For those interested parties, select Criterion Collection DVDs are on sale buy one get one free at DeepDiscountDVD through 7/29.

x-posted with Press

You've got my all excited Ailleann, but I just put 6 Criterion movies in my basket, and they are all "temporarily out of stock". One of them is 400 Blows, which I thought was out of print.

I've been hit or miss with them on out-of-stock items, just so you know. Some have come in fine after a bit of a wait, but I had to call and cancel the order of one CD after almost three months of waiting. I then went and bought it at Best Buy, where they had five.

Oh, I probably can't afford any of these. I am still paying off those damn vet bills.

TDK: There was a stretch there where I thought they had said "canon, schmanon" (when Gordon was dead). Apparently, for me at least, this is the do-that franchise. I spent that whole stretch of time with my brain split between watching the movie and trying to work out various dominoes of plot and fanchise.

I kept waiting for what I thought of as the "Wash", a second major character death. Apparently Joss has warped me.

The bomb/Joker's prison break was Tragic (in the classical sense). Seeing where it was going, knowing that they weren't going to be able to help doing it/stop it was really compelling.

I question their decision to use Gordon's son. Given his last line in the film, I could easily see him having a plotline in the next film (some sort of external conscience for Gordon). Even if they're never going to do Batgirl, for the people who immediately know who Harvey Dent is, Babs Gordon is an immediately significant character. To not use that seems suspect to me (especially since they're re-writing the Gordon sprog('s/s') age(s) from the first film).

Next time, I think we may get one of my favorite plot types: the small band of heroes who are on the run from potentially everyone (e.g.-Who's Sound of Drums, HP's Deathly Hallows).

I ::heart:: Jim Gordon. And I'd like a Gary Oldman, please. Brilliant cast, all-around.

I'm going to try to see a 12:30 pm showing of TDK. I'm hoping that the earliness of it will mean that it won't sell out.

I really loved The Dark Knight. I actually went in with moderate hopes for the movie. I just wanted to be entertained. Entertained I was. Very much so.

My main thought leaving the theater was Wow. Followed closely by "I cannot believe they did that."

I agree with some reviewers I've read that this movie is a post-September 11th allegory and I think it is very effective.

i'm hoping to see it tomorrow afternoon or evening.

Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon has been one of the most pleasent surprises in both films, even more than his Sirius Black, where I thought the casting was spot on. Casting him in the role is something I would have never considered, but it works SO well.

Also, with the Dark Knight, did everyone notice all the special guess character actors showing up? I mean, Batmanuel and Eric Roberts were the obvious ones, but William Fitchner, Anthony Michael Hall and that weird ass return by Cillian Murphy? I wonder if there were others in less prominent roles - off to the imdb.

Oh, one question on the story details: Gordon said Harvey had killed 5 people including two cops. I know he killed the one in the bar, but I thought the female cop got the good head up, and Harvey just knocked her out. Who was the other cop (or was that a continuity gaffe)? Damn, Aaron Eckhart was good, and the damaged face was truly horrifying. I'm guessing they had to CGI that (with a green mask over half the actor's face, I presume) given how much less of his face it looked.

Also, one little thing that was gnawing at me until I got home. Heath Ledger kept reminding me of someone else with some of the lip/tongue/twitchy line readings he was doing, and I finally realized it was like Jeff Goldblum's performance towards the end of The Fly.