Elf

This is one of the greatest Christmas movies ever. When it plays for 24 hours on Christmas Eve on tv, I have no problem watching it over and over. I also think it's one of Will Ferrel's finest films.

We meet Buddy the Elf, who was an orphan who somehow finds his way to the north pole, and is then adopted and raised by Christmas Elves. He's about 4 feet taller than anyone else there, and can't help but feel out of place. He's no good at all the elf-ly duties. He then learns the truth that he is a human, and that his mom died, and his dad had no idea he existed. So after a sorrowful goodbye to Papa Elf, he travels to New York City.

He doesn't make the greatest impression on his father, a cold businessman in the children's literature business, who just so happens to be on the naughty list. Then he finds his way to a department store in which he is mistaken to be an employee at the North Pole toy shop. There he meets the lovely Jowe (Joey, played by Zooey Deschanel!!!) She's a blonde btw! This was the first movie I ever saw her in.  He's smitten, to say the least. He learns that Santa is going to be visiting the next day, and so he spends the night decorating the place so that it will impress Santa.

The next morning he hears Jowe singing in the shower, and joins her in singing Baby it's Cold Outside. Basically anytime that Zooey sings is a highlight of the movie. He then becomes very upset when he realizes that it is not the real Santa. Now, during the fight between Buddy and the fake Santa, Andrew was overcome with a ridiculous hiccup attack, so we were pretty distracted for a few minutes.

His dad bails him out of jail, gets a paternity test, and then introduces Buddy to his wife and son. Buddy is the ultimate manchild, but in a good way. He decorates the house like crazy, and is just so happy about everything, and of course requires sugar as a major part of his diet. He spends the afternoon hanging out with his brother Michael. They(Buddy) demolish some punks in a snow ball fight, and he gets the courage to ask Jowe out on a date. 

The next day, he goes to work with his dad, and just becomes a nuisance. He is then sent to the mail room, thinking it would be amazing and fun. There he gets drunk and starts a pretty crunk party. He then has a really amazing date with Jowe which consists of a tasting of the "worlds best cup of coffee", running through revolving doors, looking at pretty Christmas trees, and then ice skating.

He then barges in on a very important meeting his father is having with a famous children's book writer (played by Peter Dinklage!!) There are some bad elf jokes made unintentionally and his dad gets super pissed. Buddy decides to leave and go back to the north pole. While walking, he see's Santa's sleigh crash in Central Park. The clausomotor, normally run on christmas spirit is dead, and the spare engine has fallen off. Buddy is the only one who can fix it. Michael grabs Santa's list and begins to read it to the public, trying to raise the level of Christmas spirit. Jowe also leads the crowd in some Christmas carols, and it works! Which is a good thing because their engine gets knocked off by a fountain after being repaired, and so they are solely reliant on Christmas spirit. Even Buddys cold hearted father's heart grows 5 sizes and begins to believe! Christmas is saved!! Hooray!!

 After being fired from his job, his dad starts his own publishing company in which his first book is about Buddy's adventures. Buddy and Jowe get married and have a cute baby, and often visit the North Pole to see Papa Elf.

One thing I absolutely love is the way that this movie gives a nod to the old Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer movie, in regards to Buddy and Jowe's elf outfits, and the appearance of the North Pole. There is even a cool wise snowman and fun woodland creatures. Also, some major pluses of this movie are the montages. First we have one showing us all the things that Buddy has trouble with living with elves in the North Pole. Then we see his adventures as he first enters and explores NYC. Then of course when is locked in the department store overnight (every kids dream!!) while he is decorating the place. This movie also just brings out the child in the viewer.  I was laughing like crazy throughout the movie, and even teared up a little at the end of the movie.
The part of the movie where Andrew guffawed: "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?"

If you haven't seen it, just wait for Christmas Eve and watch it during it's awesome marathon.

Andrew's Closing Thought: My favorite Will Ferrel movie.

Up Next: Ernest Saves Christmas

Cricket on the Hearth

Well, its time to start our Christmas collection. We've got 14 movies to watch and only a few weeks to do it!!
To start us off in celebrating the holiday season, we have the Cricket on the Hearth. 2 years ago for my Christmas present, Andrew got me this Christmas collection of movies that has the good Rudolf and Santa Clause is Comin to Town, and Frosty movies. But unexpectedly came the not so loved movies like this one.

This was such a snoozefest. It's only an hour long but both Andrew and I were almost falling asleep during it.
Apparently it was a story written by Charles Dickens.

We meet a plucky, well dressed cricket named Crocket who sounds a lot like the Geico Gecko. All he wants is to find a nice family with a nice fireplace (a hearth). Andrew said he spent half the movie trying to figure out what a hearth was. Anyway, a toymaker invites Crocket to live with him and his daughter Bertha. Bertha is engaged to a member of the Royal Navy named Edward who is about to be shipped away for 2 years.

Not long after, the family gets word from a man that can only be described as a Green Severus Snape, that Edward's ship has sunk and he's dead. This news causes Bertha to go blind. They stop making toys, become sad and broke. Just when they are about to move to the Poor House, the dad finds a job at a toy factory. This factory is run by a really evil man with a crow named Uriah. This crow wants to eat Crocket!

Near Christmas, the toymaker runs into an old beggar who he shows kindness to and invites him to spend time with the family. Meanwhile, the evil factory owner wants to marry Bertha. Bertha has no idea what kind of man he really is, and is considering it. When she is going to accept the proposal, Crocket and some woodland animals poor pepper into the evil man's tea, embarrassing him and sends him running for now. He then wants vengeance on Crocket, and sends Uriah to go get some professional help to get the job done, since he failed before. So he goes to a seedy underground club for the animals of London where he meets with a gangster monkey and cat. They capture Crocket, tie him up and take him to a boat that is going to sail to China. The captain of the ship then proceeds to pull out a gun, and shoot the monkey, cat and crow. Ridiculous!

Crocket makes it back to shore with the help of friendly sea creatures. He makes it back just as the clock strikes midnight signaling the start of Christmas Day and the wedding. Apparently at this hour, all the toys come to life and so they agree to help Crocket out. The toys find the old beggar, and uncover some old hair and gross beard that reveals him to be Edward! He was shipwrecked but eventually made his way back to the city. Edward then tells Bertha the truth, and they are quickly married as soon as possible. At first when the evil factory owner finds out, he's pretty pissed, but then Bertha gives him a few compliments and he becomes happy.

Again, this movie was so ridiculous. There were lots of little songs that often accompany these types of holiday movies. They were kind of trippy. But each time a song would start, Andrew and I would sink farther into the couch and grow closer and closer to falling asleep. Unfortunately, the ending song (accompanied by sing along!) is now stuck in my head for the rest of the evening.

Andrew's Closing Thought: That movie made no sense, and the cricket was the worst good luck charm ever.

Up Next: Elf

Blood Diamond

This was such a great movie. I've never seen it before, but have always wanted to. I was on the edge of my seat most of the time and I really got invested with the characters. This is based on real events.

So we meet Solomon Vandy, a simple African fisherman living the good life with his wife, 2 daughters and son. Then all of a sudden the R.U.F (Revolutionary United Front) invades his village, killing many and he ends up separated from his family. He is then taken to a diamond mining camp in which he spends his day sifting through muddy water for diamonds. One day he finds a huge pink diamond and goes amd buries it. The commander of that camp knows about the diamond though, only before the camp is attacked by the government. Solomon is taken to prison along with the commander who goes on and on about the diamond. This intrigues fellow prisoner Danny Archer (Leonardo Dicaprio). He's in prison because he was trying to smuggle diamonds across the border to Liberia. He gets bailed out, and then bails out Solomon because he wants that diamond real bad.

Danny also befriends a pretty journalist (Jennifer Connelly ) who wants to do a story about the diamond smuggling.

Before Solomon can reunite with his family, they are once again attacked by the rebels and the son Dia is taken and turned into a child soldier. A lot of the scenes with the child soldiers was very sobering, especially when you realize that its a real issue, still going on today.

The rebels end up taking Free Town over during the night, and Danny and Solomon barely escape alive. Due to his need to protect and reunite with his family, Solomon is forced into a partnership with Danny to get him that diamond. They find themselves in the cross fires between the rebels and government quite often. They eventually need the help of Maddie the journalist to find Solomon's family, as he has exhausted all options he can think of. However she will only help them if Danny agrees to give her reliable information about the diamond smuggling for her article. He reluctantly agrees and tells her all he knows. They then go to another refugee camp and find Solomon's family, minus Dia.

Now Solomon is on a hunt to find Dia, to find out what has happened to him. After lots of near deaths, he and Danny finally make it back to the mining camp. Dia is there!! Impatient on waiting for Danny's army strike to come in, Solomon goes down to the camp to look for him himself. He finds him, only to be faced with the shocking realization that his son has been brainwashed in a way, and hardly remembers him. The Commander of the camp recognizes him and demands the diamond. All of a sudden the air strike comes and the camp is heavily attacked. This gives Solomon the perfect opportunity to act out his revenge on the Commander and protect his son.

With a few more complications, Danny and Solomon and Dia (who finally starts to come over to the good side again) get the diamond and head to an air stripe to be taken out of there so they can sell the diamond. During the process though, Danny was shot and as much as he tries to make it, he can't. Solomon then meets up with Maddie, who helps him set up the meetings he needs in order to trade the diamond to the right people in which she is writing an article about. He gets his family back as well as lots of money, and his story helps in governing laws regarding conflict diamonds.

Danny was such a multidimensional character. I kept flip flopping between hating him and then liking him again. He and Maddie had a true connection. Eventually his good side won out as well.

This was an amazing story and I'm really glad that I was finally able to see it. It is however pretty violent. Thankfully my love for The Walking Dead has taught me when violent things are about to happen, and I am able to cover my eyes just in time. It's also just very jarring as I said earlier in seeing the scenes with the child soldiers and the brutality of the R.U.F.

Oh, and we can't forget Leo's awesome South African accent. His accent was great, especially when he would speak in a specific dialect/slang that to us would sound like lots of mumbles. The slang in this movie was fun to catch on to as well. Magic means cool, brew means brother/friend/man. After the movie was over, my mind was using this accent.

Andrew's Closing Thought: Leo

Up Next: Book of Eli

The Blind Side

I love this movie. It's so good that if it's on at any time, I will watch it. Movies and actors tend to win big awards when the movie is about real people and their real stories. Sandra Bullock absolutely deserved to win with this movie, and she's pretty gorgeous as a blonde I might add.

The majority of any movie or book starts off with some sort of change happening. In this case, Michael Oher (Big Mike) finds himself enrolled in a private christian school. The expectation of him is that once his grades are up he will play sports for the school. He's lived a pretty crazy life. His mom is a drug addict, siblings separated and estranged, poor, homeless, and a schooling in which he has practically learned nothing because none of his teachers cared about him. At Wingate, a couple of the teachers notice him and take an interest into what teaching styles work best for him. He starts out with a 0.6 gpa, and needs desperate help if he is going to succeed. His teachers figure out that he is a very poor reader, and decide to administer his tests verbally.

While he is at this school he crosses paths with the Touhy family. Sean (Tim McGraw), Leanne (Sandra Bullock) and their two children SJ and Collins (a girl). On a cold, rainy night after the Thanksgiving pageant at school, they run into Michael walking along with no real place to go. And so Leanne simply decides to practice genuine hospitality and kindness, and invites him to stay with them for the night. He ends up staying with them permanently and works his way into their hearts and family.

He also deeply cares about the family, as they are his inspiration that gives him the drive in football to protect his fellow players. After a rough start he becomes quite the football sensation and all the colleges come running to recruit to him. The Touhy's even hire a tutor to help him raise his grades so that he will be eligible for a scholarship.All in all life seems to be going good for Michael, even though his past haunts him occasionally. After a tough decision between colleges, he decides on his family's alma mater Ole Miss. Then the NCAA gets involved wondering if the Touhy's adopted him on purpose to feed a star athlete into their college's sports program. Doubting if his family's intentions were pure, Michael runs away to his old home, ends up getting into quite a skirmish with the local thugs, and then is re insured that his relationship with the Touhy's is truly out of love, not gain.

Michael then goes to Ole Miss, and his tutor joins him. He makes All-American, and is drafted to the Baltimore Ravens in 2009. Yay happy ending!!

The characters are really amazing in this. The guy who plays Michael is just so shy and loveable. Leanne is an incredibly feisty woman who doesn't take no for an answer. SJ is just a cooky little kid that adds lots of humor to the movie.
<--- It's T-Dawg from The Walking Dead!

Leanne Touhy, a designer, ends up being an occasional designer on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition not long after this movie came out. I even remember that she was on the team that did a house in Wellman, TX, not far from Hobbs!

I've finally gotten to where I don't cry during this movie, especially in the scene in which SJ and Michael get into a car wreck.

Such a great movie!, if you haven't seen it ,then go and watch it soon :)

Andrew's Closing Thought: It's a pretty good

Up Next: Blood Diamond

Big Top Pee Wee

I don't even know where to begin. Nothing could have prepared me for the ridiculousness and absurdity of this movie.

Pee Wee owns a farm, and his best friend is a talking pig named Vance. He also has a fiance named Winnie. They don't really seem to  click. She's doesn't have an imagination when it comes to cloud shapes, and she thinks that he love egg salad.

Pee Wee is an outcast in his tiny little town. The town is full of old people who just don't accept him. Suddenly a storm comes into town, and Pee Wee rushes to get home and put all his animals in the storm cellar. When he re-emerges a circus literally has been blown into town. More specifically onto his farm. Everything is in shambles and Pee Wee starts helping out right away. He meets lots of interesting people including the Thumbelina sized Midge, who is married to the Circus Boss Mase. Also there is Benicio del Toro's first movie appearance as Duke the Dog Faced Boy. There is a group of acrobats made up of 4 brothers, and their sister Gina is a trapeze artist. The second Pee Wee lays eyes on her he falls head over heels.

The town despises and rejects all these circus folk, but Winnie helps them out and starts to bond with the acrobat brothers. Pee Wee and Gina go on a romantic elephant ride where they discover that they are soul mates. They then begin to make out for a really long time and Winnie discovers the affair. The engagement is broken off.

Mase decides to reboot the circus by giving it a farming theme. Pee Wee tries really hard to find something he is good at in the circus, but alas he doesn't find anything. He finally reconciles with Gina, who was pissed when she found out he was engaged.

In order to get the old folk to the circus without sending Pee Wee to jail, he gets all mad scientist on them and gives them a taste of some chemically altered cocktail weenies that Pee Wee has been growing on a tree in his green house. This then shrinks all the crotchety old folk into children, which fill up the circus seats. Pee Wee finally finds his act, walking the tight rope! He takes a moment to stop and do the tequila dance forty feet up in the air of course.  Winnie is engaged to all four of the acrobat bros, Vance falls in love with a hippo named Cza Cza, and everyone lives happily ever after.

At one point during this movie Andrew said that he wished that his life was like Pee Wee's. He was laughing aaaaa lot and it was infectious. I laughed because some of the gags in the movie were just so ridiculous, that its entire purpose is to just be goofy and make you laugh. It was a fun movie to watch but hopefully I won't ever have to enter into the world of Pee Wee again.

This type of randomness kept me intrigued. I know Andrew loved this movie, but apparently he says that Pee Wee's Big Adventure is still his favorite.

Andrew's Closing Thought: An absolutely ridiculous 80's movie.

Up Next: The Blind Side

Becoming Jane

Andrew and I are spending our last day off together by watching as many movies as we can. We won't get to watch very many before thanksgiving, and after thanksgiving we switch gears and can only watch Christmas movies. Then once Christmas has passed, or we finish all the movies, we will then resume our normal list of movies. If we don't finish all the movies by Christmas then we will simply watch them as they come up in the normal collection.

So this movie was one of those movies that you just think it will be good, so you go ahead and get it without ever watching it. Then once you watch it, you are extremely disappointed. (AKA Atonement) Hmm. I can't help but notice the huge James McAvoy connection between these two movies. The last 15 minutes are good in this movie, and basically sum up everything about it, but everything up until then is just slow and boring.

Basically this movie follows Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway) before her fame of Pride and Prejudice. This movie kind of shows the inspiration for the book. So for those who are a fan of the story, its fun to see the connections and where she gets inspirations for different parts of the book.

Basically she doesn't really want to marry unless its for love, but her mom encourages her to marry for money. She then means aspiring lawyer Tommy Lafroy (James McAvoy) who at first she can't stand. Then they start to fall in love. He then takes her to meet his Uncle, a very  important man who determines his nephews future heavily since he will one day inherit all of his stuff. The Uncle and Jane don't get along very well, and an anonymous letter sent to the Uncle about Jane's character doesn't help matters either. He says that they can't be together. They both accept this and go their own ways. Tommy gets engaged to a proper lady for him, and Jane accepts the proposal of a Mr. Weasley, nephew to Maggie Smith (the Catherine DeBurg character) However then they meet up again and decide to run away to Scotland and get married. On their carriage ride, Jane discovers just how many people depend on Tommy, and how this ruin of his reputation will effect more than just him. She breaks things off with him for good and never marries. She lives by her pen.

The movie then flashes many many years in the future, where Tommy and Jane happen to be at the same social gathering. He introduces his daughter named Jane and they get a little bit of closure, and we see the huge success that Miss Austen has become.

This movie was not one of our favorites. There were lots of great cameos though. There was Maggie Smith, Julie Walters (Mrs. Weasley from HP!), the farmer from Babe, and Max from Across the Universe.

It was interesting to see her family dynamic, which is so different from her books, who have largely female clans. She had only 1 sister, who also never married. 1 brother who married their cousin, a Countess, and another brother who is deaf.

The first thing I said to Andrew before the movie started was "Get ready for a terrible british accent by Anne Hathaway" He replied "Oh no, her american accent is already terrible enough. I hate her voice" This was a tough one for him to watch.

Andrew's Closing Thought: I'm still waiting for Becoming Jane to become good

Up Next: Big Top Pee Wee

The Amazing Spider-Man

We are finally back to the movie watching! Our work schedules have been crazy and we haven't really had the time to watch movies. But we have two days off in a row together, so we are hoping to watch a couple more tomorrow. Tonight is our first back track into the A's. Andrew got me this movie for my birthday!!

So after making about 10 pounds of chilli, we finally sat down and watched the movie. When I saw it in theaters I was totally blown away at the freshness of this reboot. Tonight though, I think I just felt the pressure to watch the movie so we could get it out of the way, instead of really enjoying it. It's still a good movie, don't get me wrong.

This movie stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. That's pretty much a recipe for greatness right there. They are two fresh faces in Hollywood that really add a different spin to the series. I was so glad when they decided to not go the Mary Jane route as far as love interests go.

So, in this movie, Peter Parker is an awkward social outcast, and even stays that way after he develops superpowers. His parents were killed in a plane crash and were super scientists of some sort. He was raised by his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Fields). These two were awesome by the way. He also has a terrible crush on the witty-police chief daughter-sciencey Gwen Stacey. Fun Fact for all of you Emma Stone fans out there, she is a natural blonde! So its fun to see her take a break from her famous red locks.  One day he finds a briefcase that belonged to this father, and sees all these classified files. He wants to reach out to his father's old science partner, Dr. Curt Connors, to learn more about him and the work he did. So he goes and visits Dr. Connors at Oscorp. He makes a great impression, then wanders off and gets bitten by a radioactive spider.

His body starts going crazy and he now has spidey senses, super strength, and little spikey things on his hands and feet that allow him to cling to things. It takes him a while to get used to these things, which gives the audience a few laughs. However we also see just how freaked out he is by all of this, which is nice to see as well. With the appearance of all these new abilities, he kind of becomes this slacker/rebellious teenager that he has yet to become which causes lots of tension, especially between him and Uncle Ben. He and Uncle B have a big fight one night, and while getting chocolate milk at a quickie mart, allows a robber to go away free. This robber then shoots Uncle B and he dies.

This now sends Peter on a mad hunt to find the killer. He eventually develops his cool web shooter (something he actually makes, not something physically apart of him like in the other movies) and his uniform. The police don't like him and think that he is a menace more than a help.

Dr. Connors and Peter work on a cross-species genetic experiment, working on adding limb regeneration to a 3 legged mouse. Oh, Connors only has one arm btw, so this experiment is close to home. Connors eventually tests the serum on himself, and turns into a giant manlizard. He terrorizes a bridge full of traffic, and SpiderMan comes to the rescue. He saves a boy from a burning car, and realizes the true meaning behind his new gift. It's not just for punishing those wrongdoers out there, but to really help others and do good.

Just before the battle on the bridge, he was having dinner with Gwen and her family. He shows Gwen after the dinner his abilities, and so their relationship is not built on lies. I find that pretty refreshing that some of the main plot lines don't involve him keeping this huge life changing secret from her.
 

Connors decides that everyone should be as 'perfect' as he is, and plans on infecting all of NYC with his reptillian serum. Gwen is awesome and mixes an antidote for Peter, which is delivered via her father. He and Peter fight Connors together. Captain Stacey isn't too lucky and doesn't make it. Connors ends up not being too terrible of a bad guy, and helps save Peter from falling to his doom. He then goes to prison. Gwen and Peter end up not on the best of terms as he promised to leave Gwen alone in order to keep her safe.

Can't wait for the sequel!

This Peter is a perfect mixture of awkward and humorous, and Gwen is actually a strong female who can actually contribute in some way during sticky situations.

Andrew's Closing Thought: Amazing

Up Next: Becoming Jane

Beetlejuice

This movie has been my nemesis for a long time. It's chased me around and I finally was forced to watch this movie. But shockingly, it wasn't as terrible as I imagined. Don't get me wrong, it was still really gross and I'm pretty sure I will have nightmares tonight, but it wasn't exceedingly dreadful.

First we meet Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam Maitland (played by the young heartthrob Alec Baldwin).  They are normal small town couple, just trying to have a little vacation time so they can work on their house. On the way back from a brief stop into town to grab some things, their car crosses paths with a cute little dog. They don't follow the proper rules of traffic, and instead of running over the animal, they swerve out of the way and teeter off a bridge. The only thing saving them is the counterbalance of the cute little pooch, who quickly scampers off in search of more mischief to cause. This sends the couple plummeting into the small creek in which they drown.

Then things get pretty confusing, and luckily they put two and two together that they are dead.  This is when the movie gets gross. Everything about the world of the dead is weird. People are discolored and creepy. Babs and Adam become ghosts, and just want to live peacefully in their house. Then the unthinkable happens. A family from NYC moves in and completely changes everything about their cozy country home. The dad is content with the country life, the stepmom is the one who hates it and changes everything, and the daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) is a strange Goth girl who feels at home in the haunted home. She is actually able to see the ghosts since she herself is strange and unusual. They become fast bosom buddies, but that doesn't change the fact that they want the family to leave.

Due to their desperation, they call on the absolutely worst last case scenario, and call Beetlejuice. I'm grossed out every single time I see him, and I just can't believe its Michael Keaton under that make up. But, from an acting stand point you have to give him kudos, because he does not hold back at all with this character. He reeks havoc for a little while, but the Maitlands have enough and send him away for awhile.

The family then realizes that the house is haunted and plan on exploiting that for monetary gain. They host a big dinner party with investors, and raise the spirits the Maitlands. Something goes wrong and they start wasting away and no longer seem to be ghosts. Lydia freaks out and call Beetlejuice for help, only agreeing to marry him in return. Apparently by marrying, Beetlejuice's weird limbo will end. Babs and Adam try to say Beetlejuice three times to stop him, but are unable to. Babs is sent by the Juiceman to a land with a killer sandworm, and is able to wrangle it to attack Beetlejuice. He gets swallowed up and sent back to the neverending waiting room of death.

The Maitlands and Lydia's family are able to coexist, and Lydia gets the balanced family she always dreamed of, and the couple get the daughter they always dreamed of.

Just some quick thoughts about the movie:
I very much dislike stop motion, especially when it has to do with creepy things like in this movie.

The couple of scenes in which there is singing and dancing I actually really liked. They were fun!

I can't understand how the family (at least the dad and Lydia) seem totally fine with moving into a house full of dead people's stuff. I mean, their clothes and picture are still hanging throughout the house! Eww.

There's an F-Bomb in this movie, and its rated PG! Oh the 80's.

Will someone please explain to me why Beetlejuice is spelled that way in the title, but throughout the movie its spelled Betelguise?

Oh, if you ever go to Universal Studios, don't see the Beetlejuice show. It's just bad halloween costumed people singing songs from Glee.

Andrew's Closing Thought: Michael Keaton's finest performance

Up Next: Becoming Jane

The Dark Knight

Well we continue into the trilogy about a year after the last one ended. We've got all the same people involved, with the addition of a few new faces including: Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, Heath Ledger as the joker, and a new face of Rachel Dawes, Maggie Gyllenhaal. Andrew has a deep, deep dislike towards Miss Gyllenhaal. He just really doesn't like the way she talks. So he wasn't too happy about the change up. Neither was I, just because I hate when casting changes happen between movies (except for when someone dies, thats a pretty good reason to recast). However they can be good (look at Dumbledore!).

In this movie, Batman is a solidified entity in the Gotham circles. The police still aren't sure about him, but there are others that believe what he's doing is right. He and Gordon are BFF's more than ever, and Bruce has finally figured out how to balance being Batman and Bruce Wayne.

A new villain emerges, when we see the Joker heisting a bank that is known to have it's vault full of mob money. I just love how the bank guy pulls out a huge gun and starts fighting back. When he steals all this money, the cops are able to take the few bills that were left behind and trace it to other banks. Mr. Lau, who is in cohoots with all the mobs takes all their money and stashes it away in a secret spot so that it wont be taken away by the cops. Mr. Lau also happens to be in the middle of business negotiations with Wayne Enterprises.When Gordon and Dent make it known to Batman that they need Lau back in Gotham, Bruce is able to come up with a nifty little plan to get him back in the states. He and Lucius Fox travel to Hong Kong, cause some damage, and then bring Lau back, all under the guise of a business trip/vacation. Lau lets the DA know about the big stash of money, and Dent realizes that he can charge them all at the same time. So he is able to put away over 500 mobsters. The head guys make bail, but all the other goons are stuck in prison for a while.  All with the help of his fiery assistant/girlfriend Rachel.

In the meantime the joker is reigning terror all over the city. He's got the whole city demanding Batman's head.  He will keep killing more people until Batman reveals his identity. Well Bruce finally decides to reveal his identity, and stop hiding behind his mask. But instead Dent claims to be Batman at a press conference. So Dent is then taken into custody and will be transported to the main jail. This is Joker's chance to not only kill Dent but also possibly get Batman. Batman doesn't disappoint and shows up to save Dent and fight Joker. He could have killed him but chose not too. Then he's vulnerable and the presumed dead Lieutenant Gordon saves him.


Joker is taken into custody where he's ruffed up a bit but soon escapes using a cell phone bomb implanted into another inmate. During his time in jail, he uses the corruption of the Gotham police force to his advantage, and has them separate Dent and Rachel. Then each of these are hooked up to drums of oil and a bomb, and Batman/police will only be able to save one. Joker gives them the addresses of their location, and Batman says he's going to save Rachel while the police go to get Dent. Well that sneaky Joker told them the opposite addresses, and Batman is surprised to see Dent in the warehouse. They escape just in time, but Dent's face still gets half burned off. Rachel doesn't make it. Before she dies she told Bruce that she would wait for him to be done with his Batman phase, but then later wrote a letter to him that Alfred burns, saying she was choosing Dent.  This later carries on heavily with Bruce in the next movie.

Then an accountant who discovers the connection between Batman and Wayne Enterprises says he's going to reveal the truth on TV. Joker then issues a decree saying that unless the accountant is dead within an hour, he's going to blow up a hospital. It just so happens to be the hospital Dent is at, and he has a nice little conversation in which he pushes Dent into embracing his evil side. Dent escapes the hospital before it blows up, and then goes on a killing spree of those involved in Rachel's death. He then kidnaps Gordon's family.
  this moment was totally made up by Ledger, and they just decided to keep the cameras rolling because it was so awesome

The Joker also has another little game up his sleeve in which two ferrys, one filled with normal civilians, and the other with prisoners are each given a remote control that will blow up the others boat. The civilians take a vote that says they will push the button, whereas the prisoners throw their remote out of the window. But the civilians don't have the guts to do it. Knowing about the Joker's trickery, I can't help but think that perhaps the remotes were actually rigged to blow up the boat that it was on, to punish the people for choosing to kill the other boat. Alas we will never know.

Batman has his final fight with the Joker, and leaves him hanging from a building for the cops to find. He then rushes to help Gordon in his troubles with Dent. Gordon and Batman are both pretty disheartened by the turn that Dent has made, and as Dent almost kills Gordon's son, Batman takes him down. They decide to hide the hideous monster that Dent became, and say that Batman killed all of Dent's victims. He could be the person they needed to hate, so that all the good that Dent did would not be undone.

I really enjoy the fact that these aren't just flashy awesome action movies. They are that, plus there is also a lot of depth to them, including lots of discussions of right/wrong, justice/injustice.

Andrew apparently saw this movie 11 times in theater.

I totally agree that Heath Ledger posthumously won an Oscar for this role. He really went to another place in his characterization of the Joker. A lot of people wonder what happened to the Joker's storyline once Ledger passed away. We read that after all of the prisoners were moved over to Blackgate prison in the next movie, he was the sole remaining resident of Arkham Asylum. I think he probably just remained there and wasted away, what with no one there to feed him or anything like that, but who knows.


Andrews's Closing Thought: Maggie Gyllenhaal should have been blown up earlier in the movie

Up Next: Beetlejuice

Batman Begins

EEEK! We've made it to the best batman trilogy...only we dont have the final installment unfortunately. We decided to save these two movies so we could have a back to back marathon. The Dark Knight Rises is playing at the dollar theater down the street from us, but we decided to stay home and watch The Walking Dead instead tonight.

So Batman Begins is an amazing start to the series. I really love how we don't just come in to Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) already being batman, but we see what draws him to be this caped crusader. We first meet up with him where he has put himself in a third world prison so he can punish the criminals from in there with his fist. Liam Neeson shows up and invited Wayne to enter into a journey into discovering the true nature of delivering justice, through The League of Shadows. Wayne of course does it, who wouldnt?! I have just been informed that that was a flashback and he comes back from Princeton to be at a parole hearing for Joe Chill, the man who killed his parents. When Bruce was just a small boy he falls down a well attached to a bat cave and becomes seriously afraid of bats. Then his parents take him to an opera where bats are prominent. He gets freaked out and they leave early. Then they stumble upon a scared crook with a gun who gets spooked and jittery and ends up shooting the Mr and Mrs. This moment will forever associate bats and his parents murder, which is one of the greater reasons why he is still scared of bats even as a grown man. I'm a psych major, so i'm totally allowed to make that conclusion.



Let me just take a moment and talk about how great these flashbacks are. They aren't weird or too dramatic, but are just right. Mr. Wayne is perfect. He is an attentive and loving father who truly cares about making Gotham a better place. The Waynes built a free public transportation system for the city, and kept Gotham from falling into mass poverty by spending their own money for the city.

 

Anyway, Bruce considers killing Chill after the hearing, but the main mob boss in the city gets there first. Bruce's childhood friend and love interest Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) is the lawyer on the case, and gets him free because he is going to give them the dirt on the Falcone's (the big mob family). However the Falcone's paid off the judge presiding so they could get Chill in the open and kill him. Bruce then gets put in prison in the third world country and then enters into his training with Ra's Al Ghul. Al Ghul hopes that he will become his successor, but when Bruce refuses to kill people no matter their crime and help destroy Gotham, his hopes are shattered. Bruce sets the place on fire but rescues Liam Neeson. 

Bruce returns to Gotham for good, clear now on his mission. He comes up with the idea to create a symbol that can be used to save Gotham,whether its through fear or hope. This idea carries on throughout the entire series.  He beats up lots of people, and intervenes and finally gets the police the hard evidence they need to put the Falcones away. Once Falcone is put away, his business partner Dr. Crane (Scarecrow) decides to turn him crazy with an aerosol hallucinogenic so he doesn't snitch. Crane turns out to be the henchman of the real Ra's Al Ghul that we learn is Liam Neeson's character, and his plan to destroy Gotham remains. They are putting the drugs that the mob was bringing in, which are also cut with the hallucinogen into the water system. Then they plan on using a fancy microwave device made by Wayne Enterprises to evaporate all the water in the area, therefore exposing the people of Gotham to panic and terror which will then destroy the city. My main qualm with this, is how does the microwave device not evaporate all the water in the human body and kill everyone right on the spot??

Batman saves the day by going toe to toe with Al Ghul on the speeding train headed toward the main water supply. With the help of the amazing Sergeant Gordon (Gary Oldman)  he is able to destroy the train/mircowave device/ Al Ghul all in one swift crash. Batman says he isn't the one to kill Al Ghul, but he doesn't have to save him.

In the process of all these events, Wayne Manor is burnt to a crisp. Some of the corruption of Gotham goes away, but only a little. Batman becomes Gordon's best friend, and Rachel learns the truth over who is Batman, and he uses Crane's own poison against him.

In this movie, Batman's voice isn't too terrible. You can actually understand him. He just takes is one step too far in the following movies. Also, does anyone else think that his teeth just naturally look like bat teeth?

I'm currently watching Dawson's Creek on instant netflix, and it's such a nice change to see Katie Holmes as a mature actress who isn't constantly bumbling and self analyzing every single action.

Oh, silly me, I forgot to mention Alfred!! He is truly one of the greater things about these movies.


I think I've overloaded this blog, so I will leave it here.


Andrews Closing Thought: They should have blown up Rachel Dawes in this movie

Up Next: The Dark Knight