Sunday, July 29, 2012

THE DARK KNIGHT review RETURNS

Yes, this is a re-post.  It's my review of the DARK KNIGHT from August, 2008.  Like I said earlier, I thought the latest one was okay but not as much fun as the previous two.   But the second film inspired me to write this: 
Why would anyone live in Gotham City? Jesus! You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting six mob bosses. And then there’s the town’s super psycho villain – they couldn’t find someone a little more aesthetically pleasing? Children watch those televised truck chases too, y’know. And Juneau appears to have more daytime in the winter than Gotham City. Does it get dark everyday at noon?

The skyline is harsh and impersonal. All that’s missing are smokestacks and an American Girl Place Experience.

No wonder a suped-up roadster/tank can get around in relative ease and drive at 100 mph through heavily populated city streets. Until Allstate offers “explosion insurance”, who wants to drive at night there?

Not that I feel sorry for the citizens. They have this superhero who seems to save them from annihilation every few weeks and he’s less popular than Andruw Jones with Dodger fans. What does a bat have to do to get some love in that kooky town?

And how stupid are these criminals? Why not just move their operations to Scottsdale. Let’s see how well Batman and Spiderman fly around when the tallest building is a four story Holiday Inn.

I don’t know what’s a worse job – Police Commissioner of Gotham City or President of their Tourist Bureau. Note to summer sight-seers: stay off the ferries.

Quick aside: Wouldn’t you love to see AMERICAN IDOL open auditions in Gotham City? Paula would be mistaken for the Joker.

I used to think the Joker was a brilliant mastermind until I realized a number of his fiendish plots were a direct lift from SAW.

DARK KNIGHT was a fun ride and Heath Ledger steals the movie (and everything else). But is it just me? I’m reaching the superhero saturation point. I’ve sympathized enough with tortured reluctant caped crusaders. And these movies all seem to turn on the heroes’ inability to kill the mass murderer psychopath villain because of some “code”. That doesn’t seem real. Oh… wait. We’re talking about guys who wear spandex suits and can fly – strike that last objection.

DARK KNIGHT is worth seeing but please Hollywood, no more comic books. The only character left is Bazooka Joe.

6 comments :

Unknown said...

The title made me chuckle, that alone made this worth a repost :-)

Mike said...

Bazooka Joe movie, you say? Less than a year after you wrote this piece, Michael Eisner comissioned a Bazooka Joe script.
(Eisner owned Topps, the trading card company.)
But then, Mars Attacks was originally a Topps trading card series from 1962.

Paul Duca said...

Ken...I thought you'd appreciate this--a trailer for 2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY, redone as if it were a modern summer action film:



http://news.yahoo.com/space-odyssey-were-reimagined-hollywood-blockbuster-001132342.html

Thomas said...

That summed my thoughts up quite well. However, in the intervening years, we got piled with Thors, Iron Men, and all the rest. And it gave you an appreciation of just how different TDK was, how much more ambitious. After all, it could have just hired Natalie Portman and Kat Dennings and not attempt to push a single boundary

Anonymous said...

Hi Ken, Friday Question - as you have experience of writing for sitcoms in four different decades, which for you delivered *your* favourite sitcoms and which of the changes over the years have been positive and which...not so much? You of course wrote for the best of the post-Great Gelbart M*A*S*H seasons (and ran probably the best of those - Season 7) I wonder were you affected by the "Family Hour" policy? Finally, though you are justifiably proud of not disgracing the series post-Larry, were you and David ever irritated by some of the bowdlerisation such as Hawkeye becoming more of a paragon, less "real", and *more* insufferable, and Margaret being excused of any of her more unpleasant traits and becoming Mary Poppins or did you just make the most of it (the series only fell off a cliff post Season 7 and post-Radar, after all?!)? Thanks for your fine weblog and sorry if this comes out anonymous, I can't get the other options to work!
Regards, Robert Hal

Anonymous said...

God, I'm going to sound like a suck up. But your reviews and commentary are so funny and spot-on. Julie