Day: August 3, 2008

Rated PG12 they have got to be kidding. I so wouldn’t let my kids go to see this. I was terrified of Heath Ledgers role as the Joker. It truly was far more violent than I was expecting. However, he did deliver on the role and came off brilliantly as an extreme and dangerous character. He managed to put his own fingerprint on this role taking it to another level from Jack Nicholsons previous take on it.

One thing to be incredibly thankful for is that they replaced Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes.

Michael Caine, Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman all return to take up their previous characters. All are fabulous in continuing the efforts from the last movie, the story moving on from where it left off last time – Batman finally capturing the Scarecrow then facing the next villian, the Joker.

It is quite a long movie but at no point was I bored or wanting it to end. I won’t give any of it away as the twists and turns are great but pretty obvious. Go along for the ride and don’t overthink it. 4.5 out of 5.

This movie crept up on us. We have been fans of the X Files and clearly remember where I was the first episode that played in NZ. We then followed it for the next 9 seasons. Even in Australia it was our regular Wednesday get together for X Files and Mancini Pizza night.

So the second movie titled “I want to believe”, how was it? Gillian Anderson’s reprised role of Scully was like watching the series. She dropped back into character seamlessly. Mulder played by David Duchovny just didn’t have the witty lines to deliver that were always a riot in the series. Billy Connolly was superb (as always) and it was great to see Mitch Pilleggi do a short return at the crucial moments as Assistant Director Skinner.

The plot was interesting and although not a big screen blockbuster style movie it held its own. It came off more as an extended series version which in my opinion worked well. You can only get so much CGI in movies before it all starts to get old hat and the art of story telling is lost. I enjoyed this however a little bit less relationship angst between Scully and Mulder would have served better and more subtle humour substituted instead.

There were inhouse jokes or memories for keen X-Philes (those obsessed with the show as they were called) such as the pencils stuck into the roof, a jibe regarding GW Bush as a possible alien or abductee etc. Look out for more as I am sure they are in there.

Anway, I would give it 4 out of 5.