Saturday Matinee #9

Audiobook Reviews from Audiobook-Heaven
Presents Saturday Matinee

-----Movie Review #1-----

Title: Batman Begins
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson
Narrator: Miles Neth
Running time: 139 minutes
Released in: 2005
Genre: comic heroes
Filed in: Movie reviews

A young Bruce Wane watches helplessly as is parents are gunned down by a mugger. He vows to dedicate his life to bringing criminals to justice. For the next twenty years, Bruce travels the world, training his mind and body, honing himself into acrime-fighting machine. When he finally returns home, he dons the mantle of the bat, the creature that terrified him as a child, at once conquering his own fear, and passing it on to the superstitious and cowardly criminals of Gotham City.
I liked this movie a lot! It’s so much better than theBatman movies of the late 80’s and early 90’s. As with any superhero movie, some liberties were taken,but for the most part I think the writers remained true to the character. Christian Bale makes a good Batman, and I have to say that I like Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox also. Good casting, good story, and the musical score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard was excellent. Batman has always been my favorite superhero and I’m glad that someone finally gave him the kind of film he deserves.


-----Movie Review #2-----

Title: Batman: The Dark Knight
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Heath Ledger
Narrator: Aileen Downy
Running time: 152 minutes
Released in: 2008
Genre: comic heroes
Filed in: Movie reviews

In Batman Begins, Batman successfully stopped Ra’s al Ghul’s plan to destroy Gotham City, and even managed to decapitate Gotham’s mob in the bargain. Now is the perfect time for the Joker to swoop in and bring the tattered remnants of Gotham’s underworld under his control.
Of course, Batman might have something to say about that. This time, Batman will not only have the help of Jim Gordon of the Gotham PD, but also Gotham’s new district attorney, Harvey Dent. But the Joker is a villain like none other Batman has faced. In the word’s of his butler and confidante, “Some men don’t want what’s logical, some men just want to watch the world burn.” That pretty much sums up the Joker. Batman will have his hands full.
First of all, I have to say that no one can play the Joker like Jack Nicholson. I consider his performance in the old Tim Burton film to be the one bright spot in a series of films that started out mediocre, and got worse. With that said, I have to admit that Heath Ledger wasn’t bad as the Joker in this newer film. I’m guessing Ledger studied Nicholson’s performance, because there were some similarities. On a sad note, for Heath Ledger fans, this will be his last film. Ledger died just days after shooting of Batman: The Dark Knight finished. I read an interview recently where the directors commented on how hard it was to edit the reels of film with Ledger on them, just days after his death.
This Batman film features some amateur crime-fighters masquerading as Batman’s helpers. Of course, they are not, and when Batman confronts one of them about the harsh tactics they use, the fake Batman says, “What’s the difference between me and you?”, to which Batman replies, “I’m not wearing hockey pads.” I got a kick out of that. I also got a kick out of the narrator, who actually used the word “biff” a few times, as in “Batman biffs another gangster.” Batman fans will recognize that as a reference to the old Batman television series starring Adam West. On that show, they would always flash big, colorful sound effect words on the screen while Batman was fighting a criminal. Words like biff, bam, and paf! I’m not a huge fan of the Adam West Batman, but I appreciated the homage.
The casting was good again, with Christian Bale and Morgan Freeman returning, and I really like Michael Caine as Alfred in both of these movies. The musical score was a winner again as well, with the team of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard bback for the second film.
Batman: The Dark Knight is perhaps not as good as Batman Begins, but I enjoyed it a lot anyway. Oh, and I should mention that something bad happens to Harvey Dent at the end of this film. Can you guess what it was?

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Movie reviews by Steven Brandt.
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