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09 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy F1!
Yes, there's a brand new Fantasy Formula One game! Check the rules or Enter your team by Friday night to qualify for the first race in Bahrain!

08 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Mexico are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Jordan on 1st April.

17 / 02 / 2010
Fantasy Rally:
The points awarded for a win have changed in the real WRC, so we've reflected the changes in our scoring too. Check the rules to see the details. Next rally is Mexico on 5th March, teams will be frozen at midnight on the night of Thursday 4th March.

16 / 02 / 2010
Fantasy Rally:
The results from Rally Sweden are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team.

31 / 01 / 2010
Fantasy Rally:
The new rally season is upon us - 2010 Fantasy Rally is now open! Check the rules or pick a team ready for the start on 12th Feb.

25 / 10 / 2009
Fantasy Rally:
All previous years' Fantasy Rally results are online - Check the 2009 season.

02 / 08 / 2009
Reviews:
Sorry, there won't be any more movie reviews for the foreseeable future. Events have overtaken me. Catch up on reviews you may have missed.

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

 

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.