1985 - The Prestige

My son has become quite interested in magic, and we were watching some David Blaine stuff on the weekend and it made me desperate to re-watch this.  I love the idea of magicians - part con-arts, part showman - it's a very exciting and thrilling thing.  This film features a fantastic cast set amongst this tragic story of greed and pride.  I love the way that Nolan weaves the story in and around - he's playing a beautiful magic trick on you of his own.
If you like films that make you think and keep you guessing, this is easily one of the best.  Top notch entertainment with a lot more going on beneath the surface.  A must see :)

1958 - American Hustle

I’ve heard a variety of things about this, and it was on my list to see but I wanted to make sure I caught it in the theatres.  Can I just admit to something out of the gate?  I love Amy Adams.  The intro to their characters (her and Christian Bale) with the duelling V/O as we watch them fall in love (and fall in love with them by proxy) is such an amazing and perfect set-up to get us into this story.  Bale is an amazing anti-hero.  There’s a long portion of the film where you’re not sure if you should be rooting for him or Cooper, and that’s a delightful way to experience a film like this.  The film is hard to describe - it’s essentially about two con artists who get forced to work with the FBI, and then it becomes a cat and mouse game of whose playing who.  The film is full of amazing performances by the previously mentioned, but also Louis CK has a fun little part, and Jennifer Laurence obliterates every single scene she’s in - she’s fantastic and worth all the praise.  

I think this film has been criticized as David O. Russell trying to be Scorcese, but I didn’t care.  I loved the feel of the film, and despite it feeling a bit long by the end, I really enjoyed it.  I love that it doesn’t paint the world as black and white.  The cast is in fine form.  It’s fun, it’s sexy, it’s a film well worth seeing.  It’s not going to change your life or the way you look at the world, but it’ll entertain you - or so I hope.  I liked it a lot and it could very well be my favourite David O. Russell film (though I’ve yet to see The Fighter).  Check it out pre-Oscars if you can!

1755 - The Dark Knight

I'm in the midst of putting together the final pieces of my geek-office and so I thought I'd throw this on in the background while I worked.  This is not a background kind of film.  It's the kind of film that just absolutely consumes you and draws you in, in no small part to the man in the photo above.  There isn't much here that I can say about Heath's performance in this film that hasn't been said already.  It's truly magnificent and it's the large reason why this film is the strongest of the Nolan-Batman trilogy. 
The plotting of the story in this one is quite masterful.  The theme of chaos and order, what's fair and what just happens because the world can be a shitty place.  It doesn't feel like the stuff of comic books so much as it feels like the stuff of real life.
I can't wait till one day down the line when I can sit down and marathon this entire trilogy.  Probably won't be until my kid(s) are old enough to watch. 
If you haven't seen it, it's your loss.  Not only is it one of the best comic book films of all time - it's just a great goddamn movie as well.

1754 - The Dark Knight Rises

I'm on this a few days late (was shooting this weekend!).  I think I expected that the world, in general, was bound to be disappointed by this film in some way.  The love for The Dark Knight was so wonderfully grand that to surmount it would be near impossible.  And so, honestly, it's almost unfair to even try and compare the two.  But then you get guys like Harry Knowles rip it to shreds because he doesn't believe that the film got what Batman was all about.  Well godforbid that someone decides to shake things up in a decades old character…
I have to say that it's a feat in and of itself to make a nearly-three-hour film feel like it moved along at a non-stop pace.  I never found myself bored or lacking enjoyment.  I was glued and enjoying it the entire time.  Bale has never really been the reason for me to enjoy this series - nothing against him by any means, he's just not one of those actors that really does anything for me one way or another (although I quite like him in The Prestige).  Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt all shine like the top of the Christler building here and give us characters and story to care about.  Given how complicated the plot is I was impressed that each of the characters had a pretty decent arc.  One thing that was quite interesting was hot little 'Batman' there actually was.  I'm not going to get into specifics at all here because the film has just come out and I want you to enjoy it yourselves.  I will say that it's a very satisfying conclusion to a pretty damn fine trilogy.  Nolan has done what may in time be considered his masterwork, and if it is, there's no shame in it whatsoever.  I look forward to a time where I can sit back and marathon the entire series.