Looks pretty sah-weet.  Seems like the soundtrack might be pretty good, too.

I seem to be the only human being in the world, but I was kind of disappointed by the Dark Knight. It was still a good movie, but definitely wasn't as good as Batman Begins. I don't know if it tried to do too much, but midway through the movie, I kept thinking that there was just too much plot going on here. I thought that truck flip scene was going to be the "final standoff" but there was still like an hour left in the movie.

It wasn't so much that there weren't good parts, but there were too many things that bothered me for this to get anything more than a 7, whereas the first one was close to a 10.

Here's what I didn't like:

1) Who is the Joker? In the original movie, we get the Joker backstory. The Joker was Jack Napier--an ambitious thug who falls into a vat of chemicals and gets a backalley hack to try to fix his face--only to leave that ridiculous smile on him. This time, we get nothing but the Joker keeps asking people "Wanna know how I got this scar?" and keeps coming up with new versions of the story. That's completely annoying because these new movie versions are all about the backstory. I wanted to know.

2) The whole Rachel Dawes character is a failure. What exactly did she do to warrant the love of two great men?  Why does Bruce Wayne love her?  Because they played together as little kids?  She's kind of vapid in this one--barely even caring that Harvey Dent nearly gets blown away in the courtroom. (The gun just happened to misfire right? Am I the only one that thought everyone should have reacted a little more to that?) I didn't care at all when she died. Not only is she no MJ from Spiderman, who I think we all fell in love with, but Maggie Gyllenhaal looks distractingly like Kirsten Dunst.

3) I really hate the Batman voice. Why is Christian Bale doing his worst Al Pacino impression under the cowl? It didn't bother me so much in the first one, because Batman doesn't really have a ton of dialogue, but in this one, it just gets silly.

4) The Batcycle is Bat Feature Creep. I was waiting for the back wheel to get blown off so it could get converted to the Bat Segway.

5) Too much obvious foreshadowing. How many "face" references to Dent were there? Face of Gotham? Hmm... I wonder if he becomes Two Face at the end? Lucky for him that Two Face was already his nickname!

6) Phone sonar: We've seen that effect before--in DareDevil, when it rains.

7) The Bat copycats expose us to the silliness of the idea of a guy running around dressed as a bat. What I thought was amazing in the first one was how believable the origin story of a guy in a bat costume was... Like I could actually see it happening and not being silly. When the copycat asks Batman what the difference between him and Batman was "I'm not wearing goalie pads" can't be the answer, otherwise Batman really is just a guy with a boatload of cash and military equipment.

8) Since when do all of the killings in a superhero movie have to be accounted for?  I hate the idea that Batman has to take the blame for Dent's murders.  Did he really kill 5 or 6 people?  I wasn't counting?  Are they counting Morone's limo driver, too?  Who cares who killed a mob limo driver?  Can't they sweep that under the rug?  Leave it as a cold case?   

9) His death was tragedy--no doubt. But, just in terms of his performance, I honestly thought it was kind of understated. When I think psychopath in clown makeup, I'm thinking REALLT creepy. Robin Williams was once mentioned as a potential Riddler before Jim Carrey got it, and his performances in 24 Hour Photo and Insomnia were beyond creepy--they were downright disturbing. I just didn't feel like the Joker was really that unpredictably nuts in this one. I did get my hopes up in the beginning, though. Between the "What busdriver?" line and the amazing disappearing pen, I thought we were in for a real sicko... in a funny kind of sick way. Didn't get him again until he walks out of the hospital in the nurse outfit...not much in between.

Sah-weet!

When you're a Finance major, there are two things that are absolutely required consumption--Wall Street and Liar's Poker.  If you haven't gone through both of them, well, no there's no point to even saying that because we all have.  Its not just a rite of passage, its scripture. 

But, what isn't required, particularly with Wall Street, is learning any kind of lesson.  Guys grow up idolizing Gordon Gekko with his slick back hair and fancy 15 pound cell phone (it was 1987) on the beach, but the morality lesson gets a bit dwarfed in the whole thing. 

When I was in college, I ran a retreat for business students in the spring of senior year.   A lot of people complained about how empty and exhausted they felt about recruiting.  Trying to figure out and play who you think these companies want you to be and sell yourself can get to you after a while.   And for what?  Do the people that "play the game" really actually wind up winning in the end?

I avoided the whole brokerage/investment banking side of Finance.  I never liked who I was dealing with there because it always seemed like it was either about being better than the next guy or being the closest fit to a mold--never about being the best self you can be.  I just wasn't willing to make that kind of sacrifice and I never felt I should have to.

I wasn't going to stay up nights like Bud Fox, charting companies to prove my worth to somebody.  I was going to live my balanced life and I bet on the fact that I would get appreciated and discovered by others who wanted the same kind of balance in their lives. 

Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) gets sucked in...  the money, the women.  A lot of people do.  But you know what?  That's not what really gets you to be that successful.  Success in this country is built on equity...  built on building things and owning the equity in things you built, not tearing things down.  That's why most leaveraged buyout returns never get high multiples--there's only so many ways you can improve a company, only so much leverage you can get.  Sure, it's also less risky, but in my life, if I'm going to be around an industry, I think its more fun to be in one that's shooting for the fences.

And when you're doing that, you've got to have your heart in it.  When Bud Fox sold out Blue Star, he knew it wasn't right at the moment he did it.  When we see entreprenuers, its easy to tell who is passionate about their business in a positive way.  It flows out of them and drives them upward. 

Ok, so I didn't talk so much about the movie and kind of went on a tangent.  Its a great movie, even outside of all this moral commentary.  Michael Douglass really is Gordon Gekko and Charlie Sheen is equally well cast.  Its great to see him play on screen with his dad, making the whole betrayal seem that much more real.  Go rerent it if you haven't seen it in a while... or rent it if you're boyfriend is a hungry, aspiring broker/banker and you want to know what all the fuss is about. 

Oh, and I'm not trying to be sexist...   plenty of women are obviously successful bankers, but I don't know too many of them who really like Wall Street.  Disagree?  Feel free to comment.

"There's someone out there for everyone - even if you need a pickax, a compass, and night goggles to find them."

I'm a romantic... hopefully, not hopeless, though.  I also think life is a little bit weird and a little bit surreal. 

I also think that, at certain times, my life could use a little Enya in the background for effect.

That's the essence of L.A. Story.  Its all about how emotional and grandiose we can make our own little efforts to find someone, and then how often we realize how silly the whole thing is.  Real.  Silly.  Both.  Our lives are really silly, but they're great sometimes, too.  Harris K. Telemacher's life is really silly, too.  He drives to work through other people's backyards and through public parks.  He makes amateur videos on roller skates in art museums.  Electronic traffic condition billboards talk to him. 

And, his life is great, too, because he finds someone that makes him show off--"the idiot's version of being interesting."  He finds someone that makes him want to change the polarity of the earth to keep her from flying home.

"Life is a tale told by an idiot--full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." 

We are the idiots telling the story, searching hard everyday to find something of substance to lend meaning to the sound and substance to the fury.  In the meantime, we watch Steve Martin to entertain ourselves.

When I saw that they were coming out with another Rocky, I was... um... skeptical.  Rocky V, to me, should have never been made the same way that Godfather III is dead to me.  So, why come back for another one?  Especially since Sly is 60!!

Then I saw the trailer...    Hmm... wow... actually looked pretty interesting.  It totally plays into the aging boxer story, which was somewhat believable since we saw George Foreman do it in real life.

Well, the movie was even better than I could have imagined.  If you liked any of the Rocky movies, this is a must-see.  If you love America and apple pie, this is a must see.  If you go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning, this is a must see. 

Even though this isn't a true "reset" like Casino Royale and Batman Begins, the movie accomplishes the same success for a franchise that had jumped the tracks a bit.  It is a back to basics plot with a lot of character exploration and development.  Oh, and did I mention Adrian was dead?  In fact, Rocky's memories of Adrian are so touching that, for a split second, we almost... miss her character.  Almost.  Nice jobs all around by supporting characters playing Rocky's son, "Little Marie", and Rocky's Trainer.

You can't help but get goosebumps when the Rocky theme plays.  The fight scene is probably the most realistic of all the Rocky fights, too, and when it's over, you couldn't have asked for the frachise to end on a better note.... a lot better than fighting that Tommy Morrison in the street.

Once again... the trailer: