As I was saying ...

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile -- I've had a cold.

So to get back to it: seriously, The Dark Knight is *really* one the best movies of the year, with an 'Oscar IOU for Heath Ledger'?!? (btb, did you hear that the guy who played The Joker died this year? It's true!)

I mean, what the fuck ... the guy who made Memento made this dismal, leaden, cliched ball of gas?
Where 'the' Batman speaks like a constipated Nathan Explosion (Dethklok, baby!)?
Where Harvey Dent looks like half the Cryptkeeper or Ahnuld in Terminator 2 Electric Boogaloo (really, wouldn't that eyeball dry out and pop in about 30 minutes, and wouldn't sepsis take down the rest of his face)?
Where the Joker says he 'chooses chaos' and compares himself to a dog that wouldn't know what to do when he catches the car he's been chasing, yet clearly has planned 1000 intricate contraptions to all happen 'just so' and bring down Gotham City?
Where the line 'That's too much power for one man to have' is uttered and the movie is not Malcolm X?
Where Batman pummels the Joker in the interrogation room -- even breaks a window with his head -- and the Joker doesn't even bleed, much less fall down or stop talking (when a single Batman punch to anyone else in the movie instantly knocks them unconscious)?
Where Eric Roberts' character is dropped from a building and breaks both legs, and then is next seen lightly hobbling with just a cane? (Also, Eric Roberts' real face is scarier than Harvey Dent's burned one.)
I could go on ... and on and on, just like the movie does, but then we all lose.

As my wife put it: 'You know, Space Chimps was a horrible movie also, but at least it was over in 75 minutes.'

Look, I *LIKE* dark movies -- but this movie confuses being underlit to being *heavy, man*!! Personally, I enjoyed Heath Ledger's scenery chewing -- he was about the only thing worth watching in the entire movie, but if you take out all his scenes you've still got another 90 minutes of dismal (we left the theater calling it 'The Dark & Boring Night').

And this isn't the hype's fault -- Batman is about the only cartoon guy I find interesting (and that's almost entirely from 1980's Batman books from Alan Moore and Frank Miller), but I wasn't lining up at midnight to see this movie, or the last one. However, the critical acclaim on this thing has been nearly unanimous -- 'masterpiece!', 'brilliant!', 'Best. Superhero. Movie. EVER!!' and it's just baffling to me.

Dis/agree? Tell me about it, and I'll get back to you in about 16 months.

PS: On an unrelated note, after seeing Children of Men and Sin City, I owe that ol' croupier, Clive Owen, an apology...