Tag: Heath Ledger

Ever Wondered Where Heath Ledger Got His Inspiration For The Joker?

by Scott Alminiana

Ever wonder where Heath Ledger took his inspiration for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight? It’s been said that Ledger based his chaotic disheveled look on that of Sid Vicious as well as incorporating Malcolm McDowell’s mannerisms from A Clockwork Orange. But what about the very distinct voice Ledger created for The Joker? Well, take a look at this  Tom Waits interview from 1979 and see if it reminds you of anyone…

 

Source: Afternooncrash

So, Just Where Was The Joker During ‘The Dark Knight Rises’?

by Shawn Madden

Christopher Nolan made it clear that he had zero intention of mentioning The Joker in The Dark Knight Rises as a sign of respect to the late Heath Ledger. While some people may not be fond of that choice, I think it was in good taste to do so. But still some people wondered “Just where was he?!” Greg Cox’s novelization of the movie may just shed some light and give you an answer. An excerpt:

Now that the Dent Act had made it all but impossible for the city’s criminals to cop an insanity plea, it (Blackgate Prison) had replaced Arkham Asylum as a preferred location for imprisoning both convicted and suspected felons. The worst of the worst were sent here, except for the Joker, who, rumor had it, was locked away as Arkham’s sole remaining inmate. Or perhaps he had escaped. Nobody was really sure. Not even Selina.

Just in case you forgot, during a segment of The Dark Knight Rises Selina Kyle was held at Blackgate Prison for a short time.

Source: Nuke The Fridge

Let The Games Begin! A Review Of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

by Shawn Madden

Prepare to have all your expectations met and more. Much like I stated in my piece that took a look back at the other films… some had their doubts about The Dark Knight Rises‘ casting. I am here to say have no worries. This is Christian Bales finest performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Forget about Heath Ledger as The Joker and do not try to compare  that performance to Tom Hardy’s Bane. This is an entirely different beast and Bane is both menacing and vicious. The muzzled voice due to the mask makes the character all the more real and for me made him even more threatening. Anne Hathaway is great as Selina Kyle and pulls the role off quite well. The standout performance to me, thought, is Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake. Going in, I underestimated the importance of the character. He brings humanity, decency, and probably a bit more physicality than you might be expecting to the story. The only person I expected more from would be Marion Cotillard, but I am going to avoid spoiler territory here. She is good but I expected a bit more from her.

Is the movie better than The Dark Knight? In some ways… yes it is. There definitely is more action in this one. That’s for damn sure. Some of the interaction between characters is really touching, especially between Wayne and Alfred. It’s really hard to compare the two because they truly are two different films that are going to be incredibly hard for many to pick between as the best chapter of the trilogy. It is a satisfying ending that lives up to all expectations. Whoever makes a Bat-film after Nolan is going to have their work cut out. That ending alone is going to be talked about for weeks on end. Whether it be praise of the whining of the internet purists who are never happy with anything. I hope they realize that this is an interpretation just like the many we have seen in the comics over the years and a damn good one. We can’t see the same stories and endings we already know because as cool as it would be…they’d grow stale and boring. I already expect that there are some out there cracking their fingers getting ready to type angrily. But let us move on past that and to the end here.

I cannot comment too much on the ending because I refuse to spoil anything. The last fifteen or so minutes of the movie are phenomenal. There was a really short period where I was almost angry at Nolan until the first plot twist eased my worries. You will get it when you see it. I am still thinking about it right now as I write this. Some have even gone on to state “Holy fuck!” after. No, really. The person that I went to the theater with absolutely did.

This movie goes out with the appropriate bang that was needed to conclude Nolan’s trilogy. I agree with those praising it and stating that this could be the first comic book movie to win an Oscar. Between the writing, the performances and the incredible visuals, the movie is on par with anything we can expect to see come Awards Season. So, why are you still reading this? Stop reading reviews (and definitely avoid spoilers) and just go see the damn movie, already!

5/5. Hands down. Bravo, Nolan and Company.

A Look Back At ‘Batman Begins’ And ‘The Dark Knight’

by Shawn Madden

The Dark Knight Rises hits theaters tomorrow at midnight and I thought I would take a look at Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. There is no doubt that this trilogy will go down as one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time. A main factor in this being the common theme that Christopher Nolan has always set as the heart of the stories. Rather than focusing on Batman as the superhero he focused on the man who was Batman and the symbol he created. Something that film makers that had come before failed to truly capture. As stated in Batman Begins:

People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I’m flesh and blood. I can be ignored, I can be destroyed. But as a symbol — as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting. – Bruce Wayne (Batman Begins)

Ever since Batman Begins hit screens movies have began taking a more realistic approach to their characters thus making them more relatable. By making a story more believable you can lose yourself in it. Batman Begins took a risk by actually being the first Batman film to be actually about Batman. The film was not about the villains who took a back seat to the exploration of Bruce Wayne’s psyche. But what really made this movie had to be the casting. Christian Bale is by far the best Bruce Wayne to date and with a supporting cast that was flawless and made this first piece to the story truly memorable and a movie that improves over time rather than one that deteriorates. We were introduced to a new Gotham unlike the ones we had seen in the past and a Bruce Wayne unlike the ones we had seen in the past. This character was real. That was the difference here. One of the most memorable scenes in being a great ending scene that would lead into one of the greatest sequels ever made.

“Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” – Alfred Pennyworth (The Dark Knight)

A line from The Dark Knight that to this day is still one of the most memorable. This movie truly set the bar for comic book films if not films in general. A movie that received criticism from the masses of the internet for its casting of Heath Ledger as Batman’s greatest villain of all time…The Joker. I remember clearly reading on an internet board the numerous randoms who referred to this move as “the worst casting decision ever made” and jokes about this actors role from Brokeback Mountain that even referred to this sequel as being “Broke-Bat Mountain”. And this once again proves just how wrong we all can be. If we thought the casting in Batman Begins was brilliant we hadn’t seen anything yet.

Nolan had made his masterpiece with The Dark Knight. It was dark, intelligent, incredibly exciting and cinematically rich, while remaining utterly true to the soul of its source material. The actors were at their finest here and truly gripping performances sucked us in to a movie that will go down as one of the greatest films ever made in my opinion. Not just because it is a comic book movie but because it is a fantastic film. The bitter-sweet tragedy here is that this was Heath Ledgers finest performance but sadly his last. If any actor deserved to win the Oscar for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” in 2009 it was Heath Ledger. However the movie otherwise was snubbed at the Oscars and is now why they have expanded how many movies are nominated from five to ten. The midnight screening that I attended received a standing ovation for a film that honestly deserved it but at the same time left fans sad that we would never see Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker grace the screen again.

So now we approach the grand finale to the Dark Knight Trilogy. Tomorrow at midnight The Dark Knight Rises hits theaters and is already receiving praise from many. Once again some have been skeptical to casting but if history has taught us anything it is that we should have faith in Christopher Nolan here because he has not let us down before.

“If anything, it’s a tremendous responsibility and opportunity to sort of follow in the footsteps of somebody who was so brilliant. So I’m just grateful to be part of the family, actually, the Batman, Chris Nolan family. And that I got brought in to be the villain in this film.” – Tom Hardy on Heath Ledger

The Joker may be Batman’s arch-nemesis but Bane is one of the greatest enemies he has ever faced. Known best as the man who “broke the bat” we are truly in store for a completely different type of animal here. Bane is not only one of Batman’s greatest enemies physically but mentally. Tom Hardy has had his performance referred to as “powerful” and that “his simple presence intimidates anyone”. Do not compare his performance to Heath but instead remember that he is playing a completely different character and a new threat that we have not seen before. Many who have already seen the film have called this Christian Bale’s finest performance of the three and a fantastic end to the story that Nolan has set out to tell. While The Dark Knight may be a tough act to follow I have complete faith myself that we will be getting the film that we all need and deserve. There has been much talk that this could be the first comic book movie to win an Oscar and it seems quite possible that it can. Have we seen all that Nolan and company have to give?

Not everything. Not yet. – Batman (The Dark Knight Rises)

A look back at the trilogy:

 

New Trailer For ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ Revisits The Journey

by Shawn Madden

Revisit the entire journey up until ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ with this new trailer. The trailer reminds us that there really isn’t anything out there quite like Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Saga.

The saga ends with ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ in theaters July 20th.

Nolan Discusses “The Bat” And The Joker In “The Dark Knight Rises”

by Shawn Madden

During filming of “The Dark Knight Rises” a mystery vehicle popped up on set. Numbers of YouTube videos and pictures of it flooded the internet leading to tons of speculation. Many assumed it was the Batwing but it was never officially named. Until now. “It is called The Bat,” the director tells Empire Magazine in the latest issue. “I spent a long time trying to figure out clever names for ‘bat-something-that-would-fly’, then you go: ‘Oh, it’s a bat.’ It’s very much based on a doubt-bladed helicopter idea, once again a realistic approach to military hardware. We had Corbould and his guys build it full scale and come up with this great driving rig for it so we could photograph it in real streets, and there’s a big computer graphics component to it as well. It’s fun to take Batman to the next level in terms of his transportation and weaponry – in terms of his ability to fight people.”

One of the most memorable parts about “The Dark Knight” was Heath Ledgers performance as The Joker. He left such an impression that after news of his death many internet forums lit up with topics wondering what Nolan would do with the character post “The Dark Knight”.

Many fans had hoped for a recasting or a reference. Maybe even for use of some unused “The Dark Knight” footage. But Nolan had adamantly stated there will be no mention of him in the threequel. “We’re not addressing The Joker at all. That is something I felt very strongly about in terms of my relationship with Heath and the experience I went through with him on The Dark Knight. I didn’t want to in any way try and account for a real-life tragedy. That seemed inappropriate to me. We just have a new set of characters and a continuation of Bruce Wayne’s story. Not involving The Joker.”

Source: Empire

The Dark Knight Reviewed

by Jonathan

I’m not going to hide it, but ever since I saw Adam West don the spandex, I’ve been a Batman fan. I’ve slugged through the good movies (Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Begins), the goofy movies (Original Batman movie) and the travesties (Batman Forever, Batman and Robin), all in the name of a love for the cape crusader. With this in mind, I eagerly as possible in a post-Phantom Menace world, I’ve awaited the release of Dark Knight, the newest movie in this linage of batman movies.

Its been 24 hours since I was let out of the movie, and all I can say is this:

The Dark Knight is amazing.

While there is no denying that the Dark Knight is an action film at its core it is really an ensemble film. Each core member of the cast, Bale, Ledger, Eckhart and Oldman in their respective roles of Bruce Wayne, The Joker, Harvey Dent and Jim Gordon are given equal screen time both together and alone. This results in the movie being as much a study in character as it is about exploding buildings. The biggest question addressed by the movie is of how these characters deal with their responsibility. Ultimately many of the characters, both major and minor, are shown to shy away form making any firm choices where they would ultimately be responsible. This is shown from the mob unleashing the Joker on the city to Dent’s reliance on his double headed coin.

The biggest part of this move that everyone will be talking about is the portrayal of The Joker by Ledger. Gone is the joke buzzers and mayhem of The Joker from his previous incarnations, and instead in its place is a calculating man who is severely left of centre. This Joker is an agent of Chaos who prefers to cut his victims instead of gassing them. The horror of this character is further strengthen by drawing from elements in the comic, The Killing Joke. Most notably is the idea of The Joker attempting to show that any man, no matter how good they are, can be destroyed by a really bad day.

Being a new take of the character, the film makers also made some interesting changes to his origin. The biggest being the refusal to give him any origin or motivation for his actions. As Alfred says in the movie, ‘Some men just want to see the world burn’, and The Joker is this man. While the rest of the cast is shown to struggle with the weight of responsibility and the choices that must be made, and lived with, The Joker is shown to be a primal force of nature. He comes in like a hurricane, causes his damage, and when he is finally dealt with, all are different for the experience.

Ledger, like Eckhart and Oldman owned their roles. I got chills watching the scenes where Ledger and Eckhart interacted with each other. Each monologue by Ledger is also a treat to watch, and the attention paid to the finer details, such as body language do nothing but build his case for an Oscar nomination this year. In general the casting for the film is strong, with perhaps the weakest point in it being the title character Batman. Bale is shown, and continues to be the best Bruce Wayne to grace the screen, but his Batman, and his raspy voice is at times distracting.

We cannot discuss this movie without addressing the one question on everyone’s mind, is the Dark Knight better then Iron Man? If you looking purely at the generation of money, then yes, Dark Knight will be the better movie. If you look at the question in terms of acting and story, then the answer becomes less clear. To compare Iron Man and the Dark Knight this way is like asking a father to pick between his two children.

And as comic fans, we are all the better for having two children then just the one.

Top 10 Most Bad Ass Movie Teens

by Saintmort

Every once and a while you’ll be watching a teen flick and go… damn… that kid is so bad ass… I want to grow up to be him (this is of course when you’re 30 and slightly idolizing a “supposed” 17 year old kid). Now everyone says Ferris Bueller or Spicoli but let’s face it: they weren’t all that bad-ass (just lazy).

THESE TEENS WERE BAD ASS:

10. Mark “Hard Harry” Hunter (Christian Slater) – Pump Up the Volume
Has anyone ever watched this movie and NOT wanted to start a pirate radio station? Mark Hunter has it all… unreleased Beastie Boys tracks, thousands of fans and Samantha Mathis willing to take her shirt off for no apparent reason at all. He also taught us to “Eat your cereal with a fork and do your homework in the dark”. That lesson alone got me through freshman year of college.

9. Max Fisher (Jason Schwartzman) – Rushmore
Max Fisher isn’t a bad ass by normal standers but you can’t deny that putting on a play with explosions is pretty badass. Not to mention that he starts building an aquarium on school grounds without any permission from administrators as well as knows a guy who can get you piranhas.

8. Ruper ‘Stiles’ Stilinski (Jerry Levine) – Teen Wolf
There’s nothing like a party animal that can help you go from a typical nerd to a full blown marketing image. Wolf Mania blew up and it’s because of Stiles campaigning with “Wolf Out” t-shirts and allowing Marty McFly… I mean… Scott Howard to surf on the roof of his van all over town. And exactly “what ARE you looking at, dick nose?”

7. Dudley “Booger” Dawson (Curtis Armstrong) – Revenge of the Nerds
Okay. So with a nickname like Booger it’s easy to assume that he’s a nerd, but damn it if he’s not the coolest nerd ever. Furthermore… I never really understood why he was one of the nerds but I’m glad he was. He busts out mega joints to light up a party. He wins burping contests and he loves Pi. A major part of being “bad ass” is not giving a F*@% and Booger exemplifies this in spades.

6. Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) – 10 Things I Hate About You
He’s a romancer. He’s slick. He’s got a sexy accent and allegedly a duck (everything but the feet and beak). Ladies in bands want to date him because after every fight he buys you an instrument and he’ll sneak out of detention just to play paintball. You try making Shakespeare this bad ass and see how far you get. Even DiCaprio came off looking like a whiny bitch and he was in The Beach screaming for 2 hours.

5. John Bender (Judd Nelson) – The Breakfast Club
This list just got real real, mofos. Can anyone even attempt to pretend that John Bender wasn’t the coolest kid ever? There’s two types of kids who go to detention: people who are complete idiots that piss you off and those who are so amazingly bad ass that it was the only way to keep them down. Plus Bart Simpson would be catch-phraseless without John Bender’s “Eat My Shorts” sequence. This bad ass dared to mess with the bull and get the horns.

4. Joel Goodsen (Tom Cruise) – Risky Business
it’s not often a high school kid gets to build a brothel in his own living room, but Joel Goodsen did it and on top of that got to bone Rebecca De Mornay so yeah, he’s sort of a personal hero of mine. There’s absolutely nothing more bad ass than boning a hot Coug before you hit 20.

3. Jim Stark (James Dean) – Rebel Without a Cause
James Dean planted the flag early on what it meant to be a bad ass teen. Jim Stark was a teen that every women wearing figure-restrictive undergarments wanted to be with and every dude wanted to be. And you couldn’t beat him. Just ask Buzz… who’s attempt at wearing a bad ass jacket cost him his life. Oh, and if you want to be his little boy toy, man-friend you don’t end up so well either.

2. Jason “J.D.” Dean (Christina Slater) – Heathers
Now I don’t support murder at all… and after Columbine it pretty much guranteed there will never be another movie like Heathers that made this kind of behavior “bad ass”. Still… do you know anyone who was able to kill all the assholes at their school and make it seem like suicide? Nope… only a true bad ass can use a corn nut to kill.

1. Rudy (Ryan Lambert) – The Monster Squad
What did you expect? He strikes a match for his smoke on his Keds. He bullies the bullies. He peeping toms on your hot sister and he nails vampire chicks with wooden stakes. Rudy even taught that fat putz Horace how to stand up and be bad ass. If you haven’t learned this valuable life lession yet… I will allow this video clip from Geekscape Episode 10: Geekscape X-treme to do the speaking for me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hckgneUr10

Now don’t you want to go back to High School and try that again?