Certainly, every actor has movies or plays they would rather leave off of their resumes. Unfortunately for some of our well established and well-regarded performers, these cinematic achievements are often unearthed and put on display for the viewing public to watch and ridicule or just glance at and wonder what on earth they were thinking. For the rest of them, it is just another day at the office… making bad movies and making money (somehow) by doing it. Here are a few:

• Marlon Brando (he played Superman‘s Kryptonian father and was paid $14 million dollars for 13 days on the set. This breaks down to nearly $1.4 million dollars a minute for his total on screen time. An excellent movie, but a miserly performance).
• Elizabeth Taylor (her role as Wilma’s mother (did she have a name?) in the live-action Flintstone‘s movie was about as memorable as her laundry list of ex-husbands. Her payday must have been nearly as extravagant as Mr. Brando’s)
• Ben Affleck (should be named multiple times, but it can be summed up in one word… Gigli)
• Richard Pryor (ok… so maybe not one of our most celebrated actors… but I’m thinking the adult comic famous for his drug-addled standup of the 70s was attempting to change his image in the mid-80s when he decided to sign up for such movies as The Toy, Brewster’s Millions, both of which were relatively harmless comedies. However, he was at least in part to blame for the beginning of the end of a superhero movie franchise).
• Sir Michael Caine (thank goodness he has his role of Alfred the butler to make up for the travesty that was Jaws: The Revenge).

Although these are quite dated to be sure, there must be other memorable (memorable to mention perhaps not so memorable to watch) examples in which well-known and established actors were only looking for their next pay check. Feel free to include your favorite “paycheck” role/movie.

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We managed to fit in some movie watching this week while the kids are with Grandma, and I was attempting to put them all together in a clever blog post title, but it wasn’t to be.  Probably my lack of sleep with the new baby and my recovery process has inhibited my creativity.  I hope to be back in full swing soon, but it will probably take a few months, especially because once I’m feeling better, I have lots of stuff around the house I need to catch up on and as much as I would like blog posting to come first, it doesn’t.  As people keep reminding me oh so helpfully, a c-section is major surgery 🙂  Don’t I know it. 

So the 3 movies we saw this week are Hellboy 2, American Psycho, and Fortress.

I did not like Hellboy 2.  I actually would have left the theater, but I never got around to asking my husband if he wanted to and that was a good thing because he liked the movie.  It gave me a good laugh when we were walking out of the theater and he told me he liked it because we always have the same taste in movies and I really didn’t like this one.  That also means I don’t have much to say about it except that the Abe fish-like character reminds me of C3PO from Star Wars, and I can’t believe the actor who plays Hellboy, Ron Perlman, was also Vincent the Beast in the old Beauty and the Beast tv show from the 80’s with Linda Hamilton.  I thought he was going to be some Andre the Giant huge guy wrestler type, but it turns out, he is just a regular actor.  I suppose my impatience with this movie had to do with the fact that my infection flared up and I was raging with fever yet again in the movie theater.  So even though I felt crappy and wanted to leave, I could not pass up a night out with hubby while the kids were away.  Even if it was to see Hellboy 2…  I’m just glad one of us enjoyed the movie.

Next up is a movie from the early 90’s called Fortress.  It’s set in the future – and it’s always fun to see what people thought the future would be like when the movie was made over a decade ago – and revolves around a corporate owned underground prison (think Walmart does Alcatraz).  The main characters are sent there when they break the “one child per couple” rule.  They had lost their first child, and now they’ve been caught trying to have another, so they are both sent to prison, even though she is pregnant.  This is a fun action-packed movie.  When I looked it up on imdb.com after we watched it, I learned that it is actually a kind of cult classic movie and there are actually multiple endings.  Our version was the less happy of the endings, but I still liked the movie.  It’s kind of violent for early 90’s, and if you look it up on imdb.com, don’t let the keywords fool you.  Let’s put it this way, if I had seen the keywords first, I wouldn’t have watched this movie, but in retrospect, I don’t think there was really much adult stuff in it – just violence and gore, but they didn’t overdo it like they do in some movies nowadays, like the Saw movies for instance.  American Psycho on the other hand…

I will start by saying that Christian Bale was excellent in this movie.  I wasn’t so impressed by him when he was Batman in The Dark Knight, but he definitely shows versatility and depth in this movie.  He plays a Wall Street executive who is just about as big a jerk as one can be.  Also, he has blood lust and likes to kill people in his spare time.  The movie is very strange for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on.  For one, I was confused about what the movie was trying to be.  I guess it’s just a story about this man, an American Psycho.  But at times throughout the movie, the music was strange, and it just didn’t play like a normal movie.  And then there were the constant 80’s references.  I guess it was supposed to take place in the 1980’s, given the characters’ huge cordless phones and constant talk of musical artists such as Phil Collins, Huey Lewis, and Whitney Houston.  Why they would change the time period of the movie, I don’t know, but they did a good job because if Reese Witherspoon (who is about my age and would have been a kid in the ’80’s) wasn’t in it, I would have been convinced the movie was actually filmed in the ’80’s.  And I have to say the end confused me a lot.  I won’t say more because I don’t want to spoil anything, but if anyone who reads this has seen this movie, maybe you can answer a question I have.  I don’t think I’d recommend this movie since there are many disturbing scenes and it didn’t seem worth it to me to sit thru them for what you get from the rest of the movie.  I don’t think I’m going to put it on my list of baddies however, but then again, Hellboy 2 isn’t going on there either.  Just 2 movies I didn’t really like and wouldn’t see again, but I don’t feel like I wasted my time watching either of them, and that’s always a good thing.   

“Dark Knight” star Christian Bale pictured in London Sunday ahead of the movie’s European premiere

The 34-year-old actor spent four hours at a London police station before being released on bail.

British media had reported that Bale’s mother and sister complained he had assaulted them at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Sunday night, a day before the European premiere of his latest film, “The Dark Knight.”

The Sun newspaper said police did not question the actor Monday because they did not want to interfere with the premiere of the movie.

Asked Tuesday whether Bale had been arrested, a London police spokesman did not refer to him by name but said: “A 34-year-old man attended a central London police station this morning by appointment and was arrested in connection with an allegation of assault.”

The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity because force policy did not authorize him to be identified. British police do not name suspects before they are formally charged.

The force later said in a statement that the man had been released on bail pending further inquiries and told to return on an unspecified date in September.

U.S.-based representatives for Bale didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment. Repeated phone calls to Bale’s London representative went unanswered.

Wales-born Bale first made a splash as the child star of Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun” in 1987. His screen credits also include “American Psycho,” “The Machinist” and “Batman Begins.”

In “The Dark Knight,” Bale reprises the role of wealthy playboy Bruce Wayne and his crime-fighting alter-ego Batman, a brooding vigilante superhero still scarred by the murder of his parents.

The Warner Bros. film, which stars the late Heath Ledger as Batman’s nemesis The Joker, took in a record $158.4 million at the box office in its opening weekend in the U.S. last week.

We ventured out to see the midnight showing of The Dark Knight last week, and I haven’t written about it until now because I’ve been so busy, but I figured I better make some time for it before I forget, so here it goes…

It all began when we found out our little local theater would be showing it at midnight, and since we’re usually up with the new baby at that time, we figured why not be in a movie feeding the baby instead of at home?  So we got together a group who wanted to see it, and that’s when we found out the movie was 2 hours and 40 minutes!  Oops, the baby is never up THAT long but too late to back out now!  Besides, after all the hype involved, I was actually looking forward to it.

Since almost a week has passed and I’m on little sleep, some of my memory of the details have faded, so this will be a very vague reveiw.  I’d have to say the movie was exactly what I was expecting.  I was hoping it would be a little better, especially after all the media hype, but it was exactly what I thought it would be – and that’s not anywhere NEAR the 9.6 people gave it on imdb.com.  Since I’m not a huge fan of superhero / comic book movies (yet I keep going to see them; not sure what’s up with that), I really wasn’t expecting this to be one of my favorite movies ever.   Heath Ledger did have a VERY good performance as the Joker, but was it Oscar-worthy?  I personally don’t think so.  I do think he will win it though, but let’s just wait and see if he is nominated and who he is up against.  And it’s not like I ever agree with who wins those things anyway; for me it’s just a good excuse to throw a fun party 🙂

But back to the movie…  there was a lot of violence.  I can’t believe what they’re allowed to call PG-13 these days.  Although I suppose it wasn’t really anything short of what you’d see on tv, and there was actually little to no blood and gore, so maybe that explains it.  The children I saw in the theater were all asleep by the time the movie was over anyway.  And yes, I did think the movie went on too long – it wasn’t a short 2 hours and 40 minutes, and it didn’t really fly by.  As my husband pointed out, way too much dialogue for a superhero movie; friends agreed and added that the Batman movies are like that.  I’ve only seen the Tim Burton Batman from 1989, which I’m told is just a different take on the whole thing and doesn’t really fit into the timeline anywhere, and I’ve also seen Batman Forever, which I really enjoy.  So that brings me to my 2nd favorite villian next to the Joker – Harvey “Two-Face” Dent.  I just love what Tommy Lee Jones did with the character in Batman Forever, and I was pleased when I realized that Harvey Dent was going to turn into Two-Face in The Dark Knight, but overall I was disappointed because Aaron Eckhart’s  Two-Face was pretty lame compared to Jones’.  The makeup was pretty good, although I actually enjoy the more comic book look that they gave Tommy Lee Jones versus the scary look they gave Eckhart for the newest film.

Christian Bale’s Batman was alright, though I couldn’t stand his gravelly Batman voice – it reminded me of the Friends episode where Joey is selling cologne at a department store…  If you’re a fan of the show and you know what episode I’m talking about, find it and listen to his cologne adversary say “Hombre?” – sounds just like Christian Bale’s Batman and every time he spoke in the movie I was tempted to giggle as I thought of that hillarious Friends episode.  Maggie Gyllenhaal was pretty good too; although in scenes with both her and Heath Ledger’s Joker, it was weird for me to think that he played her brother’s gay lover in Brokeback Mountain, but that’s Hollywood for you, it’s cyclical.

And since we’re on the subject of Heath Ledger’s Joker, it was very impressive.  Not the kind of movie or role I’d pick for being Oscar-worthy, but that’s my personal opinion and like I said, we’ll just see happens as Oscar time draws near.  He was pretty scary, and I’d have to say Hollywood can mourn him as a good actor because when I was in the hospital less than a week ago, I watched 10 Things I Hate About You (the hospital’s limited cable selections + baby up at night = what else do I watch but this bad movie?).  Ledger was in that movie, and he couldn’t even shed his Australian accent back then!  Seeing where he was in that movie versus the Joker did give me appreciation for his work (as the Joker, not in 10 Things…).

And another reason I was excited to see this movie was that I had heard that 80% of it was shot in my former hometown (well, sort of, I grew up in the suburbs), Chicago.  It was neat to see all the familiar landmarks, although they did try to anonymize the city so it could be recognized as Gotham City instead of Chicago.  I was especially looking forward to the special effects involved in the Gotham City Hospital scene since I read an article about it ahead of time, but I have to say I was a little disappointed in how it actually looked on screen.  I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t seen this movie yet, but I will say that the vacant Brach’s Candy Factory on Chicago’s west side doubled for the Gotham City Hospital.  And seeing the Joker in a nurse’s dress was pretty funny in itself…

Overall, I had a lot of fun seeing this movie.  I think much of it had to do with the midnight showing and attending with a large group of friends.  The movie was exactly what I expected, although I can say I was hoping for better…  but again, I’m not a fan of comic books, and I’ve never read one in my life.

Before I get into the meat of my post, I would like to apologize to my new theatre chum whose name I could not remember until tonight. All I have to do is recall the name of a state capitol that shares its name with an omelet… hopefully, it does not come to that. I am terrible.

Anywho, The Dark Knight is an interesting problem. There are pros and cons to the latest caped crusader adventure. As anyone who has access to any type of media knows, this is Heath Ledger’s swan song. His Joker is the highlight of the movie. Everything about him just reeks of sadistic villainy. Just looking at him is enough to send chills up and down one’s spine. But more than that, his entire characterization was evil to the core. I am sure that there will be parallels drawn to the performance (there already have been) and his untimely demise; yet, he was utterly phenomenal and should be remembered for it.

I found one aspect to be both a plus and a negative. I actually liked some of the depth of the key players. However, there was a bit (or A LOT) more than we needed. It seems that we knew the life story of EVERY character who has a name and this made the movie drag at times. Anyone who is remotely familiar with Batman knows that he fights to clean up the corruption within Gotham City… However, it seemed you could only count on one officer to be totally uncorruptable. I will say that it is a case of too much of a good thing. That being said, I believe that Mr. Nolan has gotten the characters and the overall atmosphere right in this film as well as Batman Begins (there are no nipples in the batsuit, and Bruce Wayne IS a playboy millionaire… although it is probably billionaire by now… and who is not above falling asleep in his own board meetings after an evening of “fun”).

So, while it was lengthy and had lots of down time between action pieces I did consider it worthwhile to be among the first to see The Dark Knight. The major action scenes were fun to watch and as I keep commenting, Heath Ledger was phenomenal as the CLown Prince of Crime. The hype about that is totally true. Plus, it was awesome just to be among friends old and new (if I can just remember names). Also, I was the only person brave enough to bring my bucket for BYOB night at the movies. We did arrive before midnight after all 😀 .

I almost forgot to mention my favorite bit. DA Harvey Dent’s line:

You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Prophetic sentiment.

decidedly not when I have been waiting for this movie for 3 years when Lieutenant James Gordon showed Batman a new villain’s calling card during the last scene of Batman Begins setting the stage for The Dark Knight that I am going to watch at 12:01AM. As I predicted, my day at work could not have gone any slower. However, there was one moment that I am sure many who work with me (and now the readers of my blog) will not let me soon forget.I was completing the transaction of a customer I have known for years. While I was doing this, she asked me a question:

“Does your wife still run the beauty shop up the street?”

I had to ask to have the question repeated, because I knew that I must have heard incorrectly She straight-faced repeated the question. To which I replied…

“Well… my MOTHER owns a beauty salon about a block north of here.”

She apologized about five times in 30 seconds while I was trying not to die from laughing. After the customer departed, I commented to the manager that I was not sure if that was a compliment or not. She just cracked up laughing and could not stop and of course she had to tell everyone she could. I realize that I just turned 35, but please let’s not add 30 years onto that. I think I got the boss to stop laughing when I told her:

“Of course if I were 30 years older, you would be the same age as I.”

For some reason, I heard very little more on the matter from her the rest of the day.Ok… now if I don’t get a nap, at least I can lie in the cool confines of my Fortress of Solitude (oh… sorry… have to wait a few more years for the Man of Steel) and relax.

Rent Batman Begins and other hits at Blockbuster.com

So…ok…I have taken a bit of a hiatus from the AFI list of 10 best in 10 genres. I think almost every major sport is featured in at least one movie. Baseball, basketball, football, bowling, dodgeball, and racing to name a few. Most seem to feature the underdog overcoming insurmountable odds to triumph over the adversary… be it physically or metaphorically. Sometimes the underdog does not always win. But here is the list.

• Jerry Maguire (I REALLY do not understand this inclusion…SHOW ME THE MONEY just does not get my feel good heart going)
• National Velvet
• Breaking Away
• Caddyshack
• The Hustler
• Bull Durham
• Hoosiers
• The Pride of the Yankees
• Rocky (the aforementioned tale of the underdog who does NOT defeat the champion; however, he does do what he set out to do: GO THE DISTANCE)
• Raging Bull

I must admit that I have not seen three of these movies (Raging Bull, National Velvet, nor The Hustler). There are so many better films then Jerry Maguire: A League of Their Own (I only see one movie listed focusing on a female competitor). I also like the Robert Redford baseball tale The Natural. Or Remember the Titans but it seems that cinemas have been bombarded by feel-good or tragic football stories of late.

My personal favorite is Hoosiers. It not only tells the story of a small-town high school basketball program overcoming huge obstacles to get to the state finals, but it also paints a beautiful backdrop of rural farmlife in 1950s Indiana. In true form, most of the folks living in the town of Hickory (Hicks?) live and breathe basketball. When teenage boys are not helping in the fields or at school, they are outside dribbling a basketball or in the gym. Coming from a very small town, I can actually place real, personal hometown characters in the roles When the movie was released in 1986, it was a great sleeper (produced on a minimal budget and went on to surprise everyone at the box office). It also won Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Hopper) and Best Original Score. Yes, the music actually sets the tone throughout the entire movie. The great Gene Hackman was unfortunately overlooked.

You can rent all of these and other sports movies with BLOCKBUSTER Total Access – First month $9.99, Rent Online, Exchange In-Store

Superhero comic books can be fickle things. They continuously shift from one interpretation to another I believe to adapt to the times and conditions in the “real world.” One of the greatest villains in all of superhero legend is The Joker . However, it has never been stated definitively how he came to be or even what his backstory is. There have been multiple interpretations involving a vat of chemicals that he falls into that gave him his distorted image with that ever-present maniacal grin, green hair, and pasty-white face. For purposes of plot alone, the 1988 Tim Burton directed Batman suggested that the caped crusader was ultimately responsible for the fiend’s condition. Some comics stories suggest that these interpretations are nothing more than lies concocted by the Clown Prince of Crime himself and that we will probably never know the real story. In fact, in the graphic novel,Batman: The Killing Joke , the villain does not seem to remember just how he came to be. “Sometimes, I remember it one way, sometimes another…if I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice.”

Over the years, the Joker has been the instrument in two major tragedies in The Dark Knight’s history (or three if you are going to follow Tim Burton’s interpretation). In the aforementioned The Killing Joke, he shoots Police Commissioner Gordon’s daughter, Barbara in the back rendering her paralyzed and ending her career as Batgirl. However, Barbara later returned as the heroine Oracle who uses her computer expertise to aide in the fight against crime.

Another incident involved Batman’s closest ally, Robin the Boy Wonder. After Bruce Wayne’s “youthful ward Dick Grayson” matured he became known as Nightwing and left the Batcave. A new Robin was introduced in Jason Todd. In Batman: A Death in the Family, The Joker captures Robin, beats him to a pulp and locks him in a warehouse set to explode minutes before salvation arrives. In a twist, the comic writers allowed the public to determine the new Boy Wonder’s fate. One 900 number would have him be saved; the other would bring his end. Ultimately, reader’s brought the life of the young sidekick to a close. So, the Joker was the catalyst but the public killed him. This incident only intensified Batman’s desire to apprehend his arch-nemesis and put him away for good. Now where is the fun in that?!

On Friday, audiences will see a new, even darker, more sinister Joker as portrayed by the late Heath Ledger. Who knows what interpretation will be presented for the villain. For more on the history of one of the best characters in comic book legend click on the link

The Dark Knight : Enter to win a trip to Hong Kong!

Work today just draggggged by, especially when 3.00 hit and I was still waiting to leave. I asked for some dollar bills to fill my drawer with thinking that would send a clue. I received by 50 singles and paid for them and still I waited. Finally, at 3.15 I had no line and I went to the time clock punched out and said “adios, places to go, people to see.” Oh, they were sorry.

I arrived at C & L’s house at 3.27 (by my reckoning, anyway). They asked me where I would like to go. Honestly, I hate deciding things like that. We ended up going to the mexican place by Wal-Mart which was actually great by me because it has been a while since I was there. After dinner, C had a meeting to go to so L and I went to see Hancock which I found to be entertaining and very different from the typical superhero fare. I really liked the premise but we both agreed that the twist was somewhat hokey, but still entertaining. It only increased my appetite for The Dark Knight.

After the movie, we went back to the house and awaited the results of the meeting which we all agreed was favorable. The theatre season for 2009-2010 was approved as presented. Little Shop of Horrors is in and Jesus Christ Superstar appears to be a go along with the rest. Those are just two of the shows I was really hoping for (the fact that they are musicals is beside the point).

Before leaving the home of my dear, dear friends, I was given money to revisit the ice cream shop. If I had taken it and not gone, it would have been stealing. So, I went and endulged in a cake batter ice cream cone. I guess you could say I had ice cream and cake in one. All this on the night before L is to go to the hospital to be induced for her fourth child and first boy. YOU TWO ARE THE GREATEST!!! My birthday celebration will continue in my next blog.

Today being that day that someone ages a year older (not necessarily wiser), I got several emails wishing me a happy birthday… one from an area radio station informing me to listen at 6.50 AM for my name. I also knew that our local station has a birthday quiz at 6.45. I set my alarm a little earlier than usual (I could always go back to sleep). The question posed: “Who played the role of Kevin in the American Pie films?” I knew that it was not Jason Biggs who played the lead, Jim. I must admit that I had enough time to go to imdb to find the answer. After learning that Thomas Ian Nicholas played the part in the original trilogy of films, I rolled over, dialed the phone number, and rather groggily gave the answer. Apparently, Courtney understood me enough since I won a certificate to one of our local coffee shops (I believe there are two).

I will not comment on American Pie, but on another film that Mr. Nicholas was the adolescent star of. In Rookie of the Year, Thomas starred as Henry, a young kid who has a little league accident that gives him the world’s greatest pitching arm. Who should discover him but the lackluster Chicago Cubs (this was 1993… not the phenomenal team of today) baseball team. Cliches abound but the movie is fun to watch for the whole family (if memory serves). John Candy was in the press box. Was Harry still with us or could he not be persuaded to step in front of the screen? If Bob Ueker could do it, why not?

So, a nice birthday present. Hopefully, I have other equally memorable events to post about later.