We’ve known it for years. We even talk about it: The Golden Globes are stupid. They’re like an elementary version of the Oscars, a way for lesser films to earn awards that would never win Oscars. Yes, the Golden Globes are considered a precursor to the Oscars, and often help in predicting what will be nominated in the future.
But I sure as hell hope Oscar voters go a different direction. The Golden Globes all but snubbed The Dark Knight. It’s understandable if it’s left out of the Best Drama race, but doesn’t Christopher Nolan deserve a nod for Best Director? And Best Score? There is no film with a better score this year.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona for Best Comedy? This one definitely shows how the Foreign Press think differently than those in America. I didn’t see it, but I didn’t hear it was all that good. And, frankly, there were much better comedies than such a film. Hell, it doesn’t really matter, though: Mamma Mia! will probably win, even though it doesn’t deserve it.
Another real surprise is Tom Cruise for Tropic Thunder. He was great in it, but Best Supporting Actor? For what is officially billed as an extended, over-the-top cameo? Really?
And where is Milk in the Best Picture category? I just got back from it and thought it deserves a chance. I haven’t seen four of the films on that list, but I have to say it edges out Slumdog Millionaire, and I can’t imagine Frost/Nixon is better (I’ll be seeing that one soon enough).
When I look at the list, I guess it isn’t that bad, but there are just a few really weird choices here. On the flip side, I give them props for giving major kudos to In Bruges, which is certainly one of the best comedies of the year despite the fact that no one saw it.
Do you agree with the nominations? What got screwed? What was a surprise?
Warner Brothers announced today that The Dark Knight, which can only be described as a complete and utter success, will be re-released to theaters on January 23, 2009, with the dual intent of cashing in just a little more on the Batman franchise and reminding Oscar voters just how damn good this movie really is.
Of course, The Dark Knight hits DVD this Tuesday, December 9th, which means that it should be in the living rooms of nearly everyone by the time January rolls around.
The question: with the DVD available, how many people will return to theaters? I am undecided, but it sure would be cool to see this movie for a fourth time in theaters. At the same time, that $10 ticket may scare me away.
Will you go see The Dark Knight in theaters again?
Unfortunately, The Dark Knight is not going to get the chance it deserves come next year’s Oscars. Apparently, according to Variety, the executive committee of the Academy Awards has ruled that the score for the A-rated Batman film is ineligible for competition because… it has too many composers.
To me, this seems like just the latest odd rule to be revealed by the Oscars over the last several years. Who cares how many composers a score has? Shouldn’t the determination be made about the final product, not the number of people who contributed? The Dark Knight has a pretty amazing score when you think about it (recall the low rumbling that develops as Harvey Dent is taken by police escort through the streets of Gotham), and it’s a shame it won’t be up for a nomination (assuming it were to be nominated). Warner Brothers must be in a tizzy.
The Friday box office results for August 1, 2008 are in, and it’s going to be a close one for box office crown. We have two films vying for first place this weekend: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the unwanted sequel starring Brenden Fraser, and the very-much-wanted sequel and box office behemoth The Dark Knight.
The Mummy 3 won the Friday battle, raking in $15.5 million, but it may not win the war. The Dark Knight dropped 45% from last weekend – still pretty damn good for a blockbuster of its size – to add another $12.8 million to its cume. Nevertheless, those smart analysts over at Box Office Prophets except, with some uncertainty, that the Batman movie may come out on top when final box office numbers are counted. For starters, The Mummy 3 may be a little bit frontloaded – whereas The Dark Knight has proven that people want to see it consistently any day of the week. At the very least, if it comes down to the wire, I could see Universal hedging the numbers a bit so that when the weekend box office estimates come out, The Mummy 3 is sitting on top.
Irregardless, this is a win for Universal. After the disaster that was The Mummy 2 (granted, it made a ton of money), Universal has to be pleased with a $40+ million opening weekend. While it didn’t look as bad as The Mummy Returns, the presence of yetis and poorly designed dragons – as well as God-awful reviews – had the average moviegoer thinking that this was a down-and-out release. I had pretty much forgotten that this was part of a very successful movie franchise, and that it’s still summer – a good amount of money can still be made.
As for The Dark Knight, the good news is that by the end of the weekend it will be closing in on $400 million, the fastest movie to do so. The bad news is that now, it is looking less and less likely that it will knock Titanic off its throne.
Kevin Costner’s Swing Vote, by the way, flopped with only $1.9 million on Friday, begging for a $5-6 million weekend. I feel bad for Costner, as I really want him to get a hit one of these days. That being said, it was clear from the beginning that Swing Vote was not going to be that comeback he so desperately needs.
Going into last week, I had a very strategic, three-touch plan to seeing The Dark Knight. I would see it opening night, at midnight, with all the freaks and geeks. I would then see it a few days later with my parents. I would then see it a third time on IMAX, as I’ve never seen a “real” movie on IMAX before. (more…)
In anticipation of The Dark Knight this Thursday, I rented the direct-to-DVD movie Batman: Gotham Knights, which hit stores this last Tuesday. Thankfully, I used my Netflix account, because the movie certainly wasn’t worth the money.
Batman: Gotham Knights is meant to bridge the gap between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, so I assumed there would be something about the Joker, so on and so forth. Hell, I thought there’d at least be a plot.
Instead, this Batman movie is six stories pieced together to create a feature-length, 75-minute action-drama. The first story, about a group of kids who all see Batman from a different perspective (one sees him as a shadow monster, another as an invincible robot, so on and so forth), is completely inane. Actually, it’s downright terrible, and does nothing to move the film along.
The other stories aren’t nearly as terrible, as they delve more into some known but little-used villains such as Killer Croc and Deadshot (oh, and Scarecrow, but after Batman Begins I wouldn’t call him “little-used” anymore). Still, short stories aren’t very exciting as it’s impossible to get into the stories with any emotional committment, and then there’s the fact that this movie is meant to bridge the gap between the two Christopher Nolan movies – yet it doesn’t. Maybe I should never have expected much, but I did.
Oh, and just for a record, I am a fan of the original Batman cartoon, so I’m not anti-cartoon. In fact, the visuals are pretty impressive, as the artwork used in the film are much more advanced than anything I used to watch on TV back in the day. The visuals are the only saving grace.
Batman: Gotham Knights has potential and some of its stories are better than others, but its lack of a single story or connection to the films make it a throwaway film.
77 hours. 77 hours until the lights will fade, the previews will begin, and the theater will roar as The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger and all, rolls onto the screen. Anticipation is high… in fact, amazingly high. In order to subdue my hype, however, I went searching for bad reviews, and, of course, went straight over to RottenTomatoes.
The reviews did not help in crushing my hopes. The movie only has an 88% fresh rating based on 20 reviews, and the snippets from the bad reviews include:
This movie is grim and jammed together. The narrative isn’t shaped coherently to bring out contrasts and build toward a satisfying climax. The Dark Knight is constant climax; it’s always in a frenzy, and it goes on forever. -David Denby, New Yorker
Why do comic-book movies want to be serious literature? That’s the problem with this movie the same way it was with 2006’s “Superman Returns.” Instead of being exciting pop-culture entertainment that forces the viewer to take it seriously, the movie takes itself too seriously – and misses the fun in the process. – Marshall Fine, Star Magazine
But then the novelty wears off and the lack of imagination, visual and otherwise, turns into a drag. The Dark Knight is noisy, jumbled, and sadistic. Even its most wondrous vision—Batman’s plunges from skyscrapers, bat-wings snapping open as he glides through the night like a human kite—can’t keep the movie airborne. There’s an anvil attached to that cape. – David Edelstein, New York Magazine
Actually, those are all of the rotten reviews thus far, and the first two don’t strike much confidence in me. Denby’s review is scathing, to say the least, but he loses me when he bashes Bale, Batman Begins and everything else I know I’ll like. I can’t pre-judge someone else’s movie review until I see The Dark Knight myself, but when someone hates a movie for being “perverse” and sounds like they hated the first one, too, credibility goes right out the window. After all, Batman Begins is the best comic book movie made, and so it’s unlikely I’m going to agree with him here.
Fine, who still gives the movie 2.5 stars, complains that the movie isn’t fun enough, and points out that comic book movies shouldn’t take themselves too seriously. That’s fine, but one gets the sense he doesn’t like realistic comic book movies, and again, we have a severe difference of opinion. I feel most comic book franchises, from Spider-Man to X-Men, would be best served by being grittier and adult-oriented.
The Dark Knight movie review by Edelstein is the most sobering, as he seems the most unbiased by Christopher Nolan’s approach. If I were to end up being disappointed by The Dark Knight, his review is what I’d write. He complains there’s too much dialogue and that the movie is too smart for its own good; could Nolan have gotten too caught up in the drama of it all that he forgot to make an exciting action movie? I doubt it, but we shall see.
More dampening are the fresh movie reviews that fall short of calling the movie a classic; they liked it but didn’t love it. I didn’t go on to read the movie reviews beyond the snippets in RottenTomatoes, but if The Dark Knight isn’t everything I wanted and more, it will probably fall in line with these reviews. After all, if you hype a movie up so much, you’re bound to be disappointed.
Of course, most of the Dark Knight movie reviews rave about the film; some call it a masterpiece; others a classic. At the very least, they say it’s an excellent film. Damn. My hype has not gone away.
The Dark Knight is one of the most anticipated movies of the year. Fandango is reporting that so many midnight showings have sold out that theaters are having to add 3am and 6am showings (although I just went and bought tickets for a midnight showing at the best theater in town without any problem). More importantly, though, employers should expect a worker shortage on Friday, July 18th, or at least a lack in productivity among their employees.
After all, a Fandango survey of 3,000 customers (presumably 3,000 of their customers that like to pay their high fees over and over again) revealed that a whopping 37% of people are planning to go see the new Batman film late Thursday night, and that 38% plan to take some or all of Friday off to recupurate.
I’ll provide my opinions on this one and the several other movie trailers that have been released in recent days later this week, but here’s the third, all-new movie trailer for the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight returns:
The movie trailer really doesn’t show much new footage, but things are presented in a different way. They are taking great care to slowly tune each marketing piece that comes to audiences, as this movie trailer is even better than the last. The music fades out in a couple weird spots, and I wish they would end the trailer with more of a money shot, but that’s just being picky.
A recent survey conducted by FilmJabber.com found that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was expected to be the best of the summer by moviegoers. The Harrison Ford-starring film, the first Indiana Jones movie in nearly two decades, has been buzzing, and 27% of the survey takers said it “will be the best blockbuster of the summer.”
Indiana Jones narrowly beat out The Dark Knight, which came in second with 26%. Third place belonged to the already-released Iron Man, which received 9% of the votes.
However, among men, The Dark Knight was considered to be the best by 34% of the group versus 21% for Indiana Jones. Among women, 31% expect Indiana Jones to be the best movie of the summer. Whereas one might expect Sex and the City to have ranked high in this category, The Dark Knight still came in second with 16%.
All of this bodes well for Thursday’s release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which is a frontrunner to make more money than any other film this summer – and perhaps this year. Reviews have been mixed, but I wouldn’t expect anything less. The hype is so high that people are bound to be disappointed – more than likely, this is a film that will thrill and entertain more on a second viewing.
