iconogeek » Batman

Tonight, I’m wearing a full body condom. Episode 17

iconogeek — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:02:51 +0000

As Episode 17 kicks off, Jason and Chuck welcome their special guest, Brett, to the show. We begin with a casual stroll down Speed Racer alley and then discuss Brett’s affectations towards Chuck’s dog, Juno. The guys discuss Burn After Reading quickly then move into Brett’s chosen profession and the accuracy of Scrubs.

While the Heroes season premiere waits patiently on all of their DVR’s, Chuck expounds the virtues of TiVo and ponders why anybody would watch live TV anymore. Brett breaks down the Heroes Season 2 DVD as Jason breaks down the week’s and next month’s DVD releases.

Jason then steamrolls into a pro-PC rant rallying off the “Vista Salesman” post from last week. Sides are taken, boxes are tweaked and the chips fall where they may, enjoy the sparks! As Jason finishes his rant, he ends with what is probably the worst analogy ever (seriously, it’s pretty out there) but it does lead into our title.

The geek wars continue as Brett talks about Batman comics, Chuck romances Loco Roco, and Jason plays Warhammer. The show ends on a high note comparing the humanity of modern day heroes.

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The Dark Knight and Pillow Goo: Episode 14

iconogeek — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:52:33 +0000

The news of the summer is certainly The Dark Knight and Jason and Chuck delve into it head on (right after Jason’s water polo match, of course). But first, reminiscing about Batman and Star Wars Christmas specials from the 70’s is up first.

The conversation tangents off (what else?) to Superman and,his magic allergy. Then a sneaky segue by Jason brings us to DC Universe Online and Worlds Collide then off to Batman Gotham Knight and extending movies beyond the screen.

Jason drops another video game bomb with the upcoming Wanted game and then Chuck gets us back to The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger’s phenomenal performance and the most bad-ass movie of the year.

The show wraps with Alan Moore’s genius/craziness and looking forward to Watchmen.

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Why…So…Serious?!

Brett — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:44:11 +0000

This might be the most difficult review/commentary I’ve had to write in my time as an iconogeek poster. The Dark Knight was cast into movie history on early Friday morning, amid hype bigger then Jack Nicholson’s shit-eating grin way back in 1989. I’ll admit that I had enormous expectations for this flick for several reasons, including the immense Batman Begins, my love for all things Batman (minus a little misstep known dearly as “the nipple suit”), Christian Bale, and oh by the way, Heath Ledger tragically and unexpectedly passed away right after his filming and post-production. Needless to say there was a minute amount of mystique and anticipation surrounding TDK.

Now that the weekend is over, Bale and Co. have broken the records for Midnight Opening Gross (over Revenge of the Sith), Opening Day and Weekend Gross (over Spider-Man 3). So the fans liked it….which, is a good thing, I think.

As far as what I thought about the movie is difficult to describe. In recent weeks I suppose I’ve been labeled as a rather stringent critic, which I have no problem with. Maybe you’ll hear more of my side on the next podcast. But to discuss how I would score The Dark Knight feels near impossible. Entertainment Weekly touted the flick by saying “This is what you call raising the bar.” In a way I both agree and disagree with that statement. The bar for comic book movies was certainly raised in a sense, but I feel more inclined to describe the bar as being broken down into little pieces and upgraded to a newer, shinier, nipple-less bar.

The Dark Knight is less a comic book movie and more an investigation into the human condition and the emotions shrouded behind a bad-ass bat suit, and psychotically applied white make-up. This summer has now seen three phenomenal comic book-based films in which the first 2 started the trend and the 3rd and most spectacular broke the mold. It seems that The Dark Knight has ushered in the era of Oscar-buzz worthy chatter amongst previously lighter fare.

It took me 2 days to finally post because the movie had so many story arcs that it took that long for me to process. That’s not to say that there were too many plot lines, its just an observation that no comic book movie has ever bitten off more than its ADHD riddled fanboys can chew at once (hence all the sequels). Where Batman Begins revitalized a tired franchise, The Dark Knight revitalized a tiring genre.

It’s an understatement to say Heath Ledger was superb as the Joker. Once the final credits rolled, and the Joker had already exited stage left, it was apparent that all the other players including a solid Bale, Aaron Eckhardt, Maggie Gyllenhall, and Gary Oldman among others, were simply a big name supporting cast to true work of acting genius. Ledger clearly had a vision in mind of what the Joker is and why he is that way. If for nothing else, this movie soared because of what Ledger added to it. Jack Nicholson…stick to Boston-based mob movies…because you just got out played.

The two scenes that stood out most were when Ledger and Bale are face to face in rather quiet and alone situations. I started to forget that the Joker was wearing ridiculous face paint and began to see him as a deranged criminal, with an ominous past, which I couldn’t even imagine, that would set him off the straight and narrow so far. He became a psychotic murderer the likes of which hasn’t been seen on the big screen since the aforementioned Nicholson in the Shining.

I’m going to use the old >I

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