Short version: See it.

Longer version: Batman Begins continues the recent tradition of comic book superhero movies using the first film to tell the character’s origin story. But while other movies (Spider-Man, Blade, Hellboy, yeah, I’m looking at you, Hulk, well, I got not clue not having seen the crapper) depend on some fantastic or supernatural explanation, writers David Goyer (who also wrote Blade) and Christopher Nolan (who directed this one, having previously written and directed the much more intellectual Memento and Hollywood version of Insomnia) provide engineering support barely out of the reach of current military development for Batman’s entire array of equipment. Though it doesn’t hurt that Bruce Wayne is one of the wealthiest men in the film’s corporate America to justify his access to it.

Acting: We saw this with the Big Guy and walking out he wondered whether the acting or the script was more responsible for our mutually agreed assessments. Then he said that almost certainly it’s a six of one, half dozen of the other situation. Beside Christian Bale as the Bat, the cast is full of good names: Morgan Freeman as the tech supplier, Michael Caine as Alfred, Cillian Murphy as the psychotic psychiatrist, Gary Oldman as Gordon the copper, Liam Neeson as the leader of the League of Shadows (I can’t say if his character is good or evil but he does drive the plot), Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, Rade Serbedzija and, of course, Tom Cruise’s fiance.

That last quip also points to one of the movie’s weakest points, the almost pitiful attempt at a romantic component. As if the studio execs said to Nolan that he needs to stick something in to give female viewers an extra hook except that in thiscase the hook landed in someone’s lip. The last conversation between Wayne and Katie Holmes’ Rachel Dawes was especially pitiful as it was almost an exact lift from the cematery scene between Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson in the first Spider-Man.

Fortunately that’s just about the only such conversation. The pair’s other (adult) conversations are concerned with the main plot; the closest they come to such gushy feelings is their confrontation outside Wilkinson’s hang out that launches Bruce Wayne on the path to becoming the Caped Crusader.

For a change, this is also a big Summer action flick that doesn’t depend so heavily on computer generated special effects that the computer programmers are more important than the actors (Revenge of the Sith, this time I’m looking at you). Not that special effects are bad IMO but they need to be used to help tell the story and not in place of one (Sky Captain and many others). Nolan and Goyer take us from A to B to C simply and clearly without asking us to unreasonably suspend our disbelief.

definitely recommended–could be this year’s Bourne Identity or Spider-Man.

Dazzling. That’s the best word I can think of to sum up Hero (Ying xiong in the original Chinese, I suppose), the tale of a nameless assassin who confronts the man who is in the process of uniting warring kingdoms into the Chinese Empire.

Jet Li tells the King of Qin the tale of how he, some unknown chief from a tiny village out in nowheresville, defeated the three greatest fighters in all the land. So most of the movie is in flashback, not one of my favorite modes for sure, but in writer/director Yang Zhimou’s hands it works well. If you know what Rashmon style means, that’s sort of what we get here, the same event retold from different angles. Excellent acting/fighting efforts from Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Daoming Chen and Tony Leung Chiu Wai.

The story is basic though robust enough to stand up to the repetition, with witty dialog between Li’s Nameless One and the king definitely a plus. The attraction, though, is Zhimou’s combination of gorgeous imagery, changing use of color and brilliantly-choreographed fantasy martial arts battles. I really loved the massive flights of arrows used in a couple of scenes, something I’ve never really seen before.

definitely recommended

This past weekend we watched 2003’s Elf and Con Air from 1997. One was decent, the other only appeared to be on the surface. Can you guess which is which? Will Ferrell as an oversized, mixuped Santa helper wanna be or Nic Cage as an unjustly imprisoned ex-Marine trapped on a plane full of the worst loonies in America’s prisons.

Okay, I won’t make you guess: Con Air was surprisingly the one worth watching. Actually, worth watching again, I think this was the third time for me. The plot and characters were straight out of the Hollywood play book but the acting, staging and special effects trumped them. Not particularly Cage, though, he looks really strange with stringy long hair and rock-like facial expressions.

John Cusack, John Malkovich, Ving Rhames, Mykelti Williamson, Steve Buscemi, even Rachel Ticotin, Colm Meaney and Dave Chappelle decided to make a film despite a mostly useless script by Scott Rosenberg. Simon West (the first Lara Croft) took full advantage of the Jerry Bruckenheimer big boom explosions shop and added an interesting lighting scheme.

recommended

What went wrong with Elf? Hard to say. Ferrell at this point is kind of like Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy or Robin Williams at their manic primes, all over the screen and always able to take over any scene. Probably the script from David Berenbaum (speaking of Murphy, Berenbaum also wrote the script for The Haunted Mansion) and the directing of Jon Favreau weren’t enough to overcome the horrendous core concept: Ferrell as a tot sneaks into Santa’s bag one Christmas Eve and for some reason can’t be returned to his parents, remaining at the North Pole thinking he’s just an oversized elf to the age of 30.

At which point the “truth” becomes clear to him and, voila, he’s told who his real father is. Off we go to Manhattan and the completely different, angry, mean James Caan. Sure, Ferrell has plenty of bits to get laughs but the idea here is to make a movie. M-o-v-i-e. Anchorman is coming on cable soon, hopefully will be better.

not recommended