Forwardcharm Movies
 

 

Latest News

05 / 11 / 2008
Review:
After the gruelling James Bond press junket tour, I bet Daniel Craig could use a Quantum of Solace.

02 / 11 / 2008
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Japan are in - just one rally to go and still the lead keeps changing! See how your team fared or see the Japanese rally results. Any of the top ten could still claim overall honours!

23 / 10 / 2008
Review:
Brad Pitt steals the latest from the Coen brothers: Burn After Reading.

23 / 10 / 2008
Review:
Simon Pegg learns How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

23 / 10 / 2008
Review:
Ben Stiller directs stars aplenty in Tropic Thunder.

12 / 10 / 2008
Review:
A few words on some recent movies: RocknRolla,
Death Race,
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army,
Space Chimps,
Stuck,
The Babysitters,
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder,
Son of Rambow,
Jack and Jill vs the World,
Made of Honor,
Meet Dave,
Doomsday,
Pathology.

15 / 08 / 2008
Review:
You can mess with Adam Sandler, but You Don't Mess with the Zohan.

15 / 08 / 2008
Review:
Mike Myers tickles some chakras in The Love Guru.

14 / 08 / 2008
Review:
Toot and come in, it's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

14 / 08 / 2008
Review:
You can stop watching the skies now, it's The X Files: I Want to Believe.

31 / 07 / 2008
Review:
Batman Began and now continues in The Dark Knight.

24 / 07 / 2008
Review:
The Chronicles of Narnia continue with Prince Caspian.

23 / 07 / 2008
Review:
Pixar goes Short Circuit with Wall-E.

22 / 07 / 2008
Review:
Jules Verne never envisaged a 3D version of Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review:
Jet Li and Jackie Chan team up in The Forbidden Kingdom.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review:
Will Smith keeps the streets safe and smelling of booze in Hancock.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review:
M Night Shyamalan's latest, The Happening.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review:
Spanish creepy-creepy The Orphanage.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review:
A quick catchup of movies that don't get the full treatment:
Be Kind Rewind,
Street Kings,
What Happens In Vegas,
Superhero Movie,
The Ruins and
Teeth.

08 / 07 / 2008
Review:
Bend that bullet Angelina! Wanted.

01 / 07 / 2008
Review:
Those cats were fast as lightning - Kung Fu Panda.

24 / 06 / 2008
Review:
Don't make Ed Norton angry - The Incredible Hulk.

24 / 06 / 2008
Review:
Carrie and Big's wedding, it can only be Sex and the City.

11 / 06 / 2008
Review:
Everyone's favourite pot-addicts are back in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

04 / 06 / 2008
Review:
Harrison Ford returns in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

04 / 06 / 2008
Review:
Tube driver seeks suicidal man in Three and Out.

18 / 05 / 2008
Review:
CGI fantasy motor racing in Speed Racer.

18 / 05 / 2008
Review:
Your creases will fly away with Iron Man.

18 / 08 / 2005
Sudoku!
Have a go at the online Sudoku game.

Plenty more
See the rest of the reviews here.

 

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight

Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman.

Directed by Christopher Nolan.

Story: Batman Continues.

Running Time: 2hrs 32 minutes.

UK Certificate 12A.

 

The Dark Knight is currently IMDB's Number 1 movie of all time, as voted by its users. It'll drop once the hubbub dies down, nevertheless you can't ignore an accolade like that.

Christian Bale tries to remember where he's seen that suit before. Three years ago, when Batman Begins revived everyone's favourite chiropteran franchise, I predicted that its sequel, when it arrived, would be an all-action mindless episode, a la Matrix Reloaded. Well, I'm happy to say it hasn't turned out like that. It has its action quota, sure, but it reverses the trend by being more intelligent than its already sharp predecessor. It only takes a relatively short leap of faith to start believing in bats, which isn't something you can easily say about the others. I was all ready to give it a solid 4/5 until the ending arrived, which totally surprised me with its creativity and was just enough, along with a darkness not usually found in a a 12A movie, to tip it into the 5/5 bucket.

Heath Ledger doesn't get many party bookings these days. Heath Ledger's sad and unexpected demise has done wonders for the movie's publicity. At the time, movie gossip said that they'd hired other actors to finish his scenes, and that they would employ a "magic mirror" that Ledger would walk into and the new actor would emerge from. Fortunately that was horse shit. You wouldn't know he wasn't there until the end, heaven knows how they did that. There's some dodgy editing, but that's not restricted to the Joker's scenes, so that must be down to incompetence rather than enforced absence. Ledger's performance itself is superb - totally appropriate to the role - but I wouldn't say it's fair to judge it as "better" than Jack Nicholson's in the 1989 Batman. Grittier, certainly. The standout performance of the movie? Definitely. Better than Nicholson's? No. Despite this, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Ledger collected a posthumous Oscar, though I think it would be wrong. Everyone will think he only won it because he died, so it would be devalued - surely it's better to give the award to someone who's around to enjoy it. I do think he deserves some kind of recognition, because he genuinely was a superb actor, but the Oscar isn't the right way to go.

Whatever you expect from The Dark Knight, you're going to get it and more. It's unusually intelligent for a superhero movie, but still satisfies the action fans. Marvellous.

I enjoyed this film: 5/5

I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 5/5

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 4/5 - very dark for a 12A.

To enjoy this film you should: like movies.

 

The Dark Knight was released in the UK on 24th July 2008.