The Dark Knight (2008)

I had been wanting to watch this movie in theaters, but never took the opportunity. I rented it on Thursday from RedBox but didn't get around to watching it until Saturday night with Jen. Both Jen and I loved "Batman Begins" and therefore were looking forward to watching "The Dark Knight".

First off the film was wonderfully shot. I am a fan of real-world cinematography and to see it shot using New York as Gotham was really cool. It added a feeling of realism to the movie, which perhaps as you see below may have been a problem.

Heath Ledger as the "Joker" was very believable. I was quite disturbed and uncomfortable every time he was on the screen. His portrayal was quite sadistic and dark.

Overall, however, I was taken back by the depravity of the movie. The villainy was realistic and frightening. In many ways it detracted from Batman, aka Bruce Wayne, and as a result I found the Batman to be a more hollow character this time around as opposed to the character in "Batman Begins". The voice modification that they gave Batman was actually quite grating each time I heard it.

Overall the movie was good, boderline great. But Batman's voice as well as the sheer realism of the villains was quite disturbing and detracted from my overall enjoyment of the movie. I am still, several days later, questioning the rating of "PG-13" for this movie.

Glory Road

Title: Glory Road (2006)

Rating: 7/10

Today the wife and I took some time to ourselves and went out to eat and to see the movie Glory Road. The choice of the movie was made as a result of having free tickets, and also wanting to see it.

Overall the movie was pretty good, but not as good as a movie similar in nature--Remember the Titans. I say it was similar in that both movies address the struggles of African-American teams in overcoming social and racial stereotypes. So in that way they were similar, but I don't believe that they are the same caliber from movie making and cinematic perspectives.

Glory Road has some dull parts, most often when they sought to build the off-the-court lives of the characters in the movie. This was most likely to show that they were looked down at in every aspect of their lives, but needless to say it just caused the movie to drag at times.

The import of this move speaks volumes and has been written about on numerous ocassions at ESPN. Many people credit the real life story of this basketball team of opening up college basketball, particularly in the south and back east, to black ball players. So for that alone I believe the movie should be seen.

Would I see it again in theatres--not likely. Would I want to buy it--eventually. It was a good movie, but it is the real life story that it was based upon that makes this movie important.