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The good, the bat and the ugly

The Dark Knight Rises

Christopher Nolan’s epic Batman trilogy comes to a satisfying, if occasionally clunky, conclusion with The Dark Knight Rises. While it is easily the least satisfying of the three Nolan films, that’s only because it doesn’t quite attain the masterpiece stature of his Batman Begins or The Dark Knight. All things considered, it’s still a damned good ride. Set eight years after the events of the last film, it features a reclusive and weary Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) hiding out in his cavernous house for a good chunk of the movie. His knees are shot, his will is bent, and he’s starting to annoy Alfred (Michael Caine) who wants him to get a new girlfriend. In short, Bruce Wayne is not living the good life after his beloved Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight and Katie Holmes in Batman Begins) met an untimely end. And as things in Gotham begin to boil over in the absence of the Bat, he’s seriously considering a return to costumed vigilantism. When Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) gets into trouble, that seals the deal for Batman’s return. Wayne/Batman’s main adversary in the movie is Bane, a brilliant, strategizing Neanderthal who wears a mask and is infamous for breaking Batman’s back in the comics. As played by Tom Hardy, Bane winds up being the film’s biggest flaw because Nolan and crew have completely blown it with his voice. From the instant Hardy delivered his first line in the film’s opening airplane sequence, the voice struck me as very odd and very “clean” for a guy wearing a mask. It’s no secret that many patrons who saw TDKR preview footage

whined about not being able to understand Bane. Nolan refused to retool his voice at first, but relented and redid some of the vocals in postproduction. The result is something that feels inorganic, cartoonish and not happening in the moment. Bane’s weird inflections often have the feel of an actor sitting in a recording booth rather than trying to push dialogue through an obstructive mask. To say the least, it’s distracting, and by Bane has plenty of dialogue so you can’tBob Grimm escape the problem. bgrimm@ Now, as a physical opponent for Batman, newsreview.com well, he’s a lot of fun. There are two smackdowns between the characters that are awesomely staged. They are also quite scary4 because we know that Batman has been out of it for a while, and his fighting chops aren’t up to snuff. So, in the end I took Bane for what he was: Avery formidable and ultimately entertaining physical opponent for Batman that sounds a little like a strangely happy Ian McKellen’s Gandalf after a whiskey bender, with a little bit of Darth Vader thrown in for good measure. Also on the villain front, there’s Selina Kyle, played this time out by Anne Hathaway. The film never refers to her as Catwoman, but we all know who she is. Hathaway takes a subtle approach to the role that works beautifully. As Blake, a rookie cop with an allegiance to the Batman and a growing disillusionment with the system, Joseph Gordon-Levitt steals his scenes. He has a certain power on screen that will make you hope the series continues with him in a bigger role. Overall, this is Bale’s movie. You could make a convincing argument that he was a little overshadowed by Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart in The Dark Knight. This installment moves his Bruce Wayne back to the center. The movie plays a lot on current events and themes, including political upheaval, lower class disenchantment, terrorism and financial corruption. The first two Nolan Batman’s were pizza parties with otters and kittens compared to this one, so be prepared for something that is often somber. Even with the stupid Bane voice, there’s enough greatness in The Dark Knight Rises to make it one of the summer’s better spectacles. I’m a big fan of Frank Miller’s graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. This movie might be the closest thing we’ll ever get to a film of Miller’s masterpiece. Ω

How does he eat?

1

POOR

2

FAIR

3

GOOD

4

VERY GOOD

5

EXCELLENT

2Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Honestly, this was one of the movies I was most excited about this year. Abraham Lincoln killing vampires—how could they go wrong? Director Timur Bekmambetov has most certainly found a way, turning in a boring, redundant and humorless film that blows it in most categories. Benjamin Walker is given little to do as Lincoln. He walks around looking glum and occasionally swings an axe at very unconvincing vampires. The movie speculates that the Confederacy was full of vampires during the Civil War, and it has absolutely no fun with this idea. I was hoping for something that I could file alongside the likes of Evil Dead 2with this one—good, sick fun with a dash of camp humor. Instead, we get a movie that’s as tedious and bland as the Underworld films. It will surely stand as one of the year’s biggest cinematic letdowns.

2The Amazing Spider-Man I think it’s fair to say that Marc Webb was not a good choice to helm a big budget summer blockbuster. His sole feature credit is the sweet (500) Days of Summer, a film that, to the best of my memory, had nothing like a big CGI lizard man in it. This is a “reboot” of the Spidey franchise, with Sam Raimi parting ways producers after his outrageously bad Spider-Man 3and an aborted attempt at a Spider-Man 4that would’ve seen John Malkovich as a vulture dude. Webb gets it all wrong, from his casting of SpiderMan (Andrew Garfield) and Gwen Stacey (Emma Stone), to the terrible operatic soundtrack, and, most disappointingly, a truly bad screen rendition of The Lizard (played drably by Rhys Ifans). As it turns out, Webb can’t handle an action scene to save his life. Garfield, so good in The Social Network, takes an “Oh-gosh-golly-gee-willickers-please-likemy-nerd-ass!” approach to the role of Peter Parker. It’s cute for about five minutes, and then it gets pretty painful to watch.

4Brave After the severe misstep that was Cars 2, Pixar gets back to goodness with this, the tale of Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald). Merida is a princess who doesn’t want to conform to tradition, shooting arrows better than any of the boys in or around her kingdom, and not really too keen about marrying any of them under arranged circumstances. When a spell is cast on family members, she must search for a way to restore normalcy, while convincing her mom (Emma Thompson) that she has the right to choose her own destiny. Merida is a fun character, and Macdonald is the perfect voice for her. As for the look of this movie, it is beautiful for its entire running time. While I’ve liked many Pixar films more than this one, that is not a dig on this movie. It might not be one of the best the studio has offered, but it is still a highly entertaining piece of work.

1Ice Age: Continental Drift The animated wooly mammoth (Ray Romano), saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) and sloth (John Leguizamo) take yet another journey to the land of the suck in this fourth, and undoubtedly not last, installment of the popular kiddie adventures. When the continents crack, the mammoth winds up on a floating piece of ice far away from the wife and kid, so he spends the movie trying to get back. Along the way, he does battle with a stupid pirate monkey (Peter Dinklage) that sings the dumbest song you will hear this or any year. Because this is in 3-D, the film offers a lot of action sequences, sacrificing plot for a whole lot of “whoosh.” In a summer that offers the likes of Brave, parents are better off just taking their kids to that movie twice than subjecting their prepubescent eyes to this thing. I actually got tired watching this due to all of the frantic 3-D movement. I fear these Ice Agemovies are going to keep on coming. 3Magic Mike Loosely based on the pre-Hollywood stripper life of Channing Tatum, the man himself stars as the title character in this dark character study from director Steven Soderbergh. While there are plentiful shots of male butt and thongs to go around, the film does have a semi-deep and dark narrative, so it’s not all about stripping. Tatum continues to impress as an actor, and the film allows him to mix drama with comedy effectively. Matthew McConaughey, who I’d say is in better shape than anybody in this movie, is fun as the stripper gang ringleader. Alex Pettyfer is pretty good as the up-and-coming stripper who has a few lessons to learn, while Cody Horn is a little drab as his sister and Mike’s potential love interest. This one isn’t a jolly romp, so don’t be bringing your bachelorette parties to it. There was one at my screening, and they were not having a good time.

5Moonrise Kingdom Writer-director Wes Anderson’s return to live action after his animated gem Fantastic Mr. Fox is probably the most “Wes Anderson” Wes Anderson movie yet, and that’s a good thing if you love the guy (I do!). The story here is set in 1965, where Sam the Khaki Scout (newcomer Jared Gilman) has flown the coop during a camping expedition, much to the worry of Scout Master Ward, (Edward Norton, in his funniest performance yet). Sam runs away with Suzy (Kara Hayward, also a newcomer), and they have themselves a romantic couple of days while parents and authority figures frantically search for them. The adolescent puppy love story is treated with the sort of storybook grace one would expect from Anderson. Every shot is a thing of beauty. Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand and Jason Schwartzman all contribute wonderfully in what stands, and will stand, as one of the year’s best films.

3Snow White and the Huntsman The 347th Snow Whitemovie this year is actually a fairly decent one, with Kristen Stewart doing a fine job as the title character and Chris Hemsworth contributing nicely as the ax-wielding Hunstman. Best of all the cast is Charlize Theron as Ravenna, a loony queen hell-bent on staying young and eating Snow’s heart. Director Rupert Sanders puts together a swell visual movie, especially in the way he creates dwarves out of actors like Nick Frost, Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins and Toby Jones. The movie is quite good when it features Snow White running around in various enchanted forests, though not so much in the final act, where it becomes a weird Joan of Arc movie. The last act feels tacked on, like it belongs on another film. Still, Stewart is quite winning here and Theron is a bona fide scene-stealer.

4Ted Family Guycreator Seth MacFarlane makes his feature film directorial debut with one of the year’s funniest movies. MacFarlane lends his voice to the title character, an obnoxious teddy bear given the gift of speech and life after a wish by his child owner, John. The two never part, even when John, played as an adult by Mark Wahlberg, is in his 30s. They become pot-smoking buddies, and John’s girlfriend (Mila Kunis) starts to get annoyed. For those of you simply looking for good, raunchy, super R-rated comedy, Ted has got the goods. But MacFarlane also takes the human elements of the story seriously, and they wind up being quite charming. It’s a major directorial feat when a first timer creates an animated teddy bear character that’s more well-rounded than most actual human characters in movies today.

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NATHAN OWENS MOTOWN LEGENDS

JULY 27 – JULY 30 AUGUST 3 – AUGUST 6 AUGUST 10 – AUGUST 13 AUGUST 24 – AUGUST 27 AUGUST 31 – SEPTEMBER 3

THE B-52s

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15

PENN & TELLER

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

TOMMY CASTRO’S BLUES REVUE

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15

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