The Dark Knight - Christopher Nolan - 2008

★★★★-Pretty much an unquestioned masterpiece. Easily the best live-action Batman movie of all-time, though it isn't perfect and is probably middle of the road for Nolan movies. 

Second installment of Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy, co-written with his bro Jonathan. By far his most linear movie. Doesn't even have a flashback. Ensemble cast includes Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Morgan Freeman, among other. Gyllenhaal is a vast improvement over Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. Eckhart's ark is pretty interesting. Could be read as the fall of a great man, pushed to his limits. Or a man that wasn't that great to begin with, self-serving and power-hungry that was always capable of evil. What I think of as Dibo's, aka “Tiny” Zeus Lister, final decent role.

Gist of the film is Batman, police lieutenant James Gordon, and district attorney Harvey Dent, join forces to combat organized crime in Gotham City; but, their plans are thorted by the Joker, a chaotic mastermind intent on pushing Batman to his limits. Standard Batman stuff on paper. But this is way more than your standard superhero fare. It's probably the best superhero film ever made. Definitely is in my book.

Heath Ledger's Joker is, of course, incredible. Every time he's on-screen is a gift. Starts with one of the best openings to any movie ever. Then the meeting with Lau, the Chinese guy, where the Joker does his magic trick is incredible exposition. The Harvey Dent fundraiser. Chasing Harvey Dent. When Batman interrogates him. All are rewatchable gems. It's the little things that really make the performance stellar. Slicking his hair back as he walks over to an incapacitated Batman, sticking his head out of the window as he rides away in a cop car after his escape, holding up his hands and repeatedly smacking the detonator to the hospital that doesn't explode (this was apparently improvised). Dude was a talent. Nolan was a genius for just letting him play hero-ball. What we get is a true agent of chaos. 

Never gets than his conversation with Dent after killing his lady. Talks about “plans” and “schemes” and so forth. Then delivers the best monologue of the movie: 

“Nobody panics when things go 'according to plan.' Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all 'part of the plan.' But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds. Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair.”

Fucking great. And accurate. 

Another great and accurate quote comes from Dent at the end when he says, “You thought we could be decent men, in an indecent time! But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased, unprejudiced, fair.”

There are some things, though. Don't like all the doggo death, even if they are trained to kill. The stuff with Lau was pretty messy. Multiple cellphones that aren't allowed that cause a bunch of havoc. Drags and is pretty unnecessary, going to China, wasting like 20 minutes of screen time. Could have been cut down and not had the extraction and kept things a little simpler. It's sort of a slog the fifth or so time you watch the film. Also, I'm pretty sure an authorized plane in Chinese airspace wouldn't end too well. The stuff with the other Batmen is also completely improbably. How do they find a major drug deal going down in a parking lot? There are more parts that sort of drag, in that first hour especially. The cell phone stuff at the end was complicated and weird and unnecessary, too. It's not like the government doesn't use shit that is just as fucked up all the time. Ever hear of Stingray?

Harvey Dent being unable to recognize the Joker until he takes off his N95 is genuinely hilarious. Don't get a lot of unintentional comedy in Nolan movies, but this, and then pretty much every time Bane opens his mouth, are funny as shit. 

The film's impact is obvious, especially with DC's grittier, crime-focused approach, probably to the detriment of film as a whole. It basically ushered in the great IP era of film when it comes to superhero movies. 

The Prestige - Christopher Nolan - 2006

★★★★★-"Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because, of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled." OMFG. This blew my fucking mind in when I saw it in 2006. Knowing the twists and stuff just made it more mind-blowing this time around. Holy shit, this is a great movie, and Christopher Nolan is fucking sick. 

Gist of the movie is Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play magicians in late Victorian era England. They start out as friends before becoming rivals. It all starts when Jackman's wife, played by Piper Perabo--who will always be the Coyote Ugly girl to me, dies in an on-stage accident. The bit is one where Bale and Jackman tie her up, and she is submerged in a tank of water. They do this bit a lot, apparently, but this time something goes wrong, and she can't get out and drowns. Jackman blames Bale. It starts this whole thing that keeps escalating. Meanwhile, they are both creating the ultimate illusion ("they are illusions, Michael, a trick is something a whore does for money"). 

The cast is fucking sick. Not only do you have Bale and Jackman, but you also have the ever-lovely Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Andy Serkis, David Bowie (perfectly cast as Nikola Tesla), and Michael Cain (who's always bomb). 

Movie is completely fucked. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale's characters are fucking horrible human beings. Dudes that hate each other so much that they would rather see the other fail than live happily. What the fuck, man? Get over your shit—some Cure at Troy type stuff. Jackman definitely distances himself in the all-time prick department, though, come the end of the movie. 

Ok. Fuck it. Huge spoiler. Dude gets a machine from Tesla that was supposed to teleport Jackman from one place to another. Instead, it clones whatever is in the device. So Jackman starts cloning himself for the trick. How does he deal with all these clones of himself? He kills them. Every night. Kills a clone. It isn't super clear, but he might be killing himself and letting the clone live. It's weird. Anyway, this eventually leads to him setting up Christian Bale for murder. Also, there are two Christian Bale's living one life. This movie is a huge mindfuck, and you can never be sure which version is which, but one of the Christian Bales, I'm pretty sure, is evil. All the Hugh Jackmans are evil, though. This movie is crazy and fucking genius. Also, seriously complex. If you want your mind seriously fucked, watch this and try to figure out which brother is which at different points in the movie. 

Rewatching all of his flicks again, sort of in order. All of them are great. However, so far, this one is my second favorite, after Interstellar. 

Batman Begins - Christopher Nolan - 2005

★★★★-When this came out, I thought it was the best Batman movie. Now, this being something like my fifth viewing, I've got it at third behind Burton's 1989 film and The Dark Knight. Have it just ahead of Batman Returns.Heavily influenced by two of the best Batman graphics, Year One and The Long Halloween, also Blade Runner. The look is all Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.

In the summer of 2005, when this was released, my expectations were pretty low even though I was already a Nolan fan, and was pretty much all in on Christian Bale. However, I didn't see this in the theater. It took some word of mouth convincing, which was right on. Sort of a bummer that this remains the only Nolan movie I didn't see on the big screen save for Following.

Like that Nolan anchors this universe in something resembling reality. The dark aspect of it is one of its major strengths. Now, all DC movies are like this. On a related note, I'm so fucking over comic book movies... 

Storyline is pretty much perfect. Get an origin story that was actually good which then segues into his training, followed by his return to Gotham where there is a plot to throw the city into complete chaos. Mixed in there, I liked the way Wayne is portrayed as a bratty billionaire, as a persona, not actually the man he is. 

Casting is perfect. The villains are great. Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul and Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow are stellar. Also dig Tom Wilkinson as a realistic Carmine Falcone. Gary Oldman as James Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, all great. Only weak spot, in my opinion, is Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. She was pretty meh, milquetoast, a total soup sandwich, but it's not like she had a lot to work with. When she is replaced in the second movie, it's barely a blip on the radar. 

Oveall, a great flick. Nolan immerses us in this bleak world and makes it real, giving Gotham City a soul. It's edgy with solid effects that aged well. In the hands of Nolan, it's no wonder that the film transcends the superhero summer blockbuster genre. 

Amsterdam - David O. Russell - 2022

★★★ - Christian Bale, John David Washington, Margot Robbie, Robert De Niro, and an amazing supporting cast. David O. Russell directing a period movie about Nazi supporters trying to overthrow democracy in America in 1933.  What’s not to love? 

Turns out a decent amount. Totally a hot mess with a hard-to-follow plotline that jumps around through time and makes little sense. However, I still really liked it. This is definitely a minority opinion.

The cast is just too good. In addition to those listed you've got Ed Begley Jr., Rami Malek, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant, Chris Rock, Zoe Saldana, Michael Shannon, Anya Taylor-Joy (the young woman from The Witch and Split), Taylor Swift (forchristssake) who isn't bad, and more. Plus, I am a total sucker for a period piece from the first half of the 20th Century.

American Psycho - Mary Harron - 2000

★★★★★- Rewatching for the first time in a long time. I tend to really like adaptations of Bret Easton Ellis, but hate his novels. As a dude, he seems horrible. Talking trash about homosexual media, “I like the idea of Glee, but why is it that every time I watch an episode I feel like I’ve stepped into a puddle of HIV?” among many other things, and then coming out as gay to make it okay. 

His fiction is just as toxic with the intent of glorifying America's problems. Plus he called David Foster Wallace, once my favorite writer, "the most tedious, overrated, tortured, pretentious writer of my generation" after DFW hanged himself. He offered no evidence for any of it and came off as professionally jealous. 

So, anyway. I can deal with his whole irredeemable bleak worldview for in two hour chunks, but I'll never read another one of his novels. I think this treatment, though, American Psycho as satire, is exceptional. However, I am not sure many see it as such and come away with the wrong lesson by not seeing it for what it is. 

Bale is great. Really made him a star. But the whole cast is pretty stellar. I don't watch this often and haven't seen it since college, but I'm glad I revisited, which sort of surprised me.

Dark Knight Rises - Christopher Nolan - 2012

★★★-The Dark Knight Rises. I'm Gotham's reckoning. Here to end the borrowed time you all have been living on. Christopher Nolan directed movie from 2012. The third movie in his Dark Knight trilogy. His eighth film overall. Don’t buy the critical consensus. This is a solid flick, but not a great one. 

Gist is that Batman returns after nearly a decade after the events of the previous movie, The Dark Knight. This is after the Joker's reign made Batman a public enemy. Now, the League of Shadows has returned to create terror for the citizens of Gotham. Led by Bane, the group isolates the city from the outside world with the threat of detonating a nuclear bomb and killing 13 million people. Batman returns to save the city and take down the League for good. 

Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Also staring in the flick were Michael Caine as Alfred, Gary Oldman as Gordon, Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, Tom Hardy as Bane, Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, Joseph Gordon Levitt as John Blake, and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. 

Best two scenes of the movie are the opening one with the plane crash. Followed by the football scene which is great. Weird to follow up Batman and Bane chilling and talking with pure chaos. Love how they are cut off and Bane comes out and tells them all who is white before killing Pavel, the only one who can save them. “ We give it back to you, the people.” About the time they are freeing the “oppressed,” I’d start questioning this. 

Fight scenes are bad. Obvious misses and slow haymakers that land. Nolan hasn’t made a bad movie. Momento is his best though. 

There is a little bit of nonsense. Plot holes or whatever. Batman’s vertebrae protruding for example. Falling with a rope ran your waist with a bad back isn’t a winning strategy. Some free solo shit. 

Cast is stellar. Tom Hardy, of course, is insane. But just go with it. His voice is dumb, yeah, but I still love that dude. Even when he makes a lot of old man noises whilst dying. Peak Tom Hardy. At least at his most Tom Hardy. 

How is Joseph Gordon Levitt not a star? Anne Hathaway is straight fire. She is not a fighter though. Probably my third favorite Catwoman, but out of the seven I can think of off the top of my head, they are all pretty fire. Post peak Christian Bale. He is my favorite Bruce Wayne and Batman not in costume. Keaton is my favorite Batman. But Bale is more physical. He would probably be the best but the voice is terrible. “Tell me where the trigger is then you have my permission to die.“ Boo. Lot of hubris there. General rule for Batman in this universe is just stop talking. 

Notice the pop star chick from Ted Lasso is in this. Hangs out with Catwoman mostly. 

Gets a little weak when it gets sentimental. Dig the League of Shadows, but you can’t be the Unabomber and be taken seriously. All makes for a week last 20 minutes. Then DB Sweeney shows up. Also, Matthew Modine redeems himself and then dies off-screen. Um, OK. 

I’m fine with a happy ending. I guess I think it’s just sort of whatever. Explain it all with some auto pilot stuff which is easy to mess and sort of feel sandwiched in.