The Dark Knight
4 Waffles!

This is the movie of my lifetime, your lifetime, everyone’s lifetime! And, let me warn you right now. Stuff is gonna blow up.


Christian Bale is back as Bruce Wayne – a billionaire playboy who, by night, becomes a vigilante crime fighter known as the Batman. Since his appearance in Gotham City in Batman Begins, Bruce/Batman has destroyed the influence organized crime has on the city, and instilled great fear in the made men. They’re so scared, these goodfellas don’t have the courage to come out in the dark of night!

As an intrepid new district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), starts to rise through the ranks and help weed out corruption in the police force, while taking on the mob like Rudy Guiliani or Thomas Dewey, another star is rising, but not one you wish will twinkle twinkle like a diamond in the sky. A mysterious scarred man who wears clown make up and likes to rob banks, The Joker (Heath Ledger), has made it known to the crime bosses of Gotham City, led by Salvatore Maroni (Eric Roberts), that he can take care of their flying pest control problem.

Will The Joker be able to stop Batman?

Can Dent, Lt. Gordon (Gary Oldman), and Wayne stay united as they battle the insane man bent on chaos and destruction?

Get ready for The Godfather of summer movies. Yes, I mean it.

In a world where we face disappointment and failure to live up to the hype on a daily basis (I like to call it First Date Syndrome), The Dark Knight is everything you can hope for and more. Co-writer/director Christopher Nolan and co-writer Jonathan Nolan have crafted The Dark Knight into a continuous crescendo of anger, rage, violence, action, ear drum splitting explosions and mind blowing acting. It is destined to go down in history as one of the greatest summer movies of all time, and maybe one of the best films you will ever see in your entire life.

Of course, almost everyone who has an interest in seeing the movie knows about Ledger’s tragic, untimely demise, but I hope that shadow does not overtake an amazing performance. Ledger creates one of the most dastardly and memorable villains to grace the screen as he gives The Joker a series of ticks, odd speech patterns, intense delivery in the quiet moments and shockingly quick explosions of rage that make you quake in your boots. It’s the performance I have anticipated watching since the first photos and film footage emerged last year, and I dare you to attempt to take your eyes off of him when he’s on the screen. Ledger takes a potentially comic character and transforms him into a menacing figure you cannot dismiss or mock.

Potentially, the weakest part of The Dark Knight could have been the relationship between Batman and Harvey Dent, but the Nolans make this an interesting examination of each man and how they envy and admire each other. Plainly put, and explained by the movie, The White Knight and The Dark Knight have more in common than they realize.

Bale has some fun playing the ex-boyfriend with a bit of an attitude as Dent shows up all over the place with Wayne’s beloved Rachel “Oh My God, isn’t it great they ditched Katie Holmes!” Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), yet, he also shows us how much the billionaire who must hide in the dark admires a possibly true believer and hero who wants to fight crime as much as he does.

Meanwhile, Eckhart shows the audience his envy for Batman’s ability to live outside of the law, and makes a character with a Howdy Doody-like dedication to the law edgier and likable.

Even Oldman gets some meat to tear his teeth into as he makes Lt. Gordon into a street smart intellectual cop with the purest sense of right and wrong.

Christopher Nolan fills The Dark Knight with raw, mean, frightening violence that is a welcome relief from the kind of glamorous or ironic violence you find in some movies today, while constantly pushing our expectations as the tension and drama grow and grow and plot twists continue to pile up. It’s the closest you can get to sensory overload without going over the edge.

The Dark Knight is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and some menace.