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Catching up...
Mar. 21st, 2010 01:19 pmOn Monday my friend and her husband are leaving for a 6 month extended honeymoon travelling around the Americas. I was meant to spent this evening attending their farewell drinks in Soho. Unfortunately, she has gone down with a nasty stomach bug and is too sick to go out. Her husband was taking her to see a doctor today to try and find out whether she will be well enough to travel by Monday. Poor thing! I feel awful for her and have my fingers and toes crossed that it is a 24 hour bug type thing and she'll be fighting fit in time to begin her big adventure.
As a result of my friend being indisposed I suddenly found myself at a loose end on a Saturday night. Fortunately, Lovefilm had just sent me 'The Dark Knight' so I had the perfect opportunity to watch it. Now I'm a bit of a Batman fan. I love the camp 60s TV show and the 90s movies and he is definitely my favourite superhero. I saw 'Batman Begins' around 18 months ago and thought it was pretty good. I could have done without the first 30 minutes in which Bruce travels to Asia and learns martial arts but otherwise it was fine. I even thought Katie Holmes' performance was quite good. I had wanted to see 'The Dark Knight' at the cinema but it proved impossible to find a suitable night. Obviously it's a blockbuster with loads of visual effects so it would have been much better on a big screen. Generally it didn't disappoint. I thought it was dramatic, well thought out, well scripted and contained fine performances from the lead actors. Admittedly it was a bit long. I was kind of glad I didn't see it in the cinema as I had to take a comfort break around the 2 hour mark which would have been very annoying for the people me. I also found Christian Bale's raspy 'Batman' voice a bit annoying but this may be because a friend told me he found it irritating which made me notice it more. Additionally, where were all the women? Rachel Dawes was the only significant female character and she was bumped off two thirds of the way through. In my opinion one of the best things about Batman through the years has been it's strong female characters. Bring back Catwoman!
It was good to see non-US actors strongly represented in the cast with three Brits, an Australian and three Americans making up the core cast. I found it interesting that Michael Caine was the only main cast member who didn't have an assistant credited (although his personal costumer was credited). Morgan Freeman had an assistant, costumer, driver, hair stylist, make-up artist and bodyguard credited and he was only in about ten scenes!
I was aware that the movie was partly filmed in London so I was watching out for tell tale signs. It was all very slick though. I find it utterly fascinating how movies are put together with neighbouring scenes filmed in different countries. I was also pleased to spot Sarah Jayne Dunn (Mandy from Hollyoaks) in her tiny role as a gangster's mistress. She did pretty well and I'm sure she's glad to have that role on her CV as she hasn't done much else other than a recurring role on Doctors. I also spotted Bronson Webb in a small role as a heavy (or 'Bounty Hunter' according to the credits). Bronson will be familiar to anyone who used to watch The Tribe when it was shown as part of 'The Core' on Channel 5 as he appeared in the ultra low budget 'comedy' (note inverted commas) Harry and Cosh which was often show in the same strand. I had a look at his profile on IMDB and it seems that his career is going significantly better than that of his Harry and Cosh co-stars. Specialising in playing a thug/vandal/hooligan is clearly a good career move for a young actor.
I'll finish this review with a couple of questions. Firstly, the Joker seems to have no shortage of willing henchmen. Why would anyone want to do this job? Surely it's an obviously high risk occupation which looks like it has little prospect of significant reward. Secondly, why did Maggie Gyllenhaal's sound unconvincing when she is actually a genuine American? On a slightly different point I think Christian Bale and Ed Westwick (Chuck Bass in Gossip Girl) must share the same UK to US dialect coach. Their US accents sound similarly odd.
As a result of my friend being indisposed I suddenly found myself at a loose end on a Saturday night. Fortunately, Lovefilm had just sent me 'The Dark Knight' so I had the perfect opportunity to watch it. Now I'm a bit of a Batman fan. I love the camp 60s TV show and the 90s movies and he is definitely my favourite superhero. I saw 'Batman Begins' around 18 months ago and thought it was pretty good. I could have done without the first 30 minutes in which Bruce travels to Asia and learns martial arts but otherwise it was fine. I even thought Katie Holmes' performance was quite good. I had wanted to see 'The Dark Knight' at the cinema but it proved impossible to find a suitable night. Obviously it's a blockbuster with loads of visual effects so it would have been much better on a big screen. Generally it didn't disappoint. I thought it was dramatic, well thought out, well scripted and contained fine performances from the lead actors. Admittedly it was a bit long. I was kind of glad I didn't see it in the cinema as I had to take a comfort break around the 2 hour mark which would have been very annoying for the people me. I also found Christian Bale's raspy 'Batman' voice a bit annoying but this may be because a friend told me he found it irritating which made me notice it more. Additionally, where were all the women? Rachel Dawes was the only significant female character and she was bumped off two thirds of the way through. In my opinion one of the best things about Batman through the years has been it's strong female characters. Bring back Catwoman!
It was good to see non-US actors strongly represented in the cast with three Brits, an Australian and three Americans making up the core cast. I found it interesting that Michael Caine was the only main cast member who didn't have an assistant credited (although his personal costumer was credited). Morgan Freeman had an assistant, costumer, driver, hair stylist, make-up artist and bodyguard credited and he was only in about ten scenes!
I was aware that the movie was partly filmed in London so I was watching out for tell tale signs. It was all very slick though. I find it utterly fascinating how movies are put together with neighbouring scenes filmed in different countries. I was also pleased to spot Sarah Jayne Dunn (Mandy from Hollyoaks) in her tiny role as a gangster's mistress. She did pretty well and I'm sure she's glad to have that role on her CV as she hasn't done much else other than a recurring role on Doctors. I also spotted Bronson Webb in a small role as a heavy (or 'Bounty Hunter' according to the credits). Bronson will be familiar to anyone who used to watch The Tribe when it was shown as part of 'The Core' on Channel 5 as he appeared in the ultra low budget 'comedy' (note inverted commas) Harry and Cosh which was often show in the same strand. I had a look at his profile on IMDB and it seems that his career is going significantly better than that of his Harry and Cosh co-stars. Specialising in playing a thug/vandal/hooligan is clearly a good career move for a young actor.
I'll finish this review with a couple of questions. Firstly, the Joker seems to have no shortage of willing henchmen. Why would anyone want to do this job? Surely it's an obviously high risk occupation which looks like it has little prospect of significant reward. Secondly, why did Maggie Gyllenhaal's sound unconvincing when she is actually a genuine American? On a slightly different point I think Christian Bale and Ed Westwick (Chuck Bass in Gossip Girl) must share the same UK to US dialect coach. Their US accents sound similarly odd.
