Two Very Different Movies

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) (41/50 movies)

I have seen this twice since it came out. I went to see it on night it opened, and I had just come from a coworker's going away party, then I proceeded to have two more Narragansetts at the theater...let's just say that, while I enjoyed it, some of it was, how shall I say, lost to me. For real, I was reading about it later and realized there was stuff there I simply didn't remember. So I remedied this by going to see it again, obviously, and I thought the second time was even better, again, obviously.  I usually don't see movies twice these days, this was more of a necessity since I was so excited to see it. But I am willing to see it again if anyone wants to go. Anyway: the movie. Christopher Nolan really sticks the landing for his more "realistic" Batman trilogy here, keeping in spirit of the world he created, kept evolving in The Dark Knight, and looped back around coming full circle from Batman Begins in finally closing out the trilogy. There was some really great stuff here: some of the acting is amazing, I think, honestly Christopher Bale might do his best work here, Michael Caine, as Alfred, definitely does their "breakup" scene is really some of his best stuff. I am not a big fan of Anne Hathaway and I was really worried about her here as Selina Kyle, more cat burglar than Catwoman, but she did a really good job, much better than I expected. Oh and Tom Hardy as Bane, due to the fact that he has a huge mask over his face he had to do most of his acting with his eyes and with his body and it it is amazing, to me, what he is able to pull off. (Really all the principles do really well here)  Christopher Nolan had started getting better staging action scenes better from The Dark Knight to Inception, and here are they are well done. I honestly think Hans Zimmer does some of his best work on the score here. So yeah, I think it was well done, it's not without it's flaws, sure, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives, and I am not just saying that because of how excited I was to see it. I know there was (and is) a lot of talk about Bane, and his army, and how much the movie is a commentary on the Occupy Wallstreet movement and what not. I'm not going to go into a treatise about this movie and class warfare and what not, I don't think I could do it well anyway, but my 2 cents is that Bane and his army, in this movie, struck me as more analogous to the French Revolution than the Occupy Wallstreet movement.

Now I Rate Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy:
1) The Dark Knight
2) The Dark Knight Rises
3) Batman Begins


Thank you.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) (42/50 movies)

A small, indie comedy about three coworkers at a Seattle magazine (it might actually be called Seattle Magazine) who go to a small seaside town in the Pacific Northwest to do a story on a man who claims that he is building a time machine and wants a partner to go back in time with. My black, cynical heart tells me that I should just throw this movie out a window. But, I have to admit there is a sweetness to it that I can't deny, and, against my best efforts it wormed it's way back into my heart. Mark Duplass plays the man who may, or may not, be unstable and may or may not be actually building a time machine and Aubrey Plaza plays pretty much the same role as she does on Parks and Rec but gets to show herself getting worn down by Duplass' character's openness and charm, if that's the best word for it. In some ways it's pretty typically indie, in some ways it stays weirder and funnier then your typical low key indie comedy. And the end will definitely have people talking one way or the other. In fact the ending might be the dealbreaker for a lot of people. I will say I also enjoyed the two people that came with Aubrey Plaza's character to the town, I enjoyed their chemistry and interplay.

I will say though the Pacific Northwest locales here are really beautiful. They keep showing these shots of the characters in and around the beach, it seems to be Autumn, and the shots are really pretty. Reminds me of this old Saves The Day album cover with the sun bleeding past the people's heads.

-Kevin