I'm just a dude playing a dude pretending to be another dude.

Tropic Thunder... kinda a mixed bag. It was funny at times but at others it tried and failed. The story itself was believable (not that it matters) but it seemed that many scenes, along with characters, were useless, ie everything having to do with Jack Black and the whole Tivo bit. Many lines also seemed to be thrown together at the last minute after all the good lines from the funny bin were used and thus just weren't that funny. Where the script sometimes failed, the acting by a couple kept the movie alive.

Robert Downey Jr. was nothing short of incredible. Never in the entire movie did he play his stereotypical sarcastic, arrogant, sleeze ball role that can be seen in nearly every other movie he's been in. Granted those roles are great (who didn't love Kiss Kiss Bang Bang?) but playing two different characters was quite impressive.

Ben Stiller was Ben Stiller... playing the exact same role in every other movie he's been in (save Zoolander, and on the VMA's when he played Tom Crooze back in 2000). It seems he's going down the same road as Jason Biggs, getting that same unthrilling role every time. Perhaps he should stick to writing/directing. Like Stiller, Jack Black won't be among the reasons to see Tropic Thunder. There was very little funny about his fat/useless character nor much reason why he was in the movie at all.

Tom Cruise proved that he can actually act. True, he may be one notch lower than Mel Gibson on the crazy scale (yes, it does exist and is used throughout Zimbabwe), in a tad-bit motive questionable marriage and believe in a religion coined by a science fiction writer in 1952 (go to Wikipedia and type in Scientology and try to believe that people actually take it seriously without laughing), BUT the man played a role that rivals that of Robert DeNiro's role in Stardust or Ving Rhames in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Seeing Jerry Maguire scream obsenities that would shame Ari Gold while dancing to Get Low by Flo Rida is worth the $9.50 alone.

Oh, and although I loved The Goblet of Fire, The Order of the Phoenix didn't really tickle my fancy so I can't say I'm overly excited for the Half Blood Prince, but it was definitely a smart move on Warner's part. After all, the movie business is in fact a business and CEO's need that new Gulfstream V (Go back to wikipedia and look it up, McConaughey's character wouldn't have considered selling out Stiller's for nothing). But like you said, it pinches the time frame between that and the next one. It'll be interesting to see how it measures up with those that haven't been released over the summer.

HBP MTJ

For those of you unfamiliar with my abbreviations (above) Half-Blood Prince has been Moved To July. That's right, the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series has been moved from November to July today, which is pretty hilarious considering that TODAY's issue of Entertainment Weekly features Mr. Potter himself on the cover for the fall line up. Ouch, talk about your false advertising. Being a Potter fan myself (yeah i said it) and HBP being my 2nd favorite book, (to POA of course) I was mildly upset at the news. But can you blame Warner Brothers, with the success of TDK as a July release, why not go for two summers in a row with HBP. On the upside, this does shorten the gap between the sixth Harry Potter film and the first half of the seventh book. Drew I can't remember where you stand on the Potter front, thoughts?

A little fight in you... I like that

Maggie Gyllenhaal? Yeah, kinda weak. At the same time however she was leaps and bounds better than the joy-to-look-at but painful-to-watch, Katie Holmes.

Heath Ledger was by far the best part of The Dark Knight. His performance alone brought TDK out of the ranks of a comic book movie and into that fine echelon of classics that will be played on Sunday afternoons on Bravo. This comes as no surprise however to anyone that has seen Lords of Dogtown and to a lesser extent, I'm Not There. Honestly, the man was brilliant. He's an actor's actor; the new generation of Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Incomparable however to Jack's performance as the Joker. These two Jokers come from two different styles and therefore should be respected in their own rights. In any case, Ledger was good. Real good. The kind of good that makes the viewer get goose bumps in anticipation of Ledger's next seen. The kind of good that makes you root for the antagonist. The kind of good that makes it unbelievable that the same guy could be Casanova, Jacob Grimm or Gabriel Martin. The kind of good that makes us all upset that he's gone.

Back to the movie itself. Does it deserve a #1 on imdb.com? Why not? (As of today it's actually #3) This doesn't mean it's the greatest movie of all time, it merely shows that The Dark Knight has entertained and wowed people with its phenomenal acting, special effects, and plot line. "Why so serious?" has been the bumper sticker theme extraordinaire on facebook for quite some time and hows cool was that bike that the Batmobile converted into? Also the humor/ awe/ bad ass'ed'ness of the special effects along with the creepy feeling that I got from chuckling at the Joker blowing up the hospital (with the help of his 1000's of minions from the mental asylum [obviously,duh])... all feelings that make the audience say,"Hmm, that there was a darn good flick." The Dark Knight was able to bring these feelings to so many different people, something that few movies are capable of, including of course The Godfather, which 'insists upon itself.' There will never be 'THE' perfect movie, just movies that are more worth our time and money than others. And The Dark Knight certainly is.

Here. We. GO.

The Dark Knight. What can I say, this movie is probably the best film of the year so far. As great as it is, the film still had some definite flaws. I used to have respect for Maggie Gyllenhaal as an actress but her performance in this film...well...sucked. I already saw a facebook group titled: The Best Part of The Dark Knight Was When Maggie Gyllenhaal Got Her Ass Blown Up. And I completely agree with this statement. I'm glad we won't be seeing her in a sequel if there is one(judging by the $500 million take TDK is going to have I'm sure there will be another movie). The other main problem I had with the film was that the Joker knew fucking everything. He knew exactly who was gonna do what, when, and where. As cool as it is, no one person could know all that stuff. Also, the Joker had to have at least 1000 henchmen because all of the elaborate bombs in buildings, boats, and hospitals were perfectly placed at the right time.
However, my favorite part of the movie was by far the late Heath Ledger. The interrogation scene was unbelievable and his final scene where he was hanging upside down was fuckin badass. That being said I feel that imdb.com has lost it's credibility by having TDK at #1. Great movie, without a doubt, but best all time, not quite.

"It's all part of the plan."