Recently in Batman Category

"Without getting into specifics, the key thing that makes the third film a great possibility for us is that we want to finish our story, and in viewing it as the finishing of a story rather than infinitely blowing up the balloon and expanding the story. We have a great ensemble, that's one of the attractions of doing another film, since we've been having a great time for years." Christopher Nolan discusses Batman and Superman (but no World's Finest)

"Did I ever tell you how i got these sock-monkeys?" I guess this post probably isn't in my best interest, as y'all will just further diminish my slim chances of scoring this year's exceedingly cool victory swag, but nevertheless: Web Goddess's annual Oscar contest is now live, and check out this year's prizes! Huzzah to Kris on this pair of Gotham's finest. (It's just too my bad my grim view of Slumdog will probably kill my entry this year.)

"We really weren't expecting to be here in America at all at one time so it's just amazing to be standing here." As you probably know, the HFPA doled out the Golden Globes last night, with Kate Winslet, 30 Rock, and Slumdog Millionaire the big winners of the evening. (Heath Ledger also picked up a much-deserved posthumous award for The Dark Knight.)

The highlights of the evening: Best Actor winner for The Wrestler and comeback kid Mickey Rourke giving credit where it's due: ""It's been a very long road back for me...Sometimes when you're alone, all you got is your dog and they meant the world to me." (Amen, brother.) The out-of-left-field Tracey Morgan riff referenced in the post title. ("I am the face of post-racial America. Deal with it, Cate Blanchett!") And Ricky Gervais, pint in hand, riffing on Holocaust films -- "See, Kate? I told you!" -- and deftly skewering the whole process. "I can't believe I'm not nominated. What a waste of a campaign. Today is the last time I have sex with 200 middle-age journalists. It was horrible. Really. A lot of them didn't even speak English. Europeans with wispy beards. The men were worse."

As far as the GitM 2008 write-up goes, it'll be a few weeks yet, as I'm still waiting for Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler, and Revolutionary Road to open here. But, sorry, y'all -- I'm taking a pass on Slumdog Millionaire. I'm sure it's as wonderful and uplifting as everyone says, but that game show, for reasons I'm not going to go into here, conjures up very specific memories of one of my more painful break-ups, and I know enough about the film to know that at the moment, much like Sideways or Punch-Drunk Love, I'm just going to end up tremendously irritated by it.

Besides, when it comes to works of fantasy, I tend to prefer stories of elves, superheroes, vampires, and the like to tales of ordinary people-like-you-and-me achieving stupendous, wildly unlikely victories against the odds. Because, at least in the former case, you won't usually leave the theater thinking elves and vampires might actually exist, while tales of improbable good fortune, imho, tend to encourage misguided notions about the world. In other words, see enough movies about ridiculously lucky people (however tempered, as I hear it is in this case, by Mumbai back-alley nightmares) and your expectations about life will get all kinds of screwed up. I'm just not in the mood for it.

"The Bodyguard goes LIMP and slides off the table. The PENCIL is gone. MAGIC. The Joker BOWS. Grins at Gambol." As part of WB's "For Your Consideration" Oscar-push website, the official script for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is now online. Worth a read-through if you enjoyed the film as I did, if only to discover what memorable flourishes by Ledger's Clown Prince of Crime were the actor's creation. (Quite a few of 'em, it seems.)

"Would you think about that a moment, my friends? Whenever you've seen Batman, who's he with? Criminals, that's who!" Before Atwater and Ailes, there was...Cobblepot: I know the comparison was already floating around after the veep debate. Still, this contentious Batman-Penguin matchup of thirty years ago now seems eerily on the money... (Via Neilalien.)

Also, this is unrelated, but while I'm borrowing fun fanboy youtubes from other places, I also got a tickle out of this compelling compilation of Dr. Who clips, by way of Return of the Reluctant a week or so ago. What are you doing here? What are you doing here? What are you doing here? What are you doing here?

"At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!” as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets, are actually something new in a campaign that has seen almost every conceivable twist. They are alarms. Doing nothing is not an option...What makes them different, and what has pumped up the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially (though not exclusively) by Palin...By the time McCain asks the crowd “Who is the real Barack Obama?” it’s no surprise that someone cries out 'Terrorist!' The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. " -- Frank Rich, QFT, October 12, 2008.

It'd be funny, if it weren't so frightening, to see this current version of the GOP end as it began. Forty years after the New Right that coalesced behind Goldwater and Reagan saw its first national victory with the election of Richard Nixon on a, ahem, "law and order" ticket (in no small part thanks to the assassination of RFK), the conservative movement that gave us Helms, Falwell, Reagan, Gingrich, and Dubya is collapsing back into its original base state: a seething, festering cauldron of paranoia, race-baiting, inarticulate rage, and eminently justifable, easily exploitable working-class grievance.

And, with no other game-changer left in the Atwater playbook, McCain the mythical maverick, his "Sarracuda" running mate, and the sad coterie of (lily white) GOP deadenders about them have now taken to doing the very opposite of "Putting Country First" -- Instead, they're stirring this pot, hoping the vile, unstable, and extremely combustible concoction therein can somehow propel them into the White House. Call it the Joker strategy: With no other way to win at this point, the McCain campaign is banking on the American people getting so scared, confused, and enraged by their lies and name-calling that we'll up and decide to blow each others' ferries out of the water. (In fact, now that I think about it, I guess that might go a long way towards explaining McCain's bizarre recent "my fellow prisoners" slip. But, sorry, Senator, the prisoners' dilemma isn't going to play any better in November than it did in Gotham a few months ago.)

Frank Rich is right: Even as a Hail Mary play in anything-goes politics, this is beyond the pale. John McCain should -- and, given his body language of late, does -- know what so often results -- and has resulted -- from that foul brew he's toying with. In short, this is a new low, and half-heartedly attempting to walk back the hate after fiddling with the lock on this Pandora's Box is too little, too late.

Of course, we all eventually expected this of the Republican party -- Their hold on power is at long last dissipating, and their sick, desperate movement, four-and-a-half decades old, is seemingly now in its ugly death throes, so why not trot out the oldest, saddest one-trick pony in their tiny stable? But McCain, from everything we've heard about the man, was meant to be better than this. A straight-talker, a man of honor, yadda yadda yadda. Well, horsepuckey. John McCain has brought everlasting shame on himself, and if there's any justice left in this country, -- and woe to you, Senator, I'm sure there is -- his repudiation at the polls in a few short weeks will be devastating.

"I've not seen any recent comic book films, but I didn't particularly like the book 300. I had a lot of problems with it, and everything I heard or saw about the film tended to increase [those problems] rather than reduce them: [that] it was racist, it was homophobic, and above all it was sublimely stupid." As a companion to their Watchmen story, EW has a wide-ranging sit-down with Alan Moore, wherein he discusses Zack Snyder, 300, magic, the afterlife, DC Comics, and his favorite television show: "The absolute pinnacle of anything I've seen recently has got to be The Wire. It's the most stunning piece of television that has ever come out of America, possibly the most stunning piece of television full-stop...So yeah, everything else looks pretty lame next to The Wire."

Speaking of Moore's critique of Snyder, I felt a similar unease after reading Snyder's EW Q&A. Says Snyder of Watchmen: "Everyone says that about [Christopher Nolan's] Batman Begins. 'Batman's dark.' I'm like, okay, 'No, Batman's cool.' He gets to go to a Tibetan monastery and be trained by ninjas. Okay? I want to do that. But he doesn't, like, get raped in prison. That could happen in my movie. If you want to talk about dark, that's how that would go." Hrm. Ok. I'd have more faith in Snyder's Watchmen if he didn't persist in sounding like one of those "Totally Extreme!!" meathead whiteboys from Harold & Kumar.

Holy Catastrophic Wreck of a City, Batman! After two viewings, I'm happy to report Christopher Nolan's moody, sinister The Dark Knight was well worth the wait, and bears the high expectations set for it quite impressively. In fact, at two and a half hours (which zip along, and even feel somewhat truncated at times -- see below), this sprawling Gotham crime saga is almost too much movie to take in the first time around. To be sure, The Dark Knight isn't perfect -- It still has a few of the problems of Batman Begins: Once again, there's a lot of comic-book speechifyin' going on (Michael Caine's Alfred is particularly Yoda-ish at times), some leaps in logic are occasionally required, and the fight sequences can be hard to follow at first -- but all of these are readily forgivable given both the ambition and scope Nolan is working with here and the sheer entertainment value of the film.

Most importantly, if Begins, as I said in 2005, was "the Batman movie that fans of the Dark Knight have been waiting for," this is undoubtedly the Joker movie we've all been hoping for as its companion, particularly in light of Jack Nicholson's one-note grandstanding way back in 1989. Heath Ledger here is a true force of nature, embodying to a tee the malevolent, frighteningly insane jester of The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns -- He has to be considered a lock for Best Supporting Actor next year.

Some spoilers will likely follow in the paragraphs to come, so, if you want to go in completely fresh, I'll leave it at this: WALL-E is up there, but right now The Dark Knight is without a doubt the film of the year, and far and away the best superhero movie out since Spiderman 2 or The Incredibles. True, some might find this vision of Gotham too relentlessly downbeat for their taste. But, if like me, you take your Batman black, you're in for a real treat.

The Dark Knight begins with a taste of things to come -- Six masked clowns descend upon a downtown Gotham bank, owned by the mob and run by Heat's William Fichtner, and only one drives out, with $68 million in lucre and another boost for his burgeoning notoriety. We then are introduced to the three men leading the fight to take back Gotham City from the criminal hordes: Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), now running his own MCU; recently-elected DA and Kennedyesque "white knight" of Gotham Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), and of course, the Batman (Christian Bale), still striking fear in the hearts of Gotham's underworld...and inspiring a few copycats. With Gordon following the money, Dent handing down indictments, and the Batman enforcing the law (if sometimes by circumventing it), this trifecta of concerned citizens -- aided by ADA Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), caught in a McNulty-Daniels-Pearlman love triangle of sorts -- have put the squeeze to the remaining Mob factions, who've reorganized into their own version of the New Day Co-Op. (Yes, as this paragraph attests, this version of Gotham comes off very Wiry at times.)

But, in their desperation, the Mob goes Marlo one step further, and places their trust in the deranged madman in greasepaint who stole their money in the first reel. Handy with knives, pencils, motivational tactics, and The Anarchist Cookbook, this Joker is in effect the criminal countermeasure to the Batman...except, it turns out, he could pretty much care less about the Mob, their money, or really anything else. Rather, as Alfred puts it, he "just wants to watch the world burn," and before he's fully indulged his whims of fancy, all of Gotham's heroes -- and the city itself -- will face his devilishly inspired moral quandaries, no-win situations that will test their character...and, more often than not, destroy them.

So, yes, folks, despite all the quality actors on display here (special kudos to Eckhart and Oldman) and the titular Dark Knight, this is ultimately the Clown Prince of Crime's movie...and he's a real kick. As I noted above, Jack Nicholson's portrayal of "Jack Nicholson" playing the Joker was a disappointment to me even when I was fifteen years old. But this is the scary clown I've been looking to see. Lolling his tongue obscenely along the scars in his mouth, chirping about madness, mayhem, lepers and crooks in his grotesque singsong, laughing hilariously to himself about gags only he would find remotely funny, this Joker, "like a dog chasing a car," is note-perfect throughout. Ledger has so many great moments in this film that it'd be impossible to enumerate them all here. Suffice to say, he (and Nolan) got it: The Joker's knowing, even admiring co-dependence with Batman ("You complete me!), his shifty-cowardly fighting style (i.e. throw goons in the way and look for the occasional shiv), his taste for the theatrical murder (note, for example, those video interrogations)...Ledger delved right past all the campy cruft surrounding the character for years and burrowed right into the clown's dark heart. Every plaudit you've heard about him is fully deserved -- it's really an amazing performance.

Of course, the Joker isn't the only villain of the piece. Of the other main Rogues' Gallery entrant, I loved the slow build-up to his "origin" -- for once, Two-Face had real dramatic and even tragic heft on the screen. (I'm a fan of Tommy Lee Jones, but I hope he sees this movie somewhere and feels downright lousy.) That being said, it's hard to escape the slight feeling that he -- as a villain, anyway -- is shoehorned into the story somewhat. Given how fast they try to run through the Two-Face storyline near the end, it might've made more sense just to set him up for the next installment. (Speaking of which, given that Nolan rectified Tim Burton's horrendous error of killing the Joker this time (a cruel irony, in light of recent events), I'm of the opinion currently congealing in fanboy circles that Dent was unconscious in the last scene, and will be shipped off to Arkham under a fake name, by (secret) order of Gordon, should the series continue.)

And the other villain of The Dark Knight -- besides mobsters Eric Roberts and Michael Jai White, that is -- is the Batman himself, who contracts a passing case of the Dubyas as the film progresses (much to Morgan Freeman's consternation.) True, the warrantless wiretap incident also seems slightly shoehorned in to some extent, but I applaud the brothers Nolan for bringing in some post-9/11 deepthink into the equation. (Don't worry -- it's nowhere near as exploitative as Cloverfield.) As the Joker spreads fear through Gotham, by way of targeted bombings and bridge-and-tunnel threats, the authorities behave increasingly badly to keep up, from harsh interrogations to phone taps to ultimately, the murderous vigilantism of Two-Face. But, despite the occasional smoldering ruin and grieving firemen, the analogy is never cut-and-dried, and, eventually, we're all implicated. When fear runs your city, nobody's thinking too clearly. (Or, as the Joker puts it, "When the chips are down, these civilized people will eat each other." -- Note also his veiled war-in-Iraq commentary, about truckloads of dead soldiers being "all part of the plan.")

For all the upside of The Dark Knight, there are still problems here, to be sure. Perhaps I was sitting too close the first time, but some of the action sequences -- most notably the final one (needlessly enhanced by the video game sonar, even if the white eyes were a nice fanboy touch) were hard to follow the first time through. (Everything made more sense the second time.) For all its 152 minutes, The Dark Knight still feels weirdly truncated at times, particularly in the final act. (The Rangoon, "watch the world burn" scene in the middle going also seems haphazardly thrown into the mix.) And, perhaps most problematic, characters have a tendency throughout to just show up and/or disappear without explanation. Where did the Joker go after Batman leaves the fundraiser? How did Bruce know the Joker was coming in the first place? How did Batman find Dent when he's interrogating the Joker's goon? Why was Eric Roberts (standing on his own two legs, no less) just sorta hanging around outside you-know-who's hospital room? You could just chalk it up to comic-book pacing, I suppose, but these moments still felt entirely too convenient a lot of the time. (I guess one could also complain about the depth of the Jokers' ruses -- the shattered-bullet fingerprint and phone-"contusion" come to mind -- but that was a case where I figured comic book rules sufficed to explain things.)

But, minor quibbling aside, The Dark Knight is an exemplary sequel, and easily the best of the seven Batfilm incarnations thus far. Which begs the question: After the dastardly depths of Ledger's Joker, where could Nolan & co. possibly go next? Everyone's signed for three films, and -- of the main villains -- we still have the Penguin (Ray Winstone? Phillip Seymour Hoffman?), the Riddler (Guy Pearce? Paul Bettany?), and the Catwoman (Shannyn Sossamon? Jessica Biel?), the first two of which don't seem to fit the Nolanverse particularly well. (Neither, for that matter, does Robin.) I suppose the Joker could return, but that obviously opens up a huge can of worms now. (Perhaps Joseph Gordon-Leavitt? He looks eerily like Ledger anyway.) My first thought when the cliffhanger of a sort was set up was this (probably because I'd just seen Dr. Manhattan doing the Feds' dirty work), but I'm sure that's way too out there for the franchise.

In any case, here's hoping they figure it out. But, even if they don't, The Dark Knight will stand tall in the annals of the caped crusader. Near the end, the Joker tells Batman, "You and I could do this forever." That's how I like to think of this incarnation of the Clown and the Bat, now forever locked in their eternal dance. Even if we'll never see it, I know Ledger's Joker will continue to break out of Arkham, terrorize Gotham, and haunt its winged guardian for years and decades to come. Long after the actor's death, his masterful creation will continue to get the last laugh.

"I've been thinking lately. About you and me. About what's going to happen to us, in the end. We're going to kill each other, aren't we?" The WP's Hank Steuver offers a brief history of the Joker, from Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs to Heath Ledger tomorrow night. If you're headed to TDK absolutely spoiler-free, I'd skip this one -- quite a few plot details herein.

In its most recent installment, Gotham Tonight's Mike Engel (Anthony Michael Hall) scores an exclusive interview with new Gotham DA Harvey Dent, one that seems to be occurring right at the start of The Dark Knight (which, you may have heard, opens this Thursday at midnight.) In related news, the Joker -- after defacing all the online viral sites -- kindly handed out free IMAX preview passes to (some of) those playing along.

However the movie ends up turning out (and with a 94 on Metafilter and 100 on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment, I'm optimistic), kudos to the viral marketing gurus...it's been a fun ride.

"Does it depress you...how alone you really are? You had plans...look where that got ya!" Yes, even more news on the Dark Knight front: Domino's has a fun site up with an exclusive variant trailer...and be sure to play 3-Card Monte with the Joker before you go. (If that site's bogged down, low-quality versions have popped up on Youtube here and here.)

Update: Another exemplary new poster, and -- just in case the deal isn't closed yet -- it looks like the teaser for Zack Snyder's Watchmen will open the show. It's safe to say I'm reaching LotR-levels of anticipation at this point.

Update 2: Gotham Tonight Episode 3 (crime in the city) and Episode 4 (Jim Gordon profile) are now up. Looks like Bal'more's New Day Co-Op and MCU have both made it to Batman's town.

"Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order, and eVEryoNe lOseS thEir mIndS!" If, like me, you're devouring all things Dark Knight-related between now and July 18, three more TV spots hit the tubes, and Gotham Tonight is on its second episode. (Careful out there, tho'. The film seems to have now screened, and spoilers are flyin'.) Says Peter Travers: "The haunting and visionary Dark Knight soars on the wings of untamed imagination. It's full of surprises you don't see coming. And just try to get it out of your dreams."

Update: "It's not about money...it's about sending a message." Ugh, temptation everywhere...12 brief clips from the film pop up on the grid. And, don't forget, tix for those 7/17 midnight shows are now on sale.

"Dent...Jesus, I thought you was dead." Party 'til he's cute? In case you missed it below, the "prize" for today's most recent viral marketing for Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight (originally shown at Comic-Con last August) is well worth checking out...

"When the chips are down, these civilized people will eat each other. You'll see...I'll show you." So, did you vote? Gotham City elections closed yesterday, and the winner will soon be announced on Gotham Tonight with Mike Engel, a.k.a. Anthony Michael Hall, his identity now disclosed. (I voted Harvey Dent, natch.) Of course, it's Friday the 13th, and the Joker has threatened another round of viral shenanigans as well...which I suspect will lead to this new alternate Dark Knight trailer. Enjoy it before WB takes it down.

Update: Dent wins! But he he doesn't seem too happy about it...

For the completist: A little over a month out from the film's release, Comcast creates a promotional site for Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight, with a few glimpses of new footage here and there. (See, for example, the IMAX featurette.)

Worth watching for the Joker's Rorschachian "Hrm" alone, another Dark Knight TV spot is out. (The last two are here.) Y'know, much as I'm fond of Henry Jones, Jr., Ph.D, it really wouldn't bother me if this movie (July 18) and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (next Friday) just switched release dates. Update: Also, a new poster, above.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We're tonight's entertainment!" Two new TV spots for The Dark Knight pop up here and here. They're mostly the trailer rearranged, but there's a bit of new footage in each. (What's going on at 0:26 in the first one? Creepy.)

Several stills from the Coens' next, Burn after Reading, appear online, along with a brief synopsis: "Burn centers on Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich), who has hit a bit of rough patch. He was recently fired from the CIA and decides to write his memoirs, naturally documenting government secrets along the way. His wife (Tilda Swinton) decides to steal the material to use in their upcoming divorce proceedings, but the CD mistakenly ends up in the hands of two doltish gym employees, Chad (Brad Pitt) and Linda (Frances McDormand). In response to Linda and Chad conspiring to sell the material to help pay for Linda's plastic surgery, the CIA dispatches Harry (George Clooney) to sort it all out at whatever the cost." And, if that doesn't sound like Coen comedy territory, check out Brad Pitt's hair.

Also in the image department, enterprising fanboys have rifled through the new Dark Knight trailer and kindly chopped it up into high-rez stills. The money shot of the trailer is this one, of course (unless you're Patrick Leahy), but I still want to see more of the Clown Prince of Crime...

Eat your heart out, Nicholson. Update: For the more Two-Face-minded, some purported concept art leaks. (Not for the squeamish.)

In the weekend trailer bin, Will Smith is legend, whether we like it or not, in the full trailer for Peter Berg's Hancock, also with Jason Bateman & Charlize Theron. And last week's Indy boot goes legit: Behold the trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. (I dunno...Is it just me, or does Cate Blanchett seem hammier than a drunken Anthony Hopkins?) Also, The Dark Knight trailer follows suit tomorrow.

Update: The Dark Knight trailer is now up. Also, Aaron Eckhart seems to let slip a pretty major plot point in an interview with the LA Times. If you're staying spoiler-free, don't read this one (or Moriarty's telegraphing of the same here.)

Along with a slew of new posters (see also the snazzy 9/11ish one at Quiddity), The Dark Knight begins its trailer rollout today with -- of course -- another worldwide Joker-run scavenger hunt. (I for one am loving the confluence of my interests that is Jokerized dead-presidents.) In any case, once we budding fanboy detectives run the info through the Batcomputer and get to the bottom of it all, I'll post the new trailer here...

Update: After the scavenger hunt and some anagram work and duck-shooting, it seems the trailer will be here...next Sunday. (Presumably, it premieres before Iron Man on Friday.) Sunday? Now, that wasn't very nice.

Update 2: "This city deserves a better class of criminal, and I'm going to give it to them." In pure Joker fashion, it's been Kramerized and Youtubed regardless. Extremely poor quality, but this'll do until the trouble gets here. (I could do without the post-title goofiness, to be honest, but Heath's Joker still seems scarily spot-on.) Update 3: While bootlegs of the clip keep getting shut down (if you haven't caught it yet, it's still up here at io9), the "Jokerized" version of the trailer, handed out to raffle winners in the viral game, is nevertheless now on the tubes.

In the trailer bin of late, veteran comic writer Frank Miller (possibly soon of Hardboiled) jumps to the silver screen in the new trailer for Sin City...uh, The Spirit. And Steve Coogan spreads the Gospel of Sexy Jesus in the recent redband trailer for Hamlet 2, i.e. one of the South Park guys' take on Waiting for Guffman. This looks like it might try too hard, but I'll probably see it for Coogan (and that scene with the cat.)

Also up as of the weekend, courtesy of NY Comiccon: lots of spoilers for Indy 4 and a description of the next Dark Knight trailer. (I'm trying to avoid them both, although I may have snuck a peek at the latter.)

"RUMOR: Dent Will Withdraw From Race Tomorrow... Developing." With two months to go until election day, is Harvey Dent done? The Gotham cops swift-boating seems to have killed him in the polls (he's pulling only 9% in the three-way race against Garcetti and Worthington), and now even random clowns are sticking a fork in him. At this point, I'd say Dent's political future is at best a coin-toss.

If you'll remember, I posted last week that viral promotion for The Dark Knight would bring back the Clown Prince of Crime for April Fool's Day. Well, whatever happens tomorrow -- and word is it might be the final trailer, although, again, it's April Fool's, so who knows -- it seems the Joker has set up shop here, at the "Clown Travel Agency." Tune in tomorrow, folks. Same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Update: Apparently, DA candidate Harvey Dent has been swiftboated by the "Concerned Citizens for a Better Gotham" (a.k.a. some disgruntled cops), and he'll be holding a press conference tomorrow at 3pm to address the charges made in the ad. This sounds like a prime moment for Joker/trailer-related shenanigans.

Update 2: Never mind tomorrow: The trailer seems to have leaked, and it's a beaut. (Ok, sorry. I couldn't help myself...just getting in the April Fool's mood a day early.) At any rate, more Dark Knight info as it comes.

Update 3: And they're off: Looks like Step 1 is a worldwide scavenger hunt...apparently to acquire Joker bowling balls and cellphones. The bowling balls have phone numbers and code words attached -- presumably that's Phase 2. Update 4: With all the balls doled out around the globe, the next stop is this Acme Security Systems site...where everyone's getting "server is too busy" screens of death. April Fool's! Update 5: For those who did manage to get through, they got a call from Commissioner Gordon, but no obvious link to a trailer or anything. (You can hear it here.) No more updates here unless something big happens (but, if you wanted to play along, this wiki overview of the growing Dark Knight ARG is a good place to start, and most of the spinoff sites have been found via The Gotham Times or the Jokerfied version.)

Update 6: Some spoilerish stills of the Joker appear at a French site. Check 'em out before they disappear.

"Encouragingly, Peter and Fran Walsh have told me they couldn't imagine The Hobbit without their original Gandalf. Their confidence hasn't yet been confirmed by the director Guillermo del Toro but I am keeping my diary free for 2009!" Grey Havens be damned, Ian McKellen reports he's likely returning as Gandalf for The Hobbit (well, if he and producer Peter Jackson have anything to say about it, and they probably will.) Update: More good news: Composer Howard Shore is back as well.

Also in movie news, the viral marketing campaign for The Dark Knight is picking up again. As you may remember, a slew of new Gotham-related sites appeared last December. Now, more have arrived, of a distinctly Harvey Dent bent: A new edition of The Gotham Times, Dana Worthington for DA (a.k.a. Harvey Dent's opposition), Maiden Avenue Report (Gotham's Drudge, it seems), Citizens for Batman, St. Swithuns Church, and Gotham Cable News are all now online, along with the Dent campaign site linked to the other day. Also, apparently the original marketing plan was always to shift from the Joker to Harvey Dent, so this rollout hasn't necessarily been affected by the loss of Ledger. (That being said, viral text messages seem to indicate the Clown Prince of Crime will pop up yet again before April Fool's Day.)

"Gotham City is collapsing from a runaway crime wave and Harvey Dent can save it. But he has to run for District Attorney first, and the only way he'll run is if he sees an outpouring of public support. So, let's all get out there and show Harvey Dent he's got support to take back Gotham!" I know I've been doing a lousy job of following down-ticket races thus far this cycle. Still, in case anyone's interested and by way of Quiddity, Harvey Dent's campaign for Gotham DA has hit the road. (Alas, it seems I've already missed his NYC stops.) Also, no doubt aware of Sen. Obama's prodigious coattails, he seems to be plugging for an endorsement: "Be creative. Harvey Dent wants to see that we want change -- and that we are ready to work for change. Harvey wants to see that people are ready to throw out the old, to break out of habits, to really do something new and different! Because that's what taking back Gotham will take."

I'll say this for him, he has a honest face. By the way, it should be noted: Harvey Dent also somewhat disproves the Gerry Ferraro thesis, as he's managed to get elected the District Attorney of Gotham City as both a white and black man.

"I looked at the Rorschach blot. I tried to pretend it looked like a spreading tree, shadows pooled beneath it, but it didn’t. It looked more like a dead cat I once found, the fat, glistening grubs writhing blindly, squirming over each other, frantically tunneling away from the light. But even that is avoiding the real horror. The horror is this: In the end, it is simply a picture of empty meaningless blackness. We are alone. There is nothing else." Ok, I'm not that 'round the bend. But I have to admit, when I saw this picture of Sen. Clinton on Drudge today, this immediately came to mind:

Oddly enough, the same exact thing happened a few weeks ago when this oft-used pic instantly reminded me of this.

Or is it just me?

As a disclaimer, unlike Republicans and denizens of Halloweenland -- I'll stand by that one -- I'm not comparing Sen. Clinton to Linda Blair's secret admirer or a psychotic, snazzily-dressed mass-murderer here. In fact, I think Drudge's tendency to post unflattering pics of Hillary and Chelsea Clinton is often cruel, juvenile, and bordering on sexist (if not plunging right past that border.) So, this is not meant as a comment on Clinton per se, only on the implicit associations made by my impressionable fanboy subconscious, which would seem to trump slightly the findings of my Implicit Association Test. (And, in my defense, at least I wasn't so irredeemably geeky as to come up with Tasha Yar.)

"In a political context this would politely be called an 'unintended consequence.' (Gotham as Baghdad, anyone?) Mr. Nolan doesn’t deny the overtones. 'As we looked through the comics, there was this fascinating idea that Batman’s presence in Gotham actually attracts criminals to Gotham, attracts lunacy,' he said. 'When you’re dealing with questionable notions like people taking the law into their own hands, you have to really ask, where does that lead? That’s what makes the character so dark, because he expresses a vengeful desire.'" The NYT checks in with Chris Nolan on The Dark Knight.

Some comic-book cautionary tales for the day: Rorschach sets fire to a would-be pursuer in a new still from Zach Snyder's Watchmen, which has wrapped shooting. And Dark Horizons offers a first glimpse at how Aaron Eckhart will look as Harvey Dent...after the incident.

"'Harvey Dent is a tragic figure, and his story is the backbone of this film,' says Christopher Nolan...'The Joker, he sort of cuts through the film -- he's got no story arc, he's just a force of nature tearing through. Heath has given an amazing performance in the role, it's really extraordinary.'" With the next Democratic debate tonight at 9pm EST on MSNBC, one that will hopefully help defuse the tone of the past few days, now seems as good a time as any to check on the big box office rivalry of the summer, Batman v. Indy. (Well, and the forgotten man, Iron Man.) Last we checked, the Jones camp had suggested Bruce Wayne was too wealthy and privileged to understand ordinary people's concerns, while Batman surrogate Alfred told The Daily Planet's Clark Kent that Jones was too "pointy-headed and academic" to save anyone but upscale, overeducated professionals. (The missed rejoinder: The Batman camp is calling people pointy-headed?) Also, scurrilous rumors abound that Shia LaBoeuf was added to the Indy ticket merely to siphon the youth vote away from Batman's running mate, Dick Grayson...Yep, it's getting ugly, folks.

Anyway, as the quote above attests, Dark Knight director Chris Nolan recently checked in briefly with the L.A. Times about his two main villains: "Don't expect a lot laughs in this summer's return to the cave. 'It's a dark and complex story,' Nolan said, 'and the villains are dark and complex as well.'" Meanwhile, on the Spielberg side of things, we have this new still from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls. (Note Ray Winstone lurking in the corner.)

Update 5: Hello all. Since this is one of the more popular entries on the site: My review of The Dark Knight is here, the Batman archives are here, and the main page is here. Welcome, and good hunting.

"You've changed things...forever. There's no going back. You see, to them, you're just a freak...Like me!" Ok, between this amazing new poster (the one in the middle, although all three are grand) and this leaked, really busted version of The Dark Knight trailer (also here and here, and the real thing appears online here Sunday), I am currently geeking out like a twelve-year-old. (Berk's wondering why the heck I'm giggling like the Joker right now.) Honestly, this thing hits at the fanboy-gut level, and is just about the coolest darned thing I've seen in ages. Explosions, Batbike, and Michael Caine pep speech aside...how about that clown? I think I'm gonna watch it again.

Update: "I believe whatever doesn't kill us...simply makes us stranger." Also, in front of I am Legend on IMAX, the first six minutes of The Dark Knight, featuring a Joker-planned heist of a mob-run bank in downtown Gotham City. It was clever enough, and features a good slow build-up to Heath Ledger saying hello. But it's not nearly as visceral a thrill as the trailer (which, for some reason, wasn't shown with the IMAX prologue...ah well. Sunday, then.) Update 2: The first six minutes (in Kramervision, of course) have leaked. Get 'em while you can.

Update 3: While we all await the official trailer release this evening, yet another really creepy Joker poster appears online, in the same vein as the earlier glass one. (It's been added above.) This might be my favorite of the lot. Update 4: And it's up, in splendiferous hi-def.

The promotional machine for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight continues to ramp up. As you may have noticed below, I've been posting several additional new photos of Heath Ledger's Joker to the entry of a few days ago. Also, the online viral marketing has continued apace: First an edition of the Gotham Times was released, and, in keeping with the Dark Detective meme, that's led to all kinds of spinoff sister sites and more municipal tangents than The Wire (Gotham Police Dept. (and Internal Affairs), Gotham National Bank, Gotham School District, Gotham's DA hotline, Gotham City Rail, Gotham Cab, Acme Security Systems, Gotham Victim Advocate Organization, Remembering Gina, and a Jokerized version of the paper.) Whatsmore, at the original viral Joker site, you can now take a personality profile or try to open a vault for further clues. (Set your clock for 7:38am to do so.) Finally, both the trailer and the first seven minutes of the film will be released on December 14, before the IMAX version of Will Smith's Omega Man-update I Am Legend. To the IMAXcave, Robin! Update: Another countdown, set for noon on Tuesday. The trailer, perhaps? Update 2: Nope. After some shenanigans involving local bakeries (the NYC ones were over in Yorktown), it's a new one-sheet.

Quite a few new movie images popping up on the grid today...Then again, it's that time of year, when the mags roll out the 2008 previews. Here, it appears to be Take Your Son (Shia LaBoeuf) to Work Day for Henry Jones, Jr., PhD (Harrison Ford). Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull is slated to arrive May 22, 2008, and it, like The Dark Knight, should have a trailer kicking around relatively soon. (A few more pics of Indy looking suitably grizzled are over here at AICN.)

What do Berkeley and the fanboy nation have in common this week? They both get really excited about socks...Empire Magazine makes a game of their slow reveal of their Heath Ledger Joker cover. Update: As you can now see, the cover's been leaked. Update 2: And another, from the cover of Wizard. Looking better and better. Update 3: And yet a few more, from what look to be merchandising proofs. I don't like these nearly as much, but then again it's hard to sell anything comic-booky with a stark white background.

"Let me be the way I'm not in interviews. I'm furious. I'm furious...They never asked me about a sequel with the Joker. I know how to do that! Nobody ever asked me." Strangely enough, apparently Jack Nicholson wanted another run at the Joker for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. "Well, the Joker comes from my childhood. That's how I got involved with it in the first place. It's a part I always thought I should play." Well, maybe so, but even back in 1989 Nicholson seemed like stunt casting, and his performance hasn't aged well. Here's to a new take on the character.

Happy Halloween, everyone. While my Shaun of the Dead costume got favorable reviews last October, I've been entertaining vague notions of dressing up as Heath Ledger's Joker this year. (And, as for Berk, my sister Tessa suggested something along the lines of this, which he'd probably prefer to Yoda again.) But, as it turns out, neither Berk nor I have any costume-oriented festivities on the social calendar, so we'll just be sitting home in plainclothes doling out sweets. Still, if you're up for it, the viral marketers at Warner Brothers have initiated a second round of Jokerish shenanigans (a la Comic-Con) over at whysoserious.com, which involves a photo scavenger hunt across several major cities. If you play along, watch out for Bats. Update: As per the norm, that didn't take long. The hidden message, give or take a few letters, reads: "The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules." So, what happens next? Update 2: Guess I should've made that costume after all. After revealing this new pic, the new site (http://www.rorysdeathkiss.com) asks for people to dress as the clown in question and take a pic in front of a famous landmark. Have fun with it, y'all.

As you can see, Heath Ledger's been busy. First off, new pics surface of Ledger and others as Bob Dylan in I'm Not There, including more images of Cate Blanchett eerily channeling the Blonde on Blonde-era Bob. (See below and here for more.) And, apparently much to the consternation of the Time Warner powers-that-be, eighteen early and spoilerish stills from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight have leaked onto the Internets, including a few of Ledger's Joker seeming to enjoy a police interrogation more than he probably should. Check 'em out before they disappear.

Waugh, waugh. Move over, Phillip Seymour Hoffman...Has Oswald Cobblepot been cast? (Nah, Cheney would work better.) Vermont Senator, Senate Judiciary Chairman, and Batman fan Patrick Leahy joins the cast of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. "Leahy is apparently a big comic book enthusiast, and actually served as an extra in the 1997 Batman installment: Batman and Robin." (He also played himself on Batman: The Animated Series.) "The senator told the station he can't reveal the exact details of his role in the upcoming movie, but he did say he has landed a scene with its two stars, Christian Bale and Heath Ledger."

"Jesus, Harvey, I thought you were dead!" News breaks of some actual honest-to-goodness Dark Knight footage previewed at Wizard World in Chicago over the weekend, and it sounds very fun (although, alas, it has yet to leak its way onto the Internets.) So it seems Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face is very much a part of the next installment, although I'm hoping he doesn't crowd out Heath Ledger's Clown Prince of Crime, a la Sam Raimi's overstuffed Spiderman 3. I'm guessing Dent will serve as a physical manifestation of the good (bat)-evil (clown) duality at the heart of the next film, but it's the Joker, Batman's one true arch-nemesis, I'm really paying to see.

"Bring your sense of humor, but don't worry -- we'll supply the smile." From the demented criminal mastermind who brought you IBelieveinHarveyDent.com...a Comic-con teaser for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight looks increasingly likely after another viral marketing site "by" the Joker -- whysoserious.com -- appears online. (The clock is ticking down to tomorrow's Comic-Con presentation time, and the coordinates are in San Diego.) Update: A Kramervision version of the teaser has been Youtubed (also here), and it's...a teaser, although you do at least get to hear Ledger's suitably bizarre voice. (And, no, I'm not Rick-Rolling you.)

Update 2: Ok, the madness has begun. If you're playing along at home, the number that appeared in the sky over San Diego was 800-395-9646. Call it, and you get a rather creepy message -- apparently the Joker holding somebody at gunpoint -- with the first password, "INSIDE JOKE." Stage 2 -- "Catherine, Annie, Elizabeth, and Mary Jane had someone I admire in common. Who was it?" Henry VIII was my first guess, but apparently the correct answer is "JACK THE RIPPER." Stage 3 involves more legwork in San Diego...Update 3: Or does it? The Joker has left us a Morse-encoded laugh to ponder in the meantime. K, let's see here...It's "MOUNTEBANK." (Some aspiring Bruce Wayne locked that one down well before I did...I was on "MOU.") Stage 4 is an anagram of sorts -- CPRAISMSEIOOFN -- My summer a few years back spent trying to get actually decent on Scrabble, and the occasional cheating that ensued, would've helped me here, but somebody else figured it out first: "CRIME OF PASSION." (Hint: As with the morse code, note the two large words.) Stage 5...well, the site's locked up...

Update 4: While the Warner Brother server was flailing, balloons were passed out in San Diego with the next clue, "head games." From there, it's on to the Joker's case file and another clue, apparently found in bathrooms at the next San Diego point, "74 BARS." The Clown Prince of Crime then goes the US History route: "Who was the lawyer who got his client acquitted of murder by fatally shooting himself by accident in a courtroom in 1871?" (I'll give you my own hint: Copperhead.) Answer: VALLANDIGHAM. The next checkpoint involved finding a particular brick in San Diego to ascertain the real name of "Dr. Death," "GASLAMP DAN HASLAM." Now, time for a game of cards... Note the actual still of Ledger and Gyllenhaal from the film (click on the word "knife," or see below) -- It looks like the Joker wears make-up in the Nolanverse, and didn't fall into a vat of anything bothersome this time.) Also, note there are 26 cards at bottom, which should help you to discover the next keyword, "UNFORGIVABLE."

(Phew, Holy detective work, Batman! This is hard!) Ok, next the San Diegans were to find a child on the street learning to defend himself (note also another police report) The accompanying surveillance site -- and this picture -- help in discovering the next (punny) clue, "BASEBALL BAT." After that, we're in anagram territory again...consider the missing letters and you might just end up with "LARCENY." Alright, two more clues to go...the next one involves a "Gotham Girl Guide" and her cookies, so we'll need the troops on the ground again for this one... Update 5: Ok, word has come back that the cookies password is "STARVE." Then we're sent to a half-lit LED on a bomb to ascertain the next clue, "REAPER." (I was stumped by this one for awhile - all I'll say is that green and red mean something, and the HA's are there for a reason.) Finally, the San Diego fanfolk had to find a certain license plate reading "291759," (on a limo near their start point) and, voila, the Joker covers his trail, and offers up a high-quality version of the teaser Youtubed above, before this all started. (Click on the dot.) Ok, a bit of a letdown at the end there, sure (As, one fanboy wit at AICN put it, "Be sure...to drink your...Ovaltine?") Still, the journey was the reward (even if it ate up much of my Friday afternoon.) Clever, clever, Warner Bros. marketing gurus.

Several trailers of note over the past week: Aragorn continues his History of Violence and returns to the unsettling world of Cronenberg in the new trailer for Eastern Promises, also with Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, and Armin Mueller-Stahl. Shopgirl Natalie Portman looks adorable facing up against stiff-suit Jason Bateman in the otherwise cloying trailer for Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, also with Dustin Hoffman as Willy Wonka, uh, Magorium. Nicole Kidman tries to stop her sister (Jennifer Jason-Leigh) from marrying Jack Black in this look at Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding. (Not usually my bag, and Jason-Leigh can be a huge red flag, but Baumbach has earned a look after Squid & the Whale.) A bit-player in the Russian mob and a recent emigre to Liberty City (you) tries to move up the ranks of his organization in two new trailers for Rockstar's eagerly-awaited Grand Theft Auto IV. (I may have to break down and get a 360, just for this game.) And, finally, a Kramerfied, really poor quality version of may very well be the teaser for Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight has emerged online. (I'll reserve judgment until a higher quality version emerges, but for now I like the laugh.)

I'd be more excited to see Heath Ledger's Joker in action, but for now on The Dark Knight front, we'll have to content ourselves with pics and video of Batman's goofy new trike (the "Batpod") and Flickr-ized shots of Maggie Gyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhart as Katie Holmes and Harvey Dent respectively. Hmm, ok.

Also via AICN, and the new issue of Entertainment Weekly: Bruce Wayne shows off his new Bat-duds for Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight...now with kung-fu, head-swiveling action! (Accessories not included.)

"It's really a great role. I'm in throughout the whole movie, and I'm really looking forward to working with Christian and Morgan and all these real Hollywood heavy hitters." Um, who is Anthony Michael Hall playing in The Dark Knight? "'I signed a confidentiality agreement, and I can't say which part I'm playing because it affects the story,' says Hall.'" Some sites have suggested he's [spoilers] playing a vigilante Batman, likely one who gets snared by the Joker, although that wouldn't explain why his scenes seem to involve Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox).

"I always say, you never know what a man is truly made of until you peel the skin off his face one piece at a time..." Christopher Nolan and co. are up to some very funky viral marketing for The Dark Knight at the moment. You may or may not have seen this political ad for possible Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent make the Internet rounds over the past few days. Well, it seems the Clown Prince of Crime has taken issue with the campaign, and is now revealing himself to Gotham's denizens -- with your help -- one pixel at a time. Get to it, fanboy nation! Update: After a weekend of work, Heath Ledger's Joker is revealed. (Ouch, that had to hurt.)

You know what the next Batman movie needs? That certain straight-to-video je-ne-sais-quoi...Eric Roberts joins the cast of Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight, as "a Mafia kingpin."

It's official: Maggie Gyllenhaal takes Katie Holmes' place in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. And, with Tobey Maguire appearing to beg off any future webslinger installments after Spidey 3, the door is now wide open for Maggie's brother Jake...

"Batman is a complex character, and Two-Face comes a little bit from the same world. But [at the same time], he's apart from it. I'm looking for the tension between the two, the similarities between the two. I want to find what's similar to Batman, and then find what's opposite to him." The Dark Knight's Aaron Eckhart talks D.A. Harvey Dent, and suggests that he may well be popping up as Two-Face before the last reel of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins sequel. (Presumably, Heath Ledger's Joker is somehow involved.)

Word leaks that Warner Brothers is moving forward on a Justice League film, having hired the writers of (ugh) Mr. and Mrs. Smith to pen a screenplay for the project. "How the story arcs unfold will also affect whether the studio will make offers to actors Christian Bale and Brandon Routh to play their respective roles in the project."

As rumored a few weeks ago and in a bit of inspired casting, Aaron Eckhart looks set to join Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight as Harvey Dent, a.k.a. Two-Face. And, also in fanboy casting news, the cast of James Cameron's Avatar fills out, with Wes Studi, Sigourney Weaver, and others joining Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana for the 3D-epic.

The Power of the Dark Crystal, the sequel to the 1982 muppet fantasy announced last year, has officially been put on hiatus. (Sorry, Gelflings.) And Latino Review, breakers of the Heath Ledger Joker casting, says Thank You for Smoking's Aaron Eckhart is now in line to play Harvey Dent (a.k.a. Two-Face) in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Great choice. (Also, apparently Katie Holmes has been kicked off the Batman Begins sequel -- word is she'll be replaced by Emily Blunt, Rachel McAdams, or Maggie Gyllenhaal.)

In an interview with IGN Filmforce, Christopher Nolan discusses The Dark Knight and The Prisoner, and confirms that Harvey Dent will have a role in the former, although he hasn't yet been cast. Guy Pearce? Liev Schrieber?

"It's definitely going to stump people. I think it'll be more along the lines of how the Joker was meant to be in the comics, darker and more sinister." Brokeback Mountain's Heath Ledger says all the right things about his upcoming turn as the Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. "I wouldn't have thought of me, either. But it's obviously not going to be what Jack Nicholson did. It's going to be more nuanced and dark and more along the lines of a Clockwork Orange kind of feel. Which is, I think, what the comic book was after: less about his laugh and more about his eyes." And, in related news, Bob Hoskins hasn't heard he might be playing the Penguin, so scratch that one off the rumor list for now.

It's official (and Latino Review is 2-for-2): Heath Ledger will be suiting up as the Joker in Christopher Nolan's sequel to Batman Begins, now called The Dark Knight. Ok, I can dig it...now, who's Harvey Dent?

Along with word of an unfortunately actioned-up Watchman script and news of some stranger-than-usual comic adaptations (The Doom Patrol? Frank Miller on Will Eisner's Spirit? Benico Del Toro's Deadman?), Latino Review -- the site that first announced Brandon Routh as Superman in 2004 -- discloses that Heath Ledger has an offer to play the Joker in Christopher Nolan's next Batman flick. Hmm. An interesting and slightly-out-of-left-field choice...He wouldn't have been one of my top picks for the part (Adrien Brody, Sam Rockwell, Paul Bettany, or how 'bout Ralph Reed?...His calendar's open), but he's definitely better than some names that were floating around (Crispin Glover, Robin Williams, Michael Keaton, Sean Penn.)

The Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Characters, with a handy graphic of who's a member of what "legion." The site also includes impressively detailed individual entries on each character -- not only the big guns like Methodist Superman, Episcopal Batman, Catholic Daredevil, and Buddhist Wolverine, but also everyone from Presbyterian Wolfsbane to the Mormon Power Pack. (Via Triptych Cryptic.)

And another spate of Batman casting rumors. This time 'round it's Johnny Depp as the Joker and Rachel Weisz as Talia (Liam Neeson/Ras Al Ghul's daughter.) With the Penguin (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Harvey Dent/Two-Face (Liev Schrieber) also purportedly in the mix, it sounds like something's got to give.

Happy New Year's Eve to everyone..I'm celebrating in San Diego with old college friends and likely won't update again until 2006. So, without further ado, here's the 2005 movie round-up. Overall, it's been a pretty solid year for cinema, and this is the first year in the past five where the #1 movie wasn't immediately obvious to me. But, still, choices had to be made, and so...

[Note: The #1 movie of 2005 changed in early 2006: See the Best of 2006 list for the update...]

1. Syriana: I know Stephen Gaghan's grim meditation on the global reach and ruthlessness of the Oil Trade rubbed some people the wrong way, but I found it a gripping piece of 21st century muckraking, in the venerable tradition of Ida Tarbell and Upton Sinclair. True, Christopher Plummer was a mite too sinister, but otherwise Syriana offered some of the most intriguing character arcs of the year, from morose CIA Field Agent George Clooney's ambivalent awakening to corporate lawyer Jeffrey Wright's courtship with compromise. In a year of well-made political films, among them Good Night, and Good Luck, Munich, Lord of War, and The Constant Gardener, Syriana was the pick of the litter.

2. Layer Cake: If X3 turns into the fiasco the fanboy nation is expecting with Brett Ratner at the helm, this expertly-crafted crime noir by Matthew Vaughn will cut that much deeper. Layer Cake not only outdid Guy Ritchie's brit-gangster oeuvre in wit and elegance and offered great supporting turns by Michael Gambon, Kenneth Cranham, and Colm Meaney, it proved that Daniel Craig had the requisite charisma for Bond and then some (and that Sienna Miller is no slouch in the charisma department either.)

3. Ballets Russes: Penguins and comedians, to the wings -- The lively survivors of the Ballets Russes are now on center stage. Like the best in dance itself, this captivating, transporting documentary was at once of the moment and timeless.

4. Good Night, and Good Luck: Conversely, anchored by David Strathairn's wry channeling of Edward R. Murrow, George Clooney's second film (and second appearance on the 2005 list) couldn't have been more timely. A historical film that in other hands might have come off as dry, preachy edutainment, Good Night, and Good Luck instead seemed as fresh and relevant as the evening news...well, that is, if the news still functioned properly.

5. Batman Begins: The Dark Knight has returned. Yes, the samurai-filled first act ran a bit long and the third-act train derailing needed more oomph. Still, WB and DC's reboot of the latter's second biggest franchise was the Caped Crusader movie we've all been waiting for. With help from an A-list supporting cast and a Gotham City thankfully devoid of Schumacherian statuary, Chris Nolan and Christian Bale brought both Batman and Bruce Wayne to life as never before, and a Killing Joke-ish Batman 2 is now on the top of my want-to-see list.

6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: As I said in my original review, I initally thought Cuaron's Azkhaban couldn't be topped. But give Mike Newell credit: Harry's foray into Voldemortish gloom and teenage angst was easily the most compelling Potter film so far. Extra points to Gryffindor for Brendan Gleeson's more-than-slightly-bent Mad-Eye Moody, and to Slytherin for Ralph Fiennes' serpentine cameo as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

7. King Kong: I had this film as high as #2 for awhile, and there are visual marvels therein that no other movie this year came close to offering, most notably Kong loose in Depression-Era New York City. But, there's no way around it -- even given all the B-movie thrills and great-ape-empathizing that PJ offers in the last 120 minutes, the first hour is close to terrible, which has to knock the gorilla down a few notches.

8. Capote: When it comes to amorality for artistry's sake, Jack Black's Carl Denham ain't got nothing on Philip Seymour Hoffman's Truman Capote. I think it'd be awhile before I want to watch this movie again, but, still, it was a dark, memorable trip into bleeding Kansas and the writerly id.

9. Sin City: One of the most faithful comic-to-film adaptations on celluloid also made for one of the more engaging and visually arresting cinematic trips this year. I don't know if the look and feel of Sin City can sustain a bona fide franchise, but this first outing was a surprisingly worthwhile film experience (with particular kudos for Mickey Rourke's Marv.)

10. Munich: I wrote about this one at length very recently, so I'll defer to the original review.

11. Brokeback Mountain: A beautifully shot and beautifully told love story, although admittedly Ang Lee's staid Brokeback at times feels like transparent Oscar bait.

12. Lord of War: Anchored by Nicholas Cage's wry voiceover, Andrew Niccol's sardonic expose of the arms trade was the funniest of this year's global message films (That is, if you like 'em served up cold.)

13. The Squid and the Whale: Speaking of which, The Squid and the Whale made ugly, embittered divorce about as funny as ever it's likely to get, thanks to Jeff Daniels' turn as the pretentious, haunted Bernard Berkman.

14. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: Thank the Force for small kindnesses: George Lucas put the Star Wars universe to bed with far and away his best outing of the prequels. The film flirts dangerously with the Dark Side, particularly in the "let's take a meeting" second act, but for the most part Sith felt -- finally -- like a return to that galaxy long ago and far, far away.

15. A History of Violence: I think David Cronenberg's most recent take on vigilantism and misplaced identity was slightly overrated by most critics -- When you get down to it, the film was pretty straightforward in its doling out of violent fates to those who most deserved them. Still, solid performances and Cronenberg's mordant humor still made for a far-better-than-average night at the movies.

16. Walk the Line: Despite the great performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line ultimately seemed too much of a by-the-numbers biopic to do the Man in Black full credit. But, definitely worth seeing.

17. In Good Company (2004): Paul Weitz's sweet folktale of synergy, downsizing, and corporate obsolescence was too charitable and good-natured to think ill of any of its characters, and I usually prefer more mordant fare. Nevertheless, the intelligently-written IGC turned out to be a quality piece of breezy pop filmmaking.

18. The Constant Gardener: Another very good film that I still thought was slightly overrated by the critics, Fernando Meirelles' sophomore outing skillfully masked its somewhat iffy script with lush cinematography and choice Soderberghian editing.

19. Primer (2004): A completely inscrutable sci-fi tone poem on the perils of time travel. Kevin and I saw it twice and still have very little clue as to what's going most of the time -- but I (we?) mean that in the best way possible.

20. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: The Chronic-what? Andrew Adamson's retelling of C.S. Lewis's most popular tome lagged in places, and the two older kids were outfitted with unwieldy character arcs that often stopped the film dead, but it still felt surprisingly faithful to the spirit of Narnia, Christianized lion and all.

Most Disappointing: The Fantastic Four, which I finally saw on the plane yesterday -- One of Marvel's A-List properties is given the straight-to-video treatment. From the Mr. Fantastic bathroom humor to the complete evisceration of Dr. Doom, this movie turned out just as uninspired and embarrassing as the trailers suggested. Runner-Up: The Brothers Grimm. Terry Gilliam's long-awaited return wasn't exactly a return-to-form. But, hey, at least he got a movie made, and Tideland is just around the corner.

Most Variable: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: I still haven't figured out how I feel about this one. I liked it quite a bit upon first viewing, but it didn't hold up at all the second time around. Still, the casting feels right, and I'd be up for The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, provided they turn up the Ford-and-Zaphod shenanigans and turn down the forced Arthur-and-Trillian romance.

Worth a Rental: Constantine, Aliens of the Deep, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Island, March of the Penguins, The Aristocrats,Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Jarhead, Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, The Ice Harvest, War of the Worlds

Ho-Hum: Inside Deep Throat, The Jacket, Million Dollar Baby (2004), The Ring 2, Kingdom of Heaven, Unleashed, Mr. & Mrs. Smith,
Aeon Flux

Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote; Eric Bana, Munich; Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain; David Straitharn, Good Night, and Good Luck

Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line; Naomi Watts, King Kong

Best Supporting Actor: Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale; George Clooney, Syriana; Brendan Gleeson, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Best Supporting Actress: Maria Bello, A History of Violence; Tilda Swinton, The Chronicles of Narnia

Unseen: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Bee Season, Broken Flowers, Cache, Casanova, Cinderella Man, Crash, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Grizzly Man, Gunner Palace, Head On, Hustle & Flow, Junebug, Match Point, The New World, Nine Lives, Pride and Prejudice, Serenity (although I watched all of Firefly last week), Shopgirl, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Wedding Crashers

2006: Frankly, the line-up doesn't look too exciting at the moment. Nevertheless, 2006 will bring A Scanner Darkly, Casino Royale, The Da Vinci Code, Flags of our Fathers, The Good German, The Inside Man, Marie Antoinette, M:I III, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Snakes on a Plane (!!), Southland Tales, Superman Returns, Tristam Shandy, V for Vendetta, and X3.