The Dark Knight Rises Movie Review

The Dark Knight Rises Film Review

C-Rav rises from the darkness to review the final chapter of director Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy: The Dark Knight Rises.

Film Info

Plot: Eight years after assuming the blame for the death of D.A Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne went into a self-imposed exile and Batman has never been seen since, while Gotham City has been experiencing peace at last after criminal activity was crushed under the weight of the anti-crime Dent Act. However everything changes when a mysterious cat burglar drives Bruce out of seclusion and the far more dangerous masked terrorist named Bane proves to be Batman's most lethal foe.

Directed by: Christopher Nolan (Following, Memento, Insomnia, Inception).

Written by: Christopher Nolan & Jonathan Nolan (The Prestige, The Dark Knight).

Starring: Christian Bale (American Psycho, Public Enemies, The Fighter), Michael Cain (Alfie, The Italian Job, Austin Powers in Goldmember), Gary Oldman (Bram Stoker's Dracula, True Romance, Léon: The Professional), Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries, Alice in Wonderland, Les Misérables), Tom Hardy (Bronson, The Warrior, This Means War), Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose, Nine, Midnight in Paris), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Mysterious Skin, 500 Days of Summer, Looper) and Morgan Freeman (March of the Penguins, The Shawshank Redemption, The Bucket List).

Top 10 Best Steven Spielberg Films

For decades Steven Spielberg has given audiences unforgettable cinematic experiences, making him one of the greatest filmmakers in history in the eyes of many. He has terrified and entertained us with films such as Jaws, E.T The Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park. He's forced audiences to reflect on our history and witness true human drama with films such as The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, and War Horse. Even with some massive missteps along his career, more often than not Spielberg has managed to deliver some of the best film and movie magic has to offer while stunning us, forcing us to think, and touching our hearts.

Do classics and masterpieces such as Raider's of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List, or Saving Private Ryan make this list? What about recent films such as The Adventure of Tintin or Munich? Perhaps some underrated films such as Minority Report or Catch Me If You Can make the cut? Could some overlooked/unpopular films such as The Sugarland Express, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Terminal and War of the Worlds miraculously appear on the list?

Find out here!

Top 15 Best Disney Films

"Smallville: Absolute Justice" : Initial Thoughts

WHATS UP BITCHES!!!!

As most of you probably know if you're following me on twitter, tonight...in fact just a little under 30 mins as I'm writting this, Smallville will be airing its first ever two hour TV movie event!

What!? Who said 'Fuck Smallville!" Well don't tell me your problems! Sure Smallville isn't the best written show out there, but it's far from bad because what's awesome about it is sure cooler than well..probably you! Whooaaahh!

I look at Smallville like I look at everything and everyone else I love in this world. Sure its not perfect, but who the fuck out there is! I focus on the good aspects of it, and there's alot about Clark Kent's story and personal struggles I relate to, being adopted and all.

Now tonight features The Justice Society of America, which in the Smallville universe appears to be an underground group of heroes from the previous generation. The Society members being featured are Dr. Fate, Stargirl, and Hawkman...being played by Michael Shanks himself! Some of you may be familiar to those reading this...all three of you!

What makes this even cooler is Geoff Johns is writing it! Who's that?! He's been writting some well recieved Comics and wrote the Legion of Superheroes episode last year!

What I'm really digging is he's openly said what he loves about the show as well as pointing out the flaws! Nothing better than having someone on board who won't kiss the creators ass....Star Wars prequels anyone? Plus he's stated that he was given all the creative freedom (aside from budget limits) for this episode....Fucking A!

So yeah I'm excited about this episode! My initial thoughts: I'm excited as fuck for this episode! Two hours! It's not even just 'two episodes back to back'. They're being edited and written as one clear story! From what I've read it will be epic!

My worries? Hype. Last year the big epic Doomsday vs Clark fight we were promised was a big steamy pile of EPIC fail shit! I have faith in all involved, but you never know. Plus the story seems a little like "Watchmen"...but that's a minor complaint Watchmen didn't really impress me all that much to being with.

So yeah! I'll be back to briefly give my thoughts on the episode! Peace out and even if you're not a Smallville fan, lets all give three huge ass cheers to fanboys of anything out there!

Whooaaah! Whoooaaaah! WHOOOAAHH!!!

Top 20 Worst Movies of the Decade

20. Next: What starts out as a standard H-Wood, Nic Cage goes from ‘ok’ to a piece of shit when the ending tries but fails epicly to produce a ‘twist’ that quite literally makes the film a complete waste of time .

19. Norbit: Eddie Murphy playing a fat obnoxious woman and the nerdiest man imaginable is just cringe worthy movie making at its best.

18. Meet Dave: There are scenes of Eddie Murphy doing physical ‘comedy’ that quite literally left my wondering how anyone working on this film could’ve thought they were making even a half-decent movie.

17. Pinnochio: Director Roberto Benigni is behind one of my favorite films, Life is Beautiful…but watching a grown man playing a wooden puppet child is an experience I never want to repeat again.

16. The Master of Disguise: Dana Carvey makes me wanna kill a baby in this shit fest.

15. Æon Flux: So it has Charlize Theron in tight black suit…not even that could have saved an all style no substance movie…and the style isn’t even impressive in the slightest.

14. Epic Movie: Really, what do I need to say that even people who haven’t seen this already know.

13. 10, 000 B.C: Possibly one of the THE most boring movies I’ve ever seen.

12. Son of the Mask: A CGI infant dancing and singing like Michigan J. Frog…I quite LITERALLY wanted to kill a baby!

11. Herbie: Fully Loaded: Lindsay Lohan + Predictable and cliché story/scenes + A CGI love bug making faces = Piece of shit.

10. The Hottie and the Nottie: So bad I can’t remember why I hate it..but I don’t dare try to tread back on old memories…

9. The Animal: How is a grown man barking and swimming like a Dolphin funny?? Please, explain to me how the people behind this thought they were making something funny?! O_o

8. Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo – With humor clever enough to be written by kindergarteners who just learned a new dirty word for the first time, how can one not love this!? *sarcasm*

7. The Love Guru: Read above.

6. Beverly Hills Chihuahua: Jamie Lee Curtis and Piper Perabo barking like dogs to each other on other ends of the phone for like…15 minutes…fuck you Disney!

5. Sex and the City: The Movie – All four of the women have the maturity level as the 14 year old girls I went to High School with. If you like it, more power to you, but if you at any point think these women are right in the way they behave, then I’m going to get out the cement, because the foundations of our society are about to crumble.

4. Dragonball: Evolution – “At least we still have our dragonballs.” Really…!?

3. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li – I was literally pissed off after seeing this movie. “Your father was the milk of my company…but even milk…has an expiration date.” …Fuck you!

2. Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House – Made for TV but it’s not even good enough for that. A kid dancing around like a fucking moron to “I Feel Good” = suck!

1. Disaster Movie: I want it to be known that my comments on wanting to kill myself and similar remarks were not said simply for comical and exaggerated effect…I’m dead serious. If The Dark Knight shows how much I can love a film, Disaster Movie is the equivalent of the opposite. I give you every right to hate this movie even without seeing it, please, spare you’re precious hours in life.

Top Ten Best "Smallville" Episodes (Part 2/2)

5. Justice (Season 6 – episode 11 )
Before The Justice Society of America makes its arrival in the Smallville universe this year….even before The Legion of Superheroes popped up…Smallville Season 6 had its recurring character, Oliver Queen a.k.a Green Arrow, round up the past DC comics guests stars (Bart Allen/Impulse [The Flash], Arthur Curry/Aquaman, and Victor Stone/Cyborg) to form the beginnings of The Justice League of America. The end result was a well executed episode about the young Justice League trying to rescue Bart from the clutches of Lex Luthor in his secret lab. Talk about a geeks dream come true! It was well written, well acted, fast paced and full of great moments. Perfect.

4. Reckoning (Season 5- episode 12)
They told us the events of Smallville’s 100th episode would change things forever. Looking bad almost four years later…it really did. Smallville went from the happy-go-lucky almost Dawson-Creek-Like show into a much darker and comic book centered Superman series. This episode marked the death of Clark’s adoptive father, Jonathan Kent. Those final scenes were heartbreaking and the performances from all the series regulars were so amazing and believable. There’s not much else to say other than episode 100 did not fail to deliver.



3. Shattered (Season 3 – episode 8)
In spite of Smallville having several amazing episodes, very few made me drop my jaw in surprise of where they took a story. This episode was one of those few. Having Lionel drug his own son into insanity just to cover up his sins was insanely dark for Smallville and was a major twist in the direction season 3 was going (one of my favorite seasons of the series). The suspense and overall great writing in this episode was immensely complimented by Michael Rosenbaum ‘s haunting performance. It’s episode like this that make me sure Smallville can be good quality television.

2. Memoria (Season 3 – episode 19)
It’s easy to say that Lex Luthor became the iconic criminal mastermind we all know him to be because of the cruel and unloving parenting of Lionel Luthor. Smallville went further and explored why the father/son relationship between both Luthors was so strained and dysfunctional. It was great seeing a young Lex and how his relationship with his father was a much more loving one before the death of Lex’s brother Julian. Also shown was Clark’s earliest memory of his biological mother Lara as he was being sent away from Krypton to earth. The end of the episode has two of the most heartbreaking scenes in Smallville history: One where Lex confronts his father and reveals all he wanted was to be loved, and another where Clark shares the memory he recovered with his adoptive mother, Martha Kent. Episodes like this that were beautifully acted, shot, written, and emotionally are perfect. Emmy material.

1. Rosetta (Season 2 – episode17)
This was one of the very first episodes of Smallville I had ever seen. And it was in fact, the one that got me hooked onto the series. This episode featured a special guest appearance by Christopher Reeve, who had previously played the Superman character in four feature films before Smallville’s time. This was such an amazing episode. First of all, it was well written and the story of Clark finally getting answers about his origins was one I could relate to. I loved how the main story gave everyone something interesting to play, and of course there was the legendary scene between Tom Welling and Christopher Reeve. That scene was so well acted on both players parts that you truly felt a ‘passing of the torch’ moment. A moment that means a lot now that Clark is truly stepping into the role of a hero and adopting a lot of the Superman persona. There’s isn’t much else to say. It was stunning.



Random Trivia
Season With The Most Fave Eps: Season 3 (3 episodes)
Season With No Favourite Eps: Season 1 and 4 (Although they do have some other great ones: “Pilot”, “Zero”; “Run”, “Commencement”)
Director of The Most of My Faves: James Marshal (Arrival, Reckoning)
Writers: TIE! Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Rosetta, Memoria), Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson (Reckoning, Savior).

Top Ten Best "Smallville" Episodes (Part 1/2)

As many of you know, Smallville is my favorite television series and has been for the past eight seasons and still remains number one thus far into its ninth year. The show seems to be getting stronger with new producers at the wheel, causing me to reflect on some of Smallville’s best episodes thus far. Here’s list of my Top Ten Smallville Episodes.

10. Perry (Season 3 – episode 5)
Smallville’s introduction of DC Comics character Perry White, the man destined to employ Clark Kent , Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen as the editor of the Daily Planet, was a much welcomed one by fans. This story had a younger, more irresponsible White meeting Clark Kent and trying to expose his powers, which he witnessed in a drunken state. The story was really great but Michael KcKean, who played White, made it extra special as his performance was something for the Smallville history books.


9. Savior (Season 9 – episode 1)
The newest episode on the list makes the spot, and the reason is as simple as one word: Epic. In spite of a CW sized budget the special effects in this episode were extremely well done and the story that introduced more questions instead of wrapping everything from the previous season up in 42 mins was engaging. Top that off with the introduction of Callum Blue as Major Zod, who has breathed new life into the role, and a super heroic and pro-active Clark wearing the iconic S symbol (he even TRIED to fly at least!) and you have an amazing episode!

8. Arrival (Season 5 – episode 1)
Another season premiere to have made the list, the first episode of season 5 was also epic. It introduced us to the Fortress of Solitude (which while smaller than the one shown in the Superman films, looked infinitely more…’arctic’-y?) and had two disciples of Zod tearing up shit around town! It was very cool to see the first glimpses of when the show was transforming more into a Superman series. Looking back, this was really when the series starting heavily introducing elements of the DC universe. And that tease of an ending showing James Marsters as Brainiac? Fucking A!

7. Descent (Season 7 – episode 16)
Ever sine Smallville introduced us to the interesting dynamic between Lionel Luthor and Lex Luthor, fans had a sense that Lex’s definitive turn to the dark side would stem from him killing his own father. In season 7, that finally happened. The episode in noted for having no subplot and revolving entirely around this major event, from Lex trying to cover it up, to his dealing with what he had done. The final scene between Lionel and Lex was dramatic to say the least and the stare down between Clark and Lex was so well acted in spite of there being no dialogue that you truly felt Lex had fulfilled his destiny and former friends were now mortal enemies.

6. Legion (Season 8 – episode 11)
Smallville Season 8 introduced the Legion of Superheroes, a team of superhuman individuals from the 31st century known in comic lore for traveling back in time to see Clark Kent before his days as Superman. This was a really great episode because it introduced the team in a way that stuck to the main story of season 8, the Doomsday arc. The three actors chosen to play Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl were fantastic and the nods to the Superman mythos (such as a comment about Clark not wearing glasses) made for some great geek moments. The subplot of the ep was also great, featuring some damn fine acting on Allison Mack’s part as she channels her inner James Marsters. Long Live The Legion!

Stay Tuned For Part 2!