My advice

Go see Milk!

Wow.

Paul Newman

I loved both your movies and your delicious food products, which helped countless people dine and and simultaneously donate to charity. *side note: I'm actually not being sarcastic, loved this guy and his salad dressing.

Oh yeah, I'm seeing this.

October 24th in San Francisco, you in?

Burn After Reading

This looks phenomenal.

The Dark Knight mini-review

Well, while I was back east visiting my family I had the pleasure of seeing The Dark Knight... twice. (Unfortunately neither time at IMAX - sold out for days!) Both myself and the various family members who accompanied me were stunned after walking out of the theater. It has been a long time since I've seen a summer blockbuster that was so unbelievably good.

Obviously, as everyone has no doubt already heard, Heath Ledger was the piece de resistance of the film. At some points I was nearly moved to tears just by the sheer talent exhibited in his performance (and yes, I'm an over-dramatic person generally, so take that with a grain of salt). Given the character, and Jack Nicholson's prior performance, I thought Nolan etc. really made a great transition to a sick, depraved, intelligent Joker worthy of the more serious Batman films of today, as compared with the more cheesy Batman films of yore (though don't get me wrong, they still sneak in some great puns etc.). I feel the need to comment more on this because it was just SO phenomenal, but I'll let you all make up your own minds. And perhaps I'll post more later, depending on my mood.

Other bright spots of the film - cinematography, particularly shooting angles from skyscrapers. I actually felt afraid of heights while watching the film. In fact, the whole thing was incredibly well done. I also enjoyed the themes - particularly the exploration of depravity in every human being when put in a desperate situation. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't yet seen it, but it's a really loaded superhero film. Dark, gorgeous, open to interpretation... glorious. See this movie!

Some weak spots - Maggie Gyllenhaal was disappointing and I wish there was a bit more Caine in there, but overall, fantastic film. I'll be going at least once more, to an IMAX. (And I don't usually make it to the theater, so that's saying something.)

Awww yeah!

As part of the unspoken Internet aspiration to answer all of our most inconsequential questions, some giant nerd ("Thank you!") plotted out Steve McQueen's route in the chase scene from Bullitt and put an animated Google map next to the clip from the movie. Particularly cool if you live in San Francisco ("I thought that's where it was!").

A halfway decent summer blockbuster?

I was pretty surprised today to find that Iron Man has actually gotten some pretty solid reviews. I've had mixed feelings about this film from the start:
a) I'm not a huge fan of typical summer action blockbusters - I almost always end up disappointed, so I've more or less stopped going.
b) On the other hand, I love Robert Downey Jr. Most recent example - his performance in Zodiac was definitely one of the major assets of the film.
c) I don't think the commercials do it justice at all, but the trailer seems to hit closer to the mark.
d) Jon Favreau directs. As much as I dig Swingers, and I as much as I loved his guest appearance in The Sopranos, it is now very hard to take him seriously in the role of a director. Like, really? Favreau? Maybe I'm just a snob though.

Anyway, I think my interest has piqued enough to perhaps go and pay the $10 to see it. If one of you beats me to the punch though (which is very likely), I'd be curious as to your thoughts.