starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman, and Anthony Michael Hall as Mike Engel

not too many movies live up to the hype. this one does. not too many movies have actors playing the main superhero who is the least accomplished actor in the cast, this one does. not too many movies are filmed in chicago while trying to depict “gotham”, the dark knight does.

in many ways this is a film about exceptions. who would have the guts to try to step into a role the jack nicholson nailed? and yet heath ledger took it to a better place. who would have the courage to cast the far more earthy (and older) maggie gyllenhaal into the femme fatale role instead of a megan fox.

in many ways maggie was miscast, but it fit in the general scheme of being a tad more a drama than a summer action rollercoaster. yes there were all the typical trappings, but at its heart were the quick one-liners, dark themes, and fast jags of the comic book genre.

but man was it long.

karisa and i f’ed up and had dinner beforehand replete with a bottle of vino and although it lubed us up real nice-like for the film, about halfway through we both were eyeing for the restroom, so if you havent seen it yet, my advice is to pretend that youre about to go on a long trip (you are) so pee before you leave.

christopher nolan did a good job of directing. it looked beautiful. i love seeing chicago done well. it was even nice to see lower wacker being used (if not for predictable reasons), but where was my wrigley field?

what i missed was some metal in the soundtrack. does anyone remember metal?

does heath deserve an oscar? no. was he not perfect? yes. but the joker isnt that difficult of a role to act in. you just hafta be crazy. who isnt crazy? and if youre not crazy you can act crazy.

bale, even though hes the poor mans tom cruise, proved its much much harder to act tough – a role he has still yet mastered.