Mr. and Mrs. Smith & Batman Begins

Jordan

Hollywood is surprising the hell out of me lately. Every film I've gone to thus far in the last two months has really been fun and better than expected. Case in point:

Mr. and Mrs. Smith - Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play unrivaled assassins that are working for seperate corporations. They also happen to be married and unaware of each other's alter-ego. Eventually they both find out who they are and a "war of the roses" ensues as they try and kill each other, rekindle their love and marriage, and finally save each other's lives during a massive gunfight at the end. (Note: Don't try and leave your secret hitman agency unless you can gun down and destroy a veritable army of fellow assassins and mercenaries!)

What I liked:
There's actual onscreen chemistry between Pitt and Jolie and I have to say that they go really well together.

There's plenty of humor, action, and even a teeny bit of romance; there's a little bit of something here for everyone. (Including lots of sultry Angelina "Homewrecker" Jolie action!)

Some great bits of dialogue and some hilarious one liners. (That's all John Smith honey!)

What I didn't like:
Vince Vaughn has always been a great wiseass in films (his crowning achievements are "Made" and "Old School.") and he really shines in his role as a whacked out assassin that lives with his mother. He needed more screentime.

Keith David ("They Live," "The Thing") is the head of the company that Angelina Jolie's character works for. You only get a brief glimpse of him on a computer screen and hear his unmistakable voice in a few scenes. Again, another actor they could have/should have exploited in this film.

Overall though, this movie shocked the hell out of me and has given me a little more hope that Hollywood is making a teeny comeback from the slew of remakes and sequels. I fully throw my reccomendation behind Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
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Batman Begins - An origin film about Batman's ahm.... origins. The film is a definite breath of fresh air after "Batman Forever" and "Batman & Robin." In this flick, Bruce Wayne must don his suit for the first time in order to save Gotham City from the Ra Za Gul's (spelling?) "League of Shadows" (I think that's what they called themselves) and "The Scarecrow."

What I liked:
Christian Bale rules! Not since Michael Keaton has a finer Batman hit the silver screens! Bale makes his crime-fighting alter ego a total bad ass, and hits the "dark batman voice" just right!

Lots of great action and effects!

Lots of great actors including Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and Liam Neeson.

An attempt at making a storyline that will make you think a bit. Sure it's all pretty predictable, but there's a few small things that caught me off guard.

What I didn't like:
The romantic subplot with Katie Holmes' character. While I heard a lot of trash talk concerning her acting ability, Katie does fine until the films final moments where she tries to show a romantic interest for Bruce Wayne. She mutters some really bad dialogue in the last 5 minutes that had my friend Jay and I in stitches. ("What the hell did she say about a mask?! HUH?!")

The Scarecrow is terribly underutilized and comes off as a minor threat. Sheesh.... what a waste.

Some awkard storytelling. As one reviewer put it, Batman Begins is an uneven film and it's true. But if you're a Bat-fan and you can overlook a few plot holes, this doesn't really hurt the film all that much.

So in the end, I came out of the movie theater with a grin on my face. Batman Begins is much more serious than the previous entries, and brings the DC comic hero back to his darker roots. While things do fall apart a bit toward the end of the film, it's still a very enjoyable viewing experience, and I recommend that you check it out.

With the viewing of these two films, my theatrical movie-going record has been 4 - 0 lately and I hope to keep it that way. It's guaranteed to be 5-0 after next weekend once I see Romero's Land of the Dead. Once I see it, I'll post about it here.

(Note: Damn, we're supposed to SLAM Hollywood here, but so far I haven't found much to really complain about. We'll see what happens when "War of the Worlds" debuts in March. Maybe I'll hate that one....)
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Jordan Garren
Webmaster:The B-Movie Film Vault
Staff Writer: Rogue Cinema

lilly

But, I think you were a little too kind when it came to Batman...

The movie was very well done, i admit, and quite a comback from the past two. The darkness of the bat was perfect and just what us dearing fans needed (i wish we could bring Burton back). Unfortunately, everything up until the climax felt all too slow, a little unballanced. They could have brought in the evil villain much sooner.

What happened to the scarecrow? I was anticipating seeing such a quality villian come to life, but he barely made a showing. Granted he started the wave of future villians, which was clever, but the scarecrow ended up being such a horribly weak character. Especially when we as viewers got to know his character so well. We knew what made him tick, which i feel we're often cut off. Having more then one villian in these stories hinders us from entering the minds of the evil ones to the point where we actually want them to die. I wish we could have seen more of him. It was disappointing and i was left wishing the scarecrow lived on. What a waste of a character.

Overall, i left the theater feeling good. Batman Begins paved way for new excitements for our Bruce-y.

Sometimes i wish we could hop in there and querk a few things. For instance: High Tension. I left the theater crying. But that's for another time.

uscfilmgirly83 · Side Door Sneaker Joined: Jun 22, 2005 Posts: 5

See I think Batman Begins did a good job with Scarecrow. Because in the comics he seemed like a very weak villain, so I thought it was great they added some mystery and power to him.

lilly · Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 7:26 pm Post subject:

yeah... like i mentioned in the subject above "i never read the comics and you may criticize me for that..."

I am sorry i can't join in praise with you, because i don't read comics. My love for Batman was strictly film related, which may i add, is the way with so many Batman fans.

Please just tell me you miss Tim Burton.

Michael Keaton will forever be the best Batman, but Christian Bale was amazing for the part. I was a little worried, but congrats Mr. Bale.

Jordan · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 11:30 am Post subject:

One thing I forgot to mention here is that I LOVED seeing sweeping shots of Gotham City. In the other films, you really don't get a feeling for how large Gotham really is, but they managed to fix that for this movie.

As for reading comics, I've only checked out a few Batman comics and I really didn't get into them. (Sorry folks, but I'm a Marvel and Dark Horse nerd.) The one comic that did gain my interest (and the only reason I bought it) was because Batman meets up with DC's Swamp Thing while chasing "Killer Croc" through a bayou.

I wonder if they'll make a sequel to this prequel with Batman chasing the Joker. One thing I do know is that NO ONE can ever fill Jack Nicholson's shoes for the part.... well... except for Willem Dafoe....
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Jordan Garren
Webmaster:The B-Movie Film Vault
Staff Writer: Rogue Cinema

Shadowfyre · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:39 pm Post subject:

Josh · Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2005 1:56 pm Post subject:

Yeah, Batman was probably the best entry in the series since Returns. I have to say though, I REALLY didn't like that 'batman voice'. Kind of on the cheesy side. As for Scarecrow, well, I like the way he was played. They could have made him a mad-hatter type of character and been really over the top; but as it was played, you couldn't really get in Crane's mind. He remains an enigma, and seems like a dangerous kid and I like that. Hope the series continues, and I would LOVE to see a film featuring the Joker even if it means going over the original film and it's continuity. I think Joker, if played by a younger person than Nicholson and someone who can take away a lot of that "bad comedian goes crazy" vibe and replaces it with his complete insane hatred - could make for a very interesting film.
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Josh Samford
Webmaster - Varied Celluloid
Staff Writer - Rogue Cinema

"I've thought about things that Kings and Queens cannot spell." - Gary Busey

Joey_Balboa · Side Door Sneaker Joined: Jul 04, 2007 Posts: 2

Batman begins was way above what I had expected. Too bad what was supposed to be his main opponent (Scarecrow) sucked Sad