Eye Candy #27 - "The Dark Knight"

The Dark Knight: The second of the Christopher Nolan-helmed “Batman” movies is an even stronger picture than the first. This time around, we get a 21st century taken on Batman’s greatest nemesis, the Joker, as Batman and his allies clash with the Joker and his for control of Gotham City. Back again are Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Morgan Freeman. Even Cillian Murphy is back oh so briefly. Gone is Katie Holmes, and we get Maggie Gyllenhaal in her stead (and it‘s a step backward as Holmes was better than Gyllenhaal in this role; Gyllenhaal looks like a grown-up Campbell Kid the entire movie). But the cornerstones of this film, the things that manage to keep people engaged through the 150 plus minutes of the film are performances by two of the series’ first timers: the late Heath Ledger as the anarchistic Joker, the man who wants to burn it all down just because he can; and Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, an idealistic attorney whose own passion for justice and is his own undoing. When either man is on-screen, they own it completely. Greatest comic book movie ever? It’s solid all the way around, and if I could give it 4 ½ stars I would. My only complaints are as follows: 1.) Christian Bale’s “Batman” voice sometimes comes across like a speech impediment for no good reason; and 2.) it 2-3 climaxes too many, the last hour of the film doesn’t give the audience time to breathe. But its strengths greatly outweigh its weaknesses. And darn it, it’s nice to see character actor Keith Szarabajka still getting work. Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”