The Dark Knight

Friday night I saw "The Dark Night", aka the new Batman movie. It was really good.

Pretty much anything you read about the film talks about Heath Ledger, and how amazing he is in it, and that's spot on, he really did make the film. I'm not really a big Heath Ledger fan, I think the only thing I've liked that he's done was Two Hands. He's tremendous in this, and walks the line between psychotic and hilarious. He's really unrecognizable though, with his altered voice and all the makeup, I never would have picked him unless I was told who it was.

The movie is, of course, over the top, in terms of its stunts and action. It never feels like you're just watching a superhero movie though, because the writing, directing and acting are all so good. With guys like Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and the lovely Maggie Gyllenhaal in supporting roles, there's much more talent than you'd normally find in this genre.

It's funny, I've heard quite a few people say this movie is "better than the first one". Meaning "Batman Begins", which is at least the fifth Batman movie. It's almost as if, given how crap the movies became in the 90s, everyone has decided to agree that they never happened, and the series really began when Christopher Nolan became involved.

Highly recommended.

PS Also saw "Charlie Wilsons War" on Saturday night, and that was average. Not necessarily bad, just not good. Kind of bound to happen when you combine one actor who makes great movies (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) with two who make rather bad movies (Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts).