

Everyone else was laughably "uber-serious." OPERATICALLY serious!

As hysterically giddy and manic as some of the (mostly early) scenes in Mamma Mia were, this film is no less guilty of the same crime, but in the opposite direction.

It has NO fun, no sense of humor... it practically has the opposite of both. It's not clever or entertaining. It's not good story-telling, good acting or even a good action movie.

It's all one-note. (Again, except for the actors mentioned above). A constant drone of glares, stares, explosions, a convoluted confused plot (if you can even call it that) that goes nowhere. The last moments of the film look like its own fast-cut trailer, even including the cliche "stinger" dropping to black at the end.

Christian Bale's Batman voice literally made me laugh out loud at one point. I was going to hand him a Kleenex to cough into, he had so many phony Bat-loogies stuck in there. What a horrible idea to have him talk like that!

I hope Heath gets a supporting Oscar nomination. He spun straw into gold with this one, and he was the only reason I stayed in the theatre. I seriously almost walked out on it.

So, give me TCM. Give me the great stories, with characters I care about. Even give me the dumb stories, and the contrived plots that at least are entertaining. I don't care if it's a musical or a western either.

This felt more like a painful trip to the dentist. And I'm really saddened to think that this is what passes for "good" and "successful" these days, judging from the critics' consensus and the box office turnout. Sad, sad, sad.

To say that this is the best super hero movie ever is a joke befitting the Joker. It's not even in the top ten! The first Christopher Reeve Superman movie is miles ahead of this one on all counts.

Bleeecchhhh! I really need to shake this off. I should have asked for my money back. They failed to entertain me.

Quick, somebody give me a Carmen Miranda movie. Even a bad one. At least I'll find SOMETHING in there to like.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#146

The Dull Knight, or Why best12bars Is Sticking To TCM

Well, it is certainly no MAMMA MIA....
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#147

The Dull Knight, or Why best12bars Is Sticking To TCM

No... it's not remotely that good.


(and I wasn't one of those who loved Mamma Mia, either)
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

Updated On: 7/30/08 at 04:54 PM

#148

The Dull Knight, or Why best12bars Is Sticking To TCM

I'd say the two films are different sides of the same coin. One is so desperate to prove that it is SERIOUS, and the other is desperate to be TRIVIAL. They each over-reach, neither is good enough to deliver on what it wants to do.

At least DARK KNIGHT has Heath Ledger making a pencil disappear, which trumps anything in MM, for me at least.

And, of course, TCM never shows any bad movies. Ever.

"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/

Updated On: 7/30/08 at 04:56 PM

#150

The Dull Knight, or Why best12bars Is Sticking To TCM

LOL

Their BAD movies (and there are some stinkers) are better than today's "GOOD" ones.

At least to me.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

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