The Dark Knight (unspoilery thoughts)

Finally saw The Dark Knight tonight.

Oh wow.

WOW.

I am sort of non-verbal right now. It was excellent, even if it was one of the bleakest movies I've seen.

Heath Ledger as the Joker was amazing. Amazing. Now I see what all the fuss was about. The movie got a little more fun, a little better and involving, when he came on screen. You couldn't help but laugh at what he was doing, even if it was horrible (and I love that this version of the Joker is perfectly sane, just with goals very off the radar for a normal person).

Oh, and oh, Bruce. Seriously, the way this new reimagining is going, with making worse and worse things happen to him, I think they might run out of the parade of horribles to do to him, soon. Oddly, I think a part of him always craves the punishment though: he has issues and guilt complex a mile wide (the one thing Rachel got right is not wanting to be in a relationship where you are the other party's sole reason for normalcy. That would be hard to put up with. At least not without loving the guy a lot more than she did).

My favorite character in the movie was actually neither Batman nor Joker, but Harvey Dent. He wasn't a superhero, or a chaotic terrorist, he was just a very good, very human person who broke under some incredibly horrific things done to him and his loved ones. I don't know, I rooted for him and really felt for him and he just made me think of old-time mob proescutors. You had to be a little crazy to take this job, knowing the life expectancy, and then of course the catalogue of horrors pushed him over the edge.

Rachel? Ugh. I used to think it was Katie Holmes' nonacting that made her so irritating, but Maggie G is a much better actress, so I am forced to conclude Nolan just can't write women. Ther biggest suspension of disbelief for me wasn't Batman's powers or Joker's abilities, it was that such complex and interesting men like Bruce and Harvey both thought the sun rose and set on Rachel Dawes.

Oh, and Commissioner Gordon? LOVE.

With all this, I still like Batman Begins better. Don't know why (TDK was excellent) but I do.

Our trailers were wonderful: Blindness, The Watchmen, the Bond movie, Body of Lies (I think that's the name), the Coen Brothers movie, etc. Yay.

Can you link me to your TDK write-ups? Please?

The Dark Knight (unspoilery thoughts)

Finally saw The Dark Knight tonight.

Oh wow.

WOW.

I am sort of non-verbal right now. It was excellent, even if it was one of the bleakest movies I've seen.

Heath Ledger as the Joker was amazing. Amazing. Now I see what all the fuss was about. The movie got a little more fun, a little better and involving, when he came on screen. You couldn't help but laugh at what he was doing, even if it was horrible (and I love that this version of the Joker is perfectly sane, just with goals very off the radar for a normal person).

Oh, and oh, Bruce. Seriously, the way this new reimagining is going, with making worse and worse things happen to him, I think they might run out of the parade of horribles to do to him, soon. Oddly, I think a part of him always craves the punishment though: he has issues and guilt complex a mile wide (the one thing Rachel got right is not wanting to be in a relationship where you are the other party's sole reason for normalcy. That would be hard to put up with. At least not without loving the guy a lot more than she did).

My favorite character in the movie was actually neither Batman nor Joker, but Harvey Dent. He wasn't a superhero, or a chaotic terrorist, he was just a very good, very human person who broke under some incredibly horrific things done to him and his loved ones. I don't know, I rooted for him and really felt for him and he just made me think of old-time mob proescutors. You had to be a little crazy to take this job, knowing the life expectancy, and then of course the catalogue of horrors pushed him over the edge.

Rachel? Ugh. I used to think it was Katie Holmes' nonacting that made her so irritating, but Maggie G is a much better actress, so I am forced to conclude Nolan just can't write women. Ther biggest suspension of disbelief for me wasn't Batman's powers or Joker's abilities, it was that such complex and interesting men like Bruce and Harvey both thought the sun rose and set on Rachel Dawes.

Oh, and Commissioner Gordon? LOVE.

With all this, I still like Batman Begins better. Don't know why (TDK was excellent) but I do.

Our trailers were wonderful: Blindness, The Watchmen, the Bond movie, Body of Lies (I think that's the name), the Coen Brothers movie, etc. Yay.

Can you link me to your TDK write-ups? Please?

The Dark Knight (unspoilery thoughts)

Finally saw The Dark Knight tonight.

Oh wow.

WOW.

I am sort of non-verbal right now. It was excellent, even if it was one of the bleakest movies I've seen.

Heath Ledger as the Joker was amazing. Amazing. Now I see what all the fuss was about. The movie got a little more fun, a little better and involving, when he came on screen. You couldn't help but laugh at what he was doing, even if it was horrible (and I love that this version of the Joker is perfectly sane, just with goals very off the radar for a normal person).

Oh, and oh, Bruce. Seriously, the way this new reimagining is going, with making worse and worse things happen to him, I think they might run out of the parade of horribles to do to him, soon. Oddly, I think a part of him always craves the punishment though: he has issues and guilt complex a mile wide (the one thing Rachel got right is not wanting to be in a relationship where you are the other party's sole reason for normalcy. That would be hard to put up with. At least not without loving the guy a lot more than she did).

My favorite character in the movie was actually neither Batman nor Joker, but Harvey Dent. He wasn't a superhero, or a chaotic terrorist, he was just a very good, very human person who broke under some incredibly horrific things done to him and his loved ones. I don't know, I rooted for him and really felt for him and he just made me think of old-time mob proescutors. You had to be a little crazy to take this job, knowing the life expectancy, and then of course the catalogue of horrors pushed him over the edge.

Rachel? Ugh. I used to think it was Katie Holmes' nonacting that made her so irritating, but Maggie G is a much better actress, so I am forced to conclude Nolan just can't write women. Ther biggest suspension of disbelief for me wasn't Batman's powers or Joker's abilities, it was that such complex and interesting men like Bruce and Harvey both thought the sun rose and set on Rachel Dawes.

Oh, and Commissioner Gordon? LOVE.

With all this, I still like Batman Begins better. Don't know why (TDK was excellent) but I do.

Our trailers were wonderful: Blindness, The Watchmen, the Bond movie, Body of Lies (I think that's the name), the Coen Brothers movie, etc. Yay.

Can you link me to your TDK write-ups? Please?

Batmanish...

This article, which ranks Batmans from least fave to most (and has subcategories of reasons) is not only awesome, but a total hoot.

My favorite bit is under category 'Homoerotic Context', for Bale's Batman:
Only in the sense that we spent this movie wondering if BatBale liked us. You know, as more than friends.

ROFL.

On a less hilarious note, one brief spoilery thought about The Dark Knight.

( Thought here )

Side note to anything: is it possible to be hotter than Christian Bale? I don't think so.

Batmanish...

This article, which ranks Batmans from least fave to most (and has subcategories of reasons) is not only awesome, but a total hoot.

My favorite bit is under category 'Homoerotic Context', for Bale's Batman:
Only in the sense that we spent this movie wondering if BatBale liked us. You know, as more than friends.

ROFL.

On a less hilarious note, one brief spoilery thought about The Dark Knight.

( Thought here )

Side note to anything: is it possible to be hotter than Christian Bale? I don't think so.

Batmanish...

This article, which ranks Batmans from least fave to most (and has subcategories of reasons) is not only awesome, but a total hoot.

My favorite bit is under category 'Homoerotic Context', for Bale's Batman:
Only in the sense that we spent this movie wondering if BatBale liked us. You know, as more than friends.

ROFL.

On a less hilarious note, one brief spoilery thought about The Dark Knight.

( Thought here )

Side note to anything: is it possible to be hotter than Christian Bale? I don't think so.

Movie Recommendation of the Day: The Women (1939)

Today's movie recommendation of the day is MGM's 1939 classic The Women, which is one of my all-time favorite movie.

This is a movie with an all-female all-star cast (no male appears on screen even for a second), which is hilarious, witty and, ultimately, moving. And the cast of characters is to die for.

The main story and conflict revolves around rather conventional Mary Haines (Norma Shearer, in my favorite role of hers) who discovers her husband is cheating on her with the ambitious, ruthless shopgirl Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford, at her most predatory). How Mary deals with this and how it all gets escalated/changed because of her 'friends' is pretty awesome. This is one of the wittiest scripts out there, so sharp and delicious and cynical. The mileau of the bored, restless upper-class women and their foibles is pretty awesome too. And so are the secondary characters.

Here they are:

Mrs. Mary Haines (Norma Shearer): The heroine of the story, who manages to be good without being cloying, and traditional without being a pushover.

Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford): Hard as nails, and equally smart, Crystal is the antagonist in this little story, setting out to trap a rich man for herself as the best means of advancement.

Mrs. Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell): Gossiper and trouble-maker, Sylvia is a vicious little bit of work, but so funny.

The Countess De Lave (Mary Boland): LOLtastic sugar-mama with a weakness for young, hunky but useless men, the Countesss is the way to go

Miriam Aarons (Paulette Godard): Tough and street-smart, Miriam is rather a benign version of Crystal and her common-sense and pragmatism make her my fave secondary character.

Mrs. Peggy Day (Joan Fontaine): About the only unworldly innocent in the whole story (Mary might be traditional, but she is no fool), Peggy is equal parts adorable and dim.

Little Mary (Virginia Weidler): Mary's smart, precocious daughter.

Movie Recommendation of the Day: The Women (1939)

Today's movie recommendation of the day is MGM's 1939 classic The Women, which is one of my all-time favorite movie.

This is a movie with an all-female all-star cast (no male appears on screen even for a second), which is hilarious, witty and, ultimately, moving. And the cast of characters is to die for.

The main story and conflict revolves around rather conventional Mary Haines (Norma Shearer, in my favorite role of hers) who discovers her husband is cheating on her with the ambitious, ruthless shopgirl Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford, at her most predatory). How Mary deals with this and how it all gets escalated/changed because of her 'friends' is pretty awesome. This is one of the wittiest scripts out there, so sharp and delicious and cynical. The mileau of the bored, restless upper-class women and their foibles is pretty awesome too. And so are the secondary characters.

Here they are:

Mrs. Mary Haines (Norma Shearer): The heroine of the story, who manages to be good without being cloying, and traditional without being a pushover.

Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford): Hard as nails, and equally smart, Crystal is the antagonist in this little story, setting out to trap a rich man for herself as the best means of advancement.

Mrs. Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell): Gossiper and trouble-maker, Sylvia is a vicious little bit of work, but so funny.

The Countess De Lave (Mary Boland): LOLtastic sugar-mama with a weakness for young, hunky but useless men, the Countesss is the way to go

Miriam Aarons (Paulette Godard): Tough and street-smart, Miriam is rather a benign version of Crystal and her common-sense and pragmatism make her my fave secondary character.

Mrs. Peggy Day (Joan Fontaine): About the only unworldly innocent in the whole story (Mary might be traditional, but she is no fool), Peggy is equal parts adorable and dim.

Little Mary (Virginia Weidler): Mary's smart, precocious daughter.

Movie Recommendation of the Day: The Women (1939)

Today's movie recommendation of the day is MGM's 1939 classic The Women, which is one of my all-time favorite movie.

This is a movie with an all-female all-star cast (no male appears on screen even for a second), which is hilarious, witty and, ultimately, moving. And the cast of characters is to die for.

The main story and conflict revolves around rather conventional Mary Haines (Norma Shearer, in my favorite role of hers) who discovers her husband is cheating on her with the ambitious, ruthless shopgirl Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford, at her most predatory). How Mary deals with this and how it all gets escalated/changed because of her 'friends' is pretty awesome. This is one of the wittiest scripts out there, so sharp and delicious and cynical. The mileau of the bored, restless upper-class women and their foibles is pretty awesome too. And so are the secondary characters.

Here they are:

Mrs. Mary Haines (Norma Shearer): The heroine of the story, who manages to be good without being cloying, and traditional without being a pushover.

Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford): Hard as nails, and equally smart, Crystal is the antagonist in this little story, setting out to trap a rich man for herself as the best means of advancement.

Mrs. Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell): Gossiper and trouble-maker, Sylvia is a vicious little bit of work, but so funny.

The Countess De Lave (Mary Boland): LOLtastic sugar-mama with a weakness for young, hunky but useless men, the Countesss is the way to go

Miriam Aarons (Paulette Godard): Tough and street-smart, Miriam is rather a benign version of Crystal and her common-sense and pragmatism make her my fave secondary character.

Mrs. Peggy Day (Joan Fontaine): About the only unworldly innocent in the whole story (Mary might be traditional, but she is no fool), Peggy is equal parts adorable and dim.

Little Mary (Virginia Weidler): Mary's smart, precocious daughter.

Best Book You Never Heard Of: The Definite Object

First off, a fair note of warning: If you have friended me because of drama-related stuff (which is probably most of you), you might want to put me on filter for the next couple of weeks. I am unlikely to be posting on dramas much, if at all, for that time. I basically ODed on them in Australia and also associate them with missing Mr. Mousie and being lonely and cold and homesick. So I need a little break...

Anyway, this post is about books.

I am about to embark on my biannual (or so) reread of Gone with the Wind. Let's see how that goes.

But I want to talk about a different book: one of my ultimate 'tired/cranky so need this' reads, The Definite Object by Jeffery Farnol (you can find it on gutenberg.net here, as the copyright has expired with age).

Written just before WWI, TDO was probably a shopgirl's dream-book, so what it says about me, I don't know, but I love it. Farnol was a fairly prolific (British) author and I like a number of his books (which are usually set in Britain and are period adventure novels), but none with the love of TDO which is neither set in the UK nor period (well, it is for us, but it was contemporaneous when Farnol wrote it).

The story basically combines everything I love in my books: comedy, fights, angsty love story, etc.

The protagonist of the story, Geoff, is a half-British young (early 30s) millionaire and a bit of an adrenaline junkie who is incredibly bored with his life and lack of any possible goal. However his life changes one random evening when (during one of his rare sojourns in his New York house) he catches a scruffy (and useless) juvenile delinquent breaking in with the intention to rob the place. Instead of turning the young man over to the cops, Geoff is caught for the moment by the boy's pleas to let him go because otherwise his older sister Hermione will be distraught. More out of idle curiousity than anything, Geoff makes a deal with the teen. If 'Spike' will take him incognito to the slums and allow him to meet Hermione, he will let him go.

Spike is more than happy to agree of course and does so. But...something happens Geoff did not expect. After the first look at the beautiful, strong (she is the one raising her useless brother), Geoff discovers a definite object for his life indeed: he falls madly in love.

What follows is a delicious adventure-romance tale. He moves into the slum, pretending to be yet another anonymous city-dweller down on his luck. From there on he will try to win the heart (and soul) of Hermione, discover an even better goal for his life in trying to help fellow slum-dwellers in various ways, and also taking on the local mob which makes life down in the slums even worse than it has to be. There are passionate love confessions, beat-downs, death-bed weddings, and some pretty racy (especially considering when it was written) UST. Oh, and Hermione is pretty awesome, too.

Seriously, I love that book SO MUCH.

Guilty Confession: I never thought so before (and I first read the book almost ten years ago, but thinking of it now, I am so totally going to picture Christian Bale as the main male character. Come on, a half-British adrenalin junkie millionaire with angst? So right.

Scratch GWRW reread, actually. I think I just talked myself into rereading The Definite Object.

Best Book You Never Heard Of: The Definite Object

First off, a fair note of warning: If you have friended me because of drama-related stuff (which is probably most of you), you might want to put me on filter for the next couple of weeks. I am unlikely to be posting on dramas much, if at all, for that time. I basically ODed on them in Australia and also associate them with missing Mr. Mousie and being lonely and cold and homesick. So I need a little break...

Anyway, this post is about books.

I am about to embark on my biannual (or so) reread of Gone with the Wind. Let's see how that goes.

But I want to talk about a different book: one of my ultimate 'tired/cranky so need this' reads, The Definite Object by Jeffery Farnol (you can find it on gutenberg.net here, as the copyright has expired with age).

Written just before WWI, TDO was probably a shopgirl's dream-book, so what it says about me, I don't know, but I love it. Farnol was a fairly prolific (British) author and I like a number of his books (which are usually set in Britain and are period adventure novels), but none with the love of TDO which is neither set in the UK nor period (well, it is for us, but it was contemporaneous when Farnol wrote it).

The story basically combines everything I love in my books: comedy, fights, angsty love story, etc.

The protagonist of the story, Geoff, is a half-British young (early 30s) millionaire and a bit of an adrenaline junkie who is incredibly bored with his life and lack of any possible goal. However his life changes one random evening when (during one of his rare sojourns in his New York house) he catches a scruffy (and useless) juvenile delinquent breaking in with the intention to rob the place. Instead of turning the young man over to the cops, Geoff is caught for the moment by the boy's pleas to let him go because otherwise his older sister Hermione will be distraught. More out of idle curiousity than anything, Geoff makes a deal with the teen. If 'Spike' will take him incognito to the slums and allow him to meet Hermione, he will let him go.

Spike is more than happy to agree of course and does so. But...something happens Geoff did not expect. After the first look at the beautiful, strong (she is the one raising her useless brother), Geoff discovers a definite object for his life indeed: he falls madly in love.

What follows is a delicious adventure-romance tale. He moves into the slum, pretending to be yet another anonymous city-dweller down on his luck. From there on he will try to win the heart (and soul) of Hermione, discover an even better goal for his life in trying to help fellow slum-dwellers in various ways, and also taking on the local mob which makes life down in the slums even worse than it has to be. There are passionate love confessions, beat-downs, death-bed weddings, and some pretty racy (especially considering when it was written) UST. Oh, and Hermione is pretty awesome, too.

Seriously, I love that book SO MUCH.

Guilty Confession: I never thought so before (and I first read the book almost ten years ago, but thinking of it now, I am so totally going to picture Christian Bale as the main male character. Come on, a half-British adrenalin junkie millionaire with angst? So right.

Scratch GWRW reread, actually. I think I just talked myself into rereading The Definite Object.

Best Book You Never Heard Of: The Definite Object

First off, a fair note of warning: If you have friended me because of drama-related stuff (which is probably most of you), you might want to put me on filter for the next couple of weeks. I am unlikely to be posting on dramas much, if at all, for that time. I basically ODed on them in Australia and also associate them with missing Mr. Mousie and being lonely and cold and homesick. So I need a little break...

Anyway, this post is about books.

I am about to embark on my biannual (or so) reread of Gone with the Wind. Let's see how that goes.

But I want to talk about a different book: one of my ultimate 'tired/cranky so need this' reads, The Definite Object by Jeffery Farnol (you can find it on gutenberg.net here, as the copyright has expired with age).

Written just before WWI, TDO was probably a shopgirl's dream-book, so what it says about me, I don't know, but I love it. Farnol was a fairly prolific (British) author and I like a number of his books (which are usually set in Britain and are period adventure novels), but none with the love of TDO which is neither set in the UK nor period (well, it is for us, but it was contemporaneous when Farnol wrote it).

The story basically combines everything I love in my books: comedy, fights, angsty love story, etc.

The protagonist of the story, Geoff, is a half-British young (early 30s) millionaire and a bit of an adrenaline junkie who is incredibly bored with his life and lack of any possible goal. However his life changes one random evening when (during one of his rare sojourns in his New York house) he catches a scruffy (and useless) juvenile delinquent breaking in with the intention to rob the place. Instead of turning the young man over to the cops, Geoff is caught for the moment by the boy's pleas to let him go because otherwise his older sister Hermione will be distraught. More out of idle curiousity than anything, Geoff makes a deal with the teen. If 'Spike' will take him incognito to the slums and allow him to meet Hermione, he will let him go.

Spike is more than happy to agree of course and does so. But...something happens Geoff did not expect. After the first look at the beautiful, strong (she is the one raising her useless brother), Geoff discovers a definite object for his life indeed: he falls madly in love.

What follows is a delicious adventure-romance tale. He moves into the slum, pretending to be yet another anonymous city-dweller down on his luck. From there on he will try to win the heart (and soul) of Hermione, discover an even better goal for his life in trying to help fellow slum-dwellers in various ways, and also taking on the local mob which makes life down in the slums even worse than it has to be. There are passionate love confessions, beat-downs, death-bed weddings, and some pretty racy (especially considering when it was written) UST. Oh, and Hermione is pretty awesome, too.

Seriously, I love that book SO MUCH.

Guilty Confession: I never thought so before (and I first read the book almost ten years ago, but thinking of it now, I am so totally going to picture Christian Bale as the main male character. Come on, a half-British adrenalin junkie millionaire with angst? So right.

Scratch GWRW reread, actually. I think I just talked myself into rereading The Definite Object.