Ok, after much fan uproar, almost every person employed by Marvel right down the janitors has stated that they have never offered the role to Will Smith, nor considered it a possibility. Maybe god doesn't hate me after all.

http://splashpage.mtv.com/2008/09/08/exclusive-is-will-smith-the-new-captain-america/

Hey guys, In case you forgot, it's Jocie's birthday next week. To celebrate we're going to Mohegan Sun, and you're all invited. Come one, come all!

I hear that, Caniprokis... I hate soccer moms. All day I deal with these twats who buy Blackberrys because all their other twat soccer mom friends have them. Then when they can't figure out how to use them because their last phone was a pair of tin cans and some string, they call us up and scream at us like we're the assholes! These douche bags generally purchase these phones because they they have a full keyboard for texting their twat friends, they have a big screen which they need because they're getting old and need large pictures on their phone, and because you can get them in pink. They never stop to think that these are amazingly sophisticated devices that might take more than 20 minutes of your precious fucking time to learn how to use. Your average Blackberry has more computing power, RAM and online capabilities than my first desktop had. Then they're all like "you mean I have pay extra for a feature to use this phone." YES! If we allowed you to take a Blackberry without a data feature, with the sheer amount of times it checks for emails per minute, you could easily rack up thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, in data charges in one month. (Remember that $.02 vs. $.002 conversation you sent me that one time, Calliander?) Not to mention the fact that if you aren't using this in conjunction with Email or the web there is no fucking reason to have one. Fucking soccer moms are the bane of my goddamn existence.

When a small Chinese man told Stone that Makers Mark was not a popular bourboun...

I just came back from seeing Dark Knight again... and yeah, he's still stupid, Dark Knight is still awesome, and that Megatron toy is awesome, I have one.

But most of his observations are correct. Bale is amazing but yes, his Batman voice is fucking retarded. As I stated before, Two-Face's about face is probably the weakest point of the film, but there was pressure from the studio to keep the film under three hours. What was not well set up was that Dent was not as stable as he appeared before the accident, and that trauma is what tipped him over. Plus, with a dead fiance and my face burned off, well, I know I've done some pretty crazy shit when under far less duress.

Heath Ledger just solid? Did your friend have his brains splattered across the highway shortly before attending the movie? I'm not one of those "he's dead so he's such a better actor" people. I thought his understated performance in Brokeback Mountain was pretty good. I thought "The Order" was a highly underrated film which utilized a mythological creature actually hasn't been done a million times by Hollywood. But other than that I despised most of his body of work. His vignettes in "I'm Not There" were the most irritating thing about that movie, and don't even get me started on "A Knight's Tale". But I measure an actor's worth by their ability to disappear into a character. Most of Hollywood's greatest "actors" don't have this ability. Christopher Walken, Robert Deniro, Al Pacino... All Oscar winners, all with the complete inability to play anyone but themselves in some different situation. Christopher Walken plays a fallen angel. Robert Deniro plays Eddie Murphy's straight man sidekick. Al Pacino is the Devil. I don't know what that was on that screen, but it was not Heath Ledger. This is a quality that Gary Oldman possesses in spades as well.

Why if I agree with most of the points raised here, do I have such a problem with it? I'll tell you why...

His critique of this movie reads like a Calliander review of any movie that gets a lot of hype. You must get along with this co-worker extremely well. He basically latched on to the one problem every review on the entire internet already pointed out, then found the three most superficial irritants he could think of, and then came up with one wild ass statement so that he could be considered different from everyone else who saw the movie.

In summation, your friend can sit and spin... I'm gonna go see The Dark Knight again...

I like the design, just what the site needs.

My Dark Knight review. Short review: Best movie made this summer.

Long Review:

Hmmm... where to start? Well let's start with the 400 LB. gorilla in the room, Heath Ledger. Do I think his death helped this film's revenues? Absolutely, but those who came only for that must have been more than satisfied. His performance is without a doubt the stand out performance in a film filled with great performances. Now I'm a little upset that we have yet to see an interpretation of the Joker that syncs up with the comics (the consideration of Willem Dafoe to star in the 1989 Batman is probably as close to that as we may ever see). But Heath Ledger may have pulled a "Blade" here and given us a character that is more interesting than its original incarnation, a rare situation in a comic book adaptation (as implied in my reference, the only instance I've seen that happen in is the movie "Blade"). What he did get correct is that the Joker is supposed to be a grotesque and loathsome creature that is a completely unpredictable force of nature. And that is what matters here.

Christian Bale offers up the most under appreciated performance in the film (as the Batmen usually do in these films). He continues to make both Batman and Bruce Wayne interesting (a hallmark of his last performance) but this time he does it in different ways. While Batman is a compelling action hero, Bruce Wayne is the film's Michael Corleone. He has started on a slippery slope that he hopes one day to abandon, but by the end of the film he realizes that there is no way out. He is fated to do this until either he is dead, or Gotham has burned itself to the ground.

Honorable mentions go out to Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman... but they are generally universally great in whatever they do... seriously it could be a Toxic Avenger remake with those three and it would probably snag some Oscars.

My few problems lie with Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent. Don't get me wrong, this performance was breath taking as well, but the writing of this character just seems somewhat... off. His turn to darkness just seems like a superficial 180 with next to no build up. It felt like there was way more character development in there, but somehow it wound up on the cutting room floor. I'm willing to bet if there's a directors cut on this film, that will be remedied. I'm also a little disappointed with how he became Two-Face. It was well established that Dent's wife was Grace Dent, and she had an interesting story of her own. Plus I like the idea that a mob boss threw acid in his face while testifying. Basically the failed attempt to kill Dent and Maggie Gyllenhall reeked of all that "The Joker killed Batman's parents." horseshit they pulled in the 1989 movie. It felt like they were trying to force a connection to the story.

But thanks to the deft writing/directing of the film by the Nolan Brothers, this film is far more than the sum of it's performances. Now when a writer/director decides the don't want to admit they are doing a super hero movie, they will try to shoehorn it into another genre, generally Sci-fi like X-men or Horror like Blade. That approach is generally pretty effective. Here they have cast the characters of Batman into a crime drama. While not the comic book, this interpretation works very well to bring Batman into the real world. It honestly felt like a Scorsese or DePalma film. I mean is the Joker's outfit that much more outrageous than anything warn by Joe Pesci in Goodfellas or Casino? By casting these cartoon characters as just eccentric figures in a grounded crime drama, Nolan has done something truly incredible.

Overall best film of the summer... hands down.

Hey guys! Thanks for the happy birthdays and all, and Caniprokis... in answer to your face book I'm not doing anything really spectacular for my birthday. Just some family get togethers and such. However we had so much fun at Mohegan the other night Jocie wants to go there on August 30th to celebrate her B-day. I can hear the slots sucking money out of her pockets now. Anyway if you didn't receive the event invites on facebook or myspace, Y'all are invited. To Blood and Devlin: how did you guys do after we left? Did ya get scalped?