movies

So The Dark Knight Returns (damn, that's a hard habit to break) made $18 million from midnight showings last night — er, this morning.

That's a lot of dollars. That's more than some movies I could name made in their entire opening weekends.

... and that's all I've got. Until tomorrow, at least. Trying to hide from all the reviews out there gets more difficult by the minute.

So Hellboy II: The Golden Army was entertaining, but not quite the rapturous comic-book movie experience I was hoping for. It just ... missed a few turns on the narrative turnpike. But you know what was rapturously cool about it? The creatures. Which really should come as no surprise to anyone who saw Pan's Labyrinth. Here, director Guillermo del Toro talks with The New York Times, about the notebook in which he conceived some of the creatures, and here, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola talks about how he worked with del Toro and artists to bring his and del Toro's visions to life onscreen. Both stories are absolutely worth your time. As is the movie, provided you don't have the expectations I did.

(Speaking of expectations, OMG ONLY A FEW DAYS until The Dark Knight.)

I'm not always one for making grandiose claims about the year's best films before the year is through, but this time, I feel pretty justified in saying that Tarsem's The Fall really is the most beautiful film of 2008. I'm absolutely delighted that it's coming to the Bijou later this month. Watch the preview here and then make plans to go. Seriously. Do not dillydally; do not wait. You have to see this. (And not just because it continues proving that Lee Pace is the new Ryan Gosling/Christian Bale/Ed Norton/James McAvoy/greatest young actor, etc., though that is a bonus.)

In the Garden of Earthly Delights or Grand Theft Auto: The Movie? You decide.

I've been missing out on The Wandering Goat's weekly Heckler's Movie Night, showcasing some of the worst cinema has to offer for your sheer heckling delight. But I think I'll go this Wednesday. After all, they're showing Southland Tales, my Sit Down and Shut Up pick I blogged about a month or so ago. Obviously the Goat doesn't want you to sit down nor shut up, so it'll be interesting to see how the audience reacts to this pre-apocalyptic tale of L.A.'s sinister underbelly. Personally, I think it's ripe for heckling, but that, in time, it will be seen as ahead of its time, or something.

Anyway, catch Southland Tales at the Wandering Goat at 7pm Wednesday, May 21.

A trio of articles came to my attention today thanks to a super-wicked-awesome mailing list I'm on:

1. "Is There a Real Woman in This Multiplex?"
by Manohla Dargis in The New York Times

2. "Where Are the Roles for Superwomen?"
by Tammy Oler in New York Magazine

3. "Iron Men: The real reasons why summer movies became a boys' club"
by Robert Moline on MOLI

(Is it worth nothing that two of these titles are questions and one a statement? Perhaps.)

I'm abusing this blog like del.icio.us right now so that I'll remember to read these (more than the initial cursory scan) and post my thoughts later. But hey, you can post your thoughts now! Maybe you're presently less scattered than me.

I miss the X-Men; the group name may be typical, but at least the group's makeup wasn't always so.