The Dark Knight is the sequel to Batman Begins (2005) with Christian Bale reprising his lead role as Batman and starring the late Heath Ledger as the Joker.
The Dark Knight, one of the most anticipated movies in 2008, starts off with the Joker masterminds a bank robbery. The Joker has plotted to have his henchmen killing off each other so the other will get a larger part. But in the end, the Joker gets all the money and drives a school bus away with all that cash.
Next, there is a group of mobsters meet up with the Scarcrow but their meeting falls short with imitation Batmen with guns foiling the party. The real Batman turns up to stop the fake Batmen as well as the mobs and leaves them all tied up before the cops arrive.
Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is a new district attorney who is trying very hard to wipe out all the mobs that plague Gotham City. His assistant, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is also his girlfriend. While Lieutenant James Gordon (Gary Oldman) is a very determined and one of the last few uncorrupted cops remain.
Lau (Chin Han) is a Chinese business mogul who heads the foreign mobsters. At a meeting through video conferencing, he lets the mob leaders know he’s taking their money to Hong Kong to protect them from the lieutenant and the district attorney. The Joker interrupts the mobsters meeting and ends up having the mob leaders hiring the Joker for half of the entire sum to kill Batman.
Batman, meanwhile, flies to Hong Kong with Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) in order to capture Lau. Edison Chen appears briefly as LSI VP at the entrance when Lucius first enters the building in order to plant a mobile phone at the security deck.
With Lau back in Gotham City, the cops manage to get Lau to reveal the names of all the mobs. Harvey manages to bring all these criminals to jails for at least 18 months. Meanwhile, Joker tells Gotham City that if the Batman doesn’t unmask and turn himself in he will kill innocent people everyday. As a result of the Batman not turning himself the first victims are a major judge and the police commissioner.
Joker’s next victim is Harvey Dent but since it’s at a fund raiser built by Bruce Wayne, Bruce manages to save Harvey and Rachel. After that, Lieutenant James Gordon is killed saving the mayor of Gotham by the Joker himself at the memorial of the murdered judge.
As a result of Gordon’s death Bruce determines that he will reveal himself and as Batman tells Dent to call for a press conference. At the conference Dent claims to be Batman himself and is arrested. While being transported the Joker and his gang attack the police vehicles in order to kill Dent. Batman shows up to thwart the attack and ends up having his Batmobile totally immobilized, which ejects a Batpod, a newer version of Batcycle. Running after the Joker with his Batpod, Batman manage to flip the Joker’s tractor trailer. When the Joker stands face to face with Batman on the road, at the very last second, Batman brakes his Batpod since he don’t kill criminals and ends up knocked out in the crash. When the Joker tries to kill Batman, Lieutenant James Gordon steps out of nowhere and arrests the Joker and is immediately promoted to Commissioner by the mayor.
With the Joker in custody, Gordon and Batman interrogate the Joker when he reveals that he and the mobs have taken Rachel and Dent to opposite sides of the city. He forces Batman to choose either one and the other one will die.
Batman beats the hell out of Joker in order to get him to reveal two locations before he speeds off to save Rachel while Gordon and the police are off to save Dent. Dent and Rachel wake up tied to chairs with barrels of oil surrounding them and a speaker phone hooked up both locations. A few seconds before the bombs are suppose to go off Batman arrives but finds Harvey Dent at the location he thought Rachel was to be at. He drags Harvey out of the building right before it explodes but Harvey’s face is badly burned due to the oil spilled onto one part of this face. Lieutenant Gordon shows up at Rachel’s location just in time but the explosion goes off and Rachel dies in the explosion.
In the hospital Harvey is driven to madness over the lose of Rachel. One part of his face is badly burnt, he begins to adopt the nickname Two-Face and refuses any skin surgery. When one of Wayne Corps employees discovers the money being shifted to help fund Batman and his role, he goes public on a evening talk show but is cut by the Joker who said that if someone doesn’t kill the employee in 60 minutes he will blow up a hospital. While the new commissioner is evacuating the hospitals Batman tries to locate the Joker, who shows up dressed as a nurse with a red wig at the hospital room of Harvey Dent. He says he wasn’t responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Rachel and that it was the mob and James Gordon’s corrupted cops. He unties Harvey and gives him a gun to start his payback. After Harvey leaves the Joker blows up Gotham General Hospital. While Harvey begins to confront everyone who has a part in causing Rachel’s death. He flips his coin in order to determine the fate of his victim and has killed five men including two cops along the way.
Meanwhile, the Joker declares that he will rule the streets and that anyone left in Gotham will be subject to him and what he does. He tells people they can leave now but that he’ll have a surprise for them in the tunnel and on the bridge. As a result most people falls into his trap by leaving via two ferries that the Joker has loaded with bombs. In hopes of showing everyone how evil and corrupted they can be he gives the detonators to the bombs to the other ship or if they don’t the Joker will blow up both ships by midnight. One ship is full of criminals and the other is loaded with civilians. The civilians vote to blow up the criminals boat while the criminals don’t do anything at all. As time goes on one man on the civilians boat can forward to volunteer himself to blow up the other ship to kill the criminals; on the criminals boat one criminal steps forward takes the detonator and throws it out the window instead. Batman and Gordon manage to locate the Joker and see that he has a bus load of hostages from the hospital. Batman discovers that the people in the clown masks are actually the hostages with unloaded guns tapped to their hands and that the people dress as doctors are the actual criminals. Batman takes on both the criminals and SWAT teams to save the hostages. In his final fight with the Joker both fight to the ledge of an unfinished skyscraper where Batman stops the Joker from blowing up the two ferries and throws the Joker over the side. The Joker laughs all the way down until Batman saves him at the last moment. The Joker acknowledges that Batman really is incorruptible but that his “white knight” Harvey Dent isn’t that he’s unleashed him on the city.
Batman then goes to the place where Rachel was killed to find James Gordon and his family there with Harvey Dent. Harvey wants Gordon to pay for the death of Rachel. Harvey shots Batman and is about to kill Gordon’s son when Batman knocks him over the side of the building while saving Gordon’s son. Harvey falls to his death. Unable to hold on any longer Batman falls as well. Gordon goes down to check on Batman and discuss that the Joker really wins if anyone find out about Harvey and the five people he’s killed. To prevent the further decline in the the city of Gotham, Batman voluntarily tells Gordon that Batman will be held responsible for the five deaths and that the police will be on the hunt for Batman. The movie closes with the Batman getting away.
Overall, The Dark Knight is definitely the best superhero film in 2008. Well scripted and full of actions, the best part in my opinion is the clever plots the Joker set up in order to put Gotham City in chaos. In the memory of Heath Ledger, you have played the best Joker ever, possibly the best villain ever.
James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie star in the action-packed thriller, Wanted. Based loosely on a comic book miniseries Wanted by Mark Millar, the film also stars Morgan Freeman, Thomas Kretschmann and Konstantin Khabensky.
James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie in the movie "Wanted"
Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is an account manager and a total loser who leads a dull and pathetic life. His girlfriend even sleeps with his colleague, Barry (Chris Pratt). His boss, Janice (Lorna Scott) has never stopped annoying him by her persistent nagging and making stapling noise. Most of the times, Gibson needs some sort of medication to calm himself down.
While shopping for groceries in a convenient store, Gibson finds himself face-to-face with Fox (Angelina Jolie) who claims that Gibson’s father is dead and was killed by a stranger named Cross (Thomas Kretschmann). Gibson, facing great dangers, has no choice but to trust Fox after his bid to escape fails. Action-packed car chase pursues after that with both parties, Fox and Gibson and the enemy, Cross manage to escape from the cops.
Angelina Jolie in the movie "Wanted"
Fox introduces Gibson to meet Sloan and the rest of the Fraternity Assassins and invites him to join them in order to seek revenge for the murder of his father. Fox mentors Gibson and trains him to become a ruthless assassin by killing targets following death orders issued by The Fates.
In the end, when Gibson sees Cross in the street, he gives him a chase only to end up killing one of the members of the fraternity. The rare bullet shell left by Cross (Cross rarely leaves any evidence) gives Gibson enough clues to pursue him. As a result, the chase continues in Europe which ends up having Cross revealing himself as Mr. X, Gibson’s dad, after he was shot by his own son. While in disbelieve, he verifies the truth by asking Fox, who gives him a strong yes.
In the end, Gibson knows about the truth when Pekwarsky (Terence Stamp), his father’s close friend reveals the truth to him that Sloan tries to save himself from The Fates by creating his own death orders.
Remembering what The Repairman (Marc Warren) has told him, Gibson drives a truck loaded with thousands of rats, all strapped to time bombs and intrudes Sloan’s textile mills. His plan works perfectly as the explosions caused by the exploding rats has messed up the entire mills, making it easy for Gibson to kill everyone in the mills.
Eventually, Gibson finds himself surrounded by the members of the Fraternity, including Fox and Sloan. Gibson tries to convince the members of the Fraternity that Sloan has broken the code by hiding his own death order and that his father has found out, instead, Sloan attempts to finish off Gibson’s father. When The Gunsmith (Common) says he will ignore the rule and tries to fire a shot at Gibson, Fox makes a 360 degrees shot which kill all the members of the Fraternity standing in the circle (except Sloan) ending up killing herself as well.
Gibson gives Sloan a chase but Sloan has managed to escape. In the end, Gibson manages to trick Sloan with the same technique his father once used and killed Sloan.
The movie is quite entertaining with action-packed moments that never fail to impress despite the fact that bullets bending, jumping across buildings and healing oneself with candle wax seem to fake to believe. Angelina Jolie showed she still has the curves while James McAvoy gave an emphatic performance despite his first full-feature film.
The film ends up with Gibson reminding you (yes, you loser) to take control of your own life as he has already done so.
Gone Baby Gone is a movie directed by first-time Ben Affleck and adapted by Affleck and Aaron Stockard from a novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. The film stars Casey Affleck (Ben’s brother) and Michelle Monaghan as Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, two private investigators hunting for an abducted four-year-old girl in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester.
Morgan Freeman, Michelle Monaghan and Casey Affleck in "Gone Baby Gone"
When a 4-year-old Amanda goes missing in Boston, the case attracts widespread media attention. Private investigator Kenzie (Casey Affleck) with his partner and girlfriend Angie (Michelle Monaghan) are hired by the child’s aunt, Beatrice ‘Bea’ McCready (Amy Madigan) to find her. Initially, they do not want to take up the case due to the little experience they have with this type of case and the dangers involved. But, after seeing Amanda’s mother, Helene McCready (Amy Ryan), a drug addict who cares very little about her own daughter, Kenzie and Angie decides to open an investigation that will probably risk everything including their lives. Kenzie and Angie bump into Capt. Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) while investigating the case. Doyle reveals that his 12-year-old daughter was abducted and killed as the reason he opens up the police’s missing children’s unit. Kenzie and Angie also meet up with Det. Nick Poole (John Ashton) and Det. Remy Bressant (Ed Harris), the detectives investigating the case.
Later on, Kenzie and Angie have discovered that Amanda’s mother, Helene, and her boyfriend, “Skinny Ray”, had stolen $130,000 from a local drug lord named Cheese (Edi Gathegi). Helene reveals the location of the money after Ray is murdered by Cheese. Nick and Remy arrange to trade the money with Cheese for Amanda at a nearby quarry in Quincy. While at the quarry, shots are fired, Cheese ends up dead and it is believed Amanda drowned. Captain Doyle takes full responsibility for the detectives’ actions and goes into early retirement.
A seven-year-old boy is abducted a couple months after Amanda’s death. Kenzie receives information from his buddy, Bubba Rogowski (Slaine) on the whereabouts of a known pedophile, Corwin Earle (Matthew Maher) and his accomplices of two drug addicts in Everett. They go to the house posing as drug dealers in order to find evidence of the presence of Corwin. Once they have, they flee and Kenzie later returns to the house with Nick and Remy. A shoot-out occurs and Nick is shot in the neck while Kenzie daringly enters the house and find one of the accomplices is dead. When ther other accomplice gives him a chase with a shotgun, Kenzie is forced to retreat into the pedophile’s room. Corwin is seen sitting on the floor and telling Kenzie that it was an accident before Kenzie shoots Corwin in the back of his head after he finds the boy’s dead body.
Nick later dies in a hospital. At Nick’s funeral, Kenzie recognizes a police officer Devin (Michael K. Williams) and questions him. Devin tells Kenzie to buy him lunch as a return. Devin tells Kenzie that Remy had been asking about the stolen money before Cheese knew it was missing. Kenzie questions Amanda’s uncle, Lionel (Titus Welliver), and finally discovers that Lionel and Remy have conspired in a fake kidnapping in order to take the money for themselves and to punish Amanda’s mother for her poor parenting.
Lionel speaks to Kenzie in a local bar, telling him that Amanda’s death was an accident and that the phony trade was arranged with the help of the drug lord’s associate. Remy enters the bar and stages a robbery while wearing a latex mask and holding a shotgun in order to kill Lionel before he can confess. Despite the latex mask, Lionel and Kenzie know it was Remy through his blue eyes. Lionel then tells Remy what he has already told Kenzie while Kenzie keeps on shouting “Amanda McCready was taken by Remy Bressant!” daringly. Remy tries to back away, but not before the barkeeper shoots Remy twice in the chest. Remy flees and is pursued by Kenzie to the rooftop of a nearby building. Kenzie asks Remy why he did it. Remy only replies that he loves kids before he dies.
Kenzie is later questioned about Remy’s death only to discover that an earlier call transcript which led to the quarry meeting was forged — this simply means Doyle was also involved in setting up the exchange. He is not satisfied with what he knows about Amanda’s abduction and drives with Angie to Captain Doyle’s home. He discovers Amanda (Madeline O’Brien) is alive and living with Doyle and his wife. Kenzie threatens to call the authorities but Doyle attempts to convince him that Amanda is better off living with them than with her drug-addict mother who couldn’t care less. Kenzie departs to discuss the choice with Angie, who says she will leave him if he calls the police. The police arrive and Doyle is arrested. Amanda is reunited with her mother, but Kenzie and Angie break up. Kenzie later visits Amanda and her mother, Helene, who is just about to leave on a date. He volunteers to watch over Amanda while she is out and they sit on a couch to watch television.
Overall, Ben Affleck’s directional debut is better than expected despite the many twists in the film, the truth in the end is just sad and depressing.
Two terminally ill men (played by Jack Nickholson and Morgan Freeman) escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos (called the bucket list) before they die. I think all of us should create a bucket list too and do them before we kick the bucket!
