Countdown to ‘The Dark Knight Rises’: Part 6 of 11 – “Batman: The Animated Series”

If you missed it here is Part 1 of 11: Introduction to Batman “The Gift”

And here is Part 2 of 11: A look Back at Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’

And Part 3: ‘Batman Returns’

And Part 4: ‘Batman Forever’

And last week’s part 5 ‘Batman and Robin’

In 1992, Warner Bros. figured they could capitalize on the success of Tim Burton’s two cinematic offerings of the DC character to which they owned the rights in the form of an animated TV show. The camp of the 1960s TV episodic had given way to Burton’s darker vision and the studio figured out how to tame that and frame it within the confines of a show aimed at kids. I was smack-dab in the middle of their target demographic and I was hooked when I saw the show’s first commercial. I was watching TV with a neighbor when we witnessed the ad together and it was like living life with cataract-infested eyeballs to be handed eyeglasses by Jesus, himself. A whole new world had opened up to me and Aladdin was nowhere in sight. My friend and I knew our lives had been pointless up until the moment the show debuted (which meant my life was of utmost patheticism, as he was a few years younger than me). We conspired to make the most sacred of pacts: wake up early on a Saturday and get together to watch the show. And it was done.

When I decided to do a Batman retrospective, the task that excited me the most was the idea of going back to watch all 85 episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series.” I hadn’t seen an episode since its original airing, but a couple of housemates had done some renting of the DVDs after The Dark Knight came out and I was always a bit jealous I didn’t get to partake in this nostalgia with them. As exciting as the prospect was, I couldn’t will myself to start. I had only watched 12 of the plethora of episodes laid before me two weeks before I needed this article written. My notes were slight and about as descriptive as any sentence found in the series of “See Spot Run” books. If I retained one lesson from college, though, it was how to cram. I went on a Batman bender the likes of which only Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan have lived through. My notes got longer and more elaborate and by the time I hit the finish line, there were 36 pages and 25,000 words of notes – something about each episode. I promise to spare you the details.

Batman: The Animated Series Ran on TV From 1992-95

It’s difficult to tackle Batman without talking about his enemies. I’ve done a little bit of that already and will look at them as a whole in a couple of weeks. What struck me most when re-watching the show (other than my open palm, trying to keep me awake) was how many episodes didn’t revolve around the main cast of villians. At least a third and up to about half (depending on whom you count as “the main cast of villains”) of the episodes don’t involve either Joker or Two-Face or Poison Ivy or Scarecrow or The Riddler or Penguin. There are episodes involving werewolves and invisibility and the mafia. As you can probably imagine, the quality of the half-hours that didn’t involve the non-name characters varied, but I thought it was a tremendous risk to take which led to some inventive storytelling.

Batman's image presides over several villains from Batman: The Animated Series

Before delving into specific episodes worthy of mention and how they did or didn’t play into Christopher Nolan’s take on the character, the show itself had a wholly unique style worthy of discussion. Though Burton had constructed modern Gotham, which Nolan has followed upon, Joel Schumacher and “Batman: The Animated Series” opted to for more of a retro look. It’s almost insulting to compare the latter two, but that’s apparently what Schumacher was going for. It just went as horrifically wrong as overexposure to Daggett face cream (I’ll get there in a second). “Batman: TAS” did it properly. The show looks like a 1940s noir spectacle sourced from a Raymond Chandler novel.  And it has the art deco architecture to prove it. If that wasn’t enough, every TV broadcast is in luxurious black-and-white. Not even Bruce Wayne has sprung for a color set yet.  The period setting is a perfect fit with some of the storylines and harkens back to when the character was created and the Batman serials of the era, just minus all the cheese. It’s a setting befitting of the World’s Greatest Detective.

As much as I’d love to give a recap of all the episodes or at least the ones I really enjoyed, this isn’t the proper venue. Those sites exist and you can peruse their 30,000 words. I’m here to give you a condensed version. What you should know from the outset is in narrowing down the list of 85 episodes to highlights I wanted to cover, I still had a list of 46. It suffices to say, there’s a lot of gold to be found in this series and you won’t have to dig for long to find it.

This series hits its stride with its first two-part episode, appropriately tackling the origin of “Two-Face” (which is the episode’s title). The tale of Harvey Dent in “Batman: TAS” differs a little from the one Nolan tells in The Dark Knight, but it’s no less impactful. Harvey and Bruce Wayne are good friends. They go out on double dates together. However, Harvey’s had this burgeoning personality called “Big Bad Harv” that’s been developing from within him ever since an accident on the school playground. When he’s blackmailed by local mafioso, Rupert Thorne, Harv gets angry. And you wouldn’t like him when he’s a victim of a bomb blast that disfigures half of his body giving Big Bad Harv a chance of existence. The second half of the episode shows Two-Face’s fight for bringing Thorne to justice. Although the circumstances are altered, this episode fits thematically with Nolan’s depiction of the character and though this show is animated, it’s vastly less cartoonish than Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever.

Could Christopher Nolan Have Used Some Other Villains From Batman: TAS?

It remains to be seen what Nolan his in store with Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises, but another two-parter, titled “Cat and Claw,” could serve as a nice basis. Assuming you’re counting Catwoman as a “villain,” there are two villains in these 60 minutes, much like we know The Dark Knight Rises to have with Catwoman and Bane. In the episode, there isn’t an origin of Catwoman like Batman Returns. Instead, Selina is already donning the costume to perform her jewelry heists. When Batman catches her, there’s an instant attraction between the two. While Bruce and Selina meet in their civilian lives, and Selina is just as wealthy as he, she can’t help but wish Batman was attracted to her instead of Bruce. Her passion is animals, though, and she fights to create a mountain lion preserve which is shut down due to interference by a criminal organization manned, nay, womaned, by Red Claw. Batman and Catwoman have a common enemy, but once defeated, the sides of the law in which they stand are not the same.

Though it’s not his origin episode (that’d be “Nothing to Fear”), the Scarecrow-starring “Dreams in Darkness” serves as the character’s most potent time in the spotlight throughout the series’ run and the most darkly reminiscent of Batman Begins. Scarecrow hatches a plan to taint Gotham’s drinking water with his fear toxin. Batman gets a taste of that medicine before the plan is hatched and has to face the fears of his parent’s death while hallucinating about Joker infiltrating the Batcave and narrowly running over Robin with the Batmobile. Naturally, the scheme is eventually halted. There was a 60s “Batman” episode where Joker tainted Gotham’s water supply. He turned it into red jelly. Hardly frightening, but again Joker isn’t about scare-tactics, only chaos. Still, how the times have changed.

The villainous Clayface might have made a formidable foe for Nolan's Batman films

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I can keep going. But I know I shouldn’t. Before I get to what I consider the pinnacles of the show, here are a few episodes to check out. “Heart of Ice” is the Mr. Freeze origin story that was told within the confines of corniness in Batman & Robin. This is the episode that makes you think he would’ve been a worthy addition to Nolan’s world. Joker pulls a Tyler Durden, plucks a potential victim’s ID and tells him he’ll come back later, asking for a favor in “Joker’s Favor.” Robin’s origin from Batman Forever gets a retelling in “Robin’s Reckoning.” Edward Nygma perfects his riddles in “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?” and “What is Reality?” Jim Carrey, he is not. Killer Croc finds a family of former Freak Show stars in a forest in “Sideshow.” And Poison Ivy claims to be reformed only to be hatching clones like Invasion of the Body Snatchers in “House & Garden.”

After seeing The Dark Knight, I couldn’t help but read every rumor about who the next villains were going to be and scan every list throwing out ideas of every character Batman ever faced in any form of media. When discussing the subject with a friend, character names were tossed about and he stopped on Clayface. I was aware of the character from a vague memory of “Batman: TAS” a decade and a half prior and my memory was that he was a brown monster. There’s no way I wanted that in my gravel-and-grit Batman franchise. It sounded more like something for Sam Raimi to screw up in Spider-Man. After re-watching the show, I’d be completely onboard with a Clayface inclusion.

It still sounds strange to even suggest and there are only two episodes of 85 that deal with Matt Hagen, the man who would be Clayface. But they’re fantastic. Hagen is a B-movie actor whose age is finally starting to show. He’s no longer getting the roles he once was and turns to a face cream called “Renu-U,” created by one of Gotham’s Donald Trumps, Roland Daggett. Hagen’s so addicted to the cream that his face becomes less than “camera-ready” unless he has some on hand. With supply running low, he breaks into Daggett Industries to feed his addiction and is helped to all of the Renu-U he can take, courtesy of Daggett thuggery. This transforms his body into this massive clay-like blob, but he has the ability to change into different forms, thus taking on the moniker, Clayface. Hagen is a “villain” in a similar sense to Mr. Freeze. He’s not a bad man, but was forced into a life changing circumstance that propelled him into doing the unlawful. It’s Daggett who’s the true villain. Clayface is the subject of the two-parter “Feat of Clay” and an episode titled “Mudslide.” They could conceivably be written into one long three-act story, which (minus the Mr. Fantastic-esque feats of limb growth) boil down to a great dramatic narrative and character arc Nolan could have hammered home.

My favorite one-off episode belongs to another lower-tier villain, The Mad Hatter. Jervis Tesch is a scientist practicing the how-could-it-ever-be-used-for-ill art of mind control. He tries to impress a woman named Alice and give her the night of her life. Only when she gets back with her boyfriend does he become enraged and use his scientific discovery to control her. This is all established in the episode “Mad as a Hatter,“ which is uniformly excellent, but the character and the show reaches its zenith in “Perchance to Dream.”

If Nolan has surpassed The Dark Knight in his filmography to date, it was with Inception, the story of which dreams are made. “Perchance to Dream” is the Inception of “Batman: TAS.” Bruce wakes up to a nightmare he feels is deathly real. He can’t find the entrance to the Batcave and Alfred professes to know nothing about it. Bruce finds his parents are alive and well and that he’s engaged to Selina Kyle. He even sees Batman flying outside a window. He feels something amiss and sees an old family friend who knew of his alter ego. She tells him his whole Batman thing was a delusion. Just when Bruce accepts his new life and couldn’t be happier as a result, he sits down to read the paper and all of it is gobbledygook. He knows he’s stuck in a dream and he has to find a way out. The Mad Hatter is behind it all.

There’s no way this episode could have made for a whole movie. Or even part of one. It’s just a great episode of television. However, it works on a level you’ve seen before with Nolan. There’s no way I would ever throw Inception back, but you wonder if he could have incorporated a character like The Mad Hatter and a concept like this in his Bat-world. The thing you know for sure is if he had, it would have been astounding. Instead we’ll just have to take that episode for what it is and the series as a whole: a great 40+ hours of Batman, no matter the viewpoint from which it’s seen.

Next week: Batman attends his own version of “Take Back the Night” by rounding up the inmates in “Batman: Arkham Asylum.”

Here is the Latest in Movie News, Movie Rumors and Movie Casting from Hollywood in the Last Week

Beyonce, Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried all have landed roles to voice the animated film Epic. Other names also mentioned.

A Fraggle Rock feature film has hired the Rango writers to pen the script. This movie has long been in the works in my mind, no surprise that it is coming to fruition.

A boxing comedy called Grudge Match has rumors of casting Sylvester Stallone and Robert DeNiro. Its about two retired boxers who fight one last time.

Ben Kingsley is playing villain The Mandarin in Iron Man 3. There are other plot details mentioned here. Guy Pearce will also have a role.

Mads Mikkelson from the Pusher trilogy will star in Thor 2 as a villain. Might be worst seeing if Winding Refn were to direct, otherwise – pass.

Everyone’s favorite villain from Silence of the Lambs, read: Anthony Hopkins, will star in RED 2. The retirees comic book movie which will see Hopkins as a villainous scientist.

Director Michael Haneke’s Amour, joins a list that includes Pulp Fiction, as a new winner of the 2012 Palm D’Or in Cannes.

Twilight author Stephanie Meyer will see her infamous adaptation wrap up on the big screen this year, but she keeps pen to pad and her latest film coming to the big screen (aside from Breaking Dawn Part 2 later this year) is going to be directed by Andrew Niccol (In Time).

The film is called The Host, from the book of the same name, and stars Saoirse Ronan (Hanna), the name you know, the face you’ve seen, but a star still stuck “in the making” for the most part. MTV was kind enough to visit the set of Niccol’s new film and we have the video included below. The details of the film, officially, are as follows:

Melanie Stryder [is] one of the last humans putting up a fight against an alien species called Souls. These parasites invade human bodies, fuse to each person’s consciousness and systematically erase their personalities. Melanie is captured by the aliens and implanted by a Soul called Wanderer, something of a legend because of all of the “hosts” she has attached to on numerous planets. Wanderer’s goal is to get Melanie to give up the remaining pockets of humans, but instead the alien finds Melanie to be unique in her unwillingness to surrender her consciousness. Wanderer is so overwhelmed by Melanie’s memories and feelings, the alien is driven to reconnect with Melanie’s old life.

Check out the video and let us know if this is one you are interested in.

What if ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ Had Certain Licenses? Would that Make the Movie More Enjoyable?

Enough time has passed since the release of The Cabin in the Woods that you’ve either seen it or you’re not going to see it for at least a few months when it comes out on disc, especially now that the summer movie season has officially started with the release of “Cabin” co-writer, Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. Due to that, I figure it’s okay to talk a little bit about the third act of the meta-horror film and what was the main focus of the lock-and-key secrecy surrounding the film in the months leading to the its release. If you’re reading this and haven’t seen the film and want to be kept fresh, turn away now. Click on another Joss Whedon-related post. Above all, don’t cry over spoiled film.

The Cabin in the Woods is built around the idea that the horror films we see (but are truly happening in the world of this film) are created and controlled by a higher power. Not as in God, but that there are directors and a crew pulling the strings behind the twists and turns and nightmare-inducing images depicted in the various types of horror movies we watch. The Americans dominate the Cabin-in-the-Woods subgenre that we see in the likes of Friday the 13^th or Cabin Fever, where sexually-active teens need to be offed and virgins survive to tell the tale. Japan terrorizes their victims with images of ghosts and hauntings. If either polemic part of the Earth had a film industry, it’s safe to bet it would involve killer snowmen.

In the final portion of the film, the characters become aware of their constructed situation and invade the powers that be in attempt to put a stop to their imminently gruesome demise. They take a ride on an upwards/downwards, forwards/backwards and sideways-moving elevator that you might have first seen in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The difference is this one doesn’t take you past different rooms full of candy, but prison-like cells occupied by the all the horror creations that have starred in the decades of film we’ve consumed in our lives. These aren’t specific characters like Michael Myers or Godzilla or Dracula, but rather familiar tropes. There’s a madman wielding a knife, a destructive monster and a vampire. It could be Edward Cullen or it could be Lestat. Either way, he comes to suck your blood. If writers Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard had the ability to use specific characters from our movie-going past, would it have made the film any more enjoyable?

I go back and forth about how I feel toward movies winking at the audience. Knowingly making a reference to something the film presumes will be inherently understood by its viewers can sometimes work to enhance the experience or it can yank you out of the story in one rug-pulling jolt.

The 2011 Simon Pegg/Nick Frost-starring alien roadtrip flick, Paul had specific cues galore, adding to its laugh-value at each point. A Star Wars cantina song here, a Back to the Future quote there. These “jokes” aren’t available to anybody without prior knowledge of those films and certainly anybody in that situation was left wondering what in the world the rest of the theater was laughing at. “They walked into a bar. That’s only a setup to a joke. It’s about as funny as someone going to the bathroom. Actually, that’s always funny, especially if they’re taking a crap.” However, to anyone already versed in those cinematic pieces, “this Bud’s for you.”

How many stars can you name in this animated character mash-up?

Contrast Paul with the inimitable (this word being used in connection with this film, the same way the word “bad” used to mean “good”) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, whose constant references feel like a bevy of living-in-the-past, nostalgic recollections. As much as I’ll always revere Frank Darabont for birthing my favorite film in The Shawshank Redemption, he “confessed” (with pride, in this clip: http://youtu.be/8dakdQP6DTU) to writing the line, “It’s not the mileage, sweetheart, it’s the years,” an inverse of the “It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage” line from The Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s an instant groaner and forces me to think back to the far superior initial film in the series, while suffering through a two-hour cobbled bore of its “highlights.”

Apart from winking references designed to satiate a portion of the viewership, the transposable villains in The Cabin in the Woods can be viewed through the lens of specificity. The battle between generic versus brand-name.

In the film, there is a Hellraiser, Pinhead-esque character, which instead of pins, has circular razors protruding from his visage. It’s completely understood that there was no earthly way or financially feasible possibility that Clive Barker, along with every other copywrite-holder of the specific horror inventions these tropes were meant to emulate, would ever be cleared to appear in the same film, but let’s pretend it was possible.

You go to a drugstore and you have the choice of generic or brand-name medicine. Pepto Bismol or Tussin DM. The product contained within the bottle is the same. The only difference is the name on the label. However, there’s undoubtedly a price differential in these products. The generic one is cheaper than the brand-name. Some people purchase the generic one, being comfortable enough without the name recognition. They’d certainly be saving money if they did. But it can’t possibly be everyone making this choice. Otherwise, the brand-name product would cease to exist. Some people just feel more comfortable using the products whose name they recognize, which is due to the money those companies spend on advertising. You’re getting the same thing and even feeling the same amount of relief after taking the product, but spending more of your hard-earned money on the thing you recognize.

I’m wearing a knockoff wristwatch as I type this article. My brother and I have been obsessed with the Bell & Ross Military-style watch that was released a few years ago. It’s a thing of beauty that costs in the neighborhood of $3,500. I happened to find a replica for $20 at a Sears store. The one difference between the two, outside of price or the name embedded in the dial, is this one runs on a battery and the real one is an automatic (winded) watch. The watch on my wrist isn’t worth $3,500. There was nowhere near the level of craftsmanship and care put into this one as the authentic one, but the look is what attracted me to it in the first place and the look has been achieved at a far shallower price.

I’m not necessarily the happy-with-a-knock-off guy, though. If I’m wearing a jersey of my favorite sports team, I want the name and numbers to be sewn on, not in the style of paint-on-mesh. Why? They look pretty similar. It’s not like I’m unable to feel I’m supporting my team or my favorite player because their name can be scratched off instead of torn off. I don’t have an answer. It just feels right that way.

The best filmic example in the generic versus brand-name debate that comes to mind is in the depiction of Toon Town in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Cartoon characters are actors in animated films the way humans are actors in live-action. Roger, Baby Herman, Jessica, the weasels, none of these characters existed outside of the world of that specific film. But the story takes place in a town full of animated characters. The filmmakers could very well have created every single character in the movie, but in order to lend an extra authenticity to their story – somehow turning a world of cartoons living amongst real humans believable – they used pre-existing characters the audience was readily familiar with. Of course, the film not only ushered one world of animated characters into it, but allowed both Walt Disney and Warner Brothers creations to share the same frame. The film is certainly noteworthy because of this, but does it add extra credence to the film because it was inhabited by characters we could already recognize? Would the film have been just as effective had all toon characters been unique to the film?

Stripped of his Thor locks, Chris Hemsworth hangs out in 'The Cabin In The Woods.'

Perhaps it doesn’t come down to whether you’re a brand-name or generic person. Perhaps it comes down to how you see those characters in the context of the film. Do you feel they exist to represent types of characters as opposed to the characters themselves or do you view them as generic wannabe imposters of the characters you know and love? I know if I was a kid and wanted an Indiana Jones action figure and ended up with an Illinois Jacobs, I’d feel ripped off. However, I think The Cabin in the Woods is representing tropes all around. Chris Hemsworth’s jock character isn’t meant to represent Loris Sallahian from Sleepaway Camp, he’s meant to represent every jock from films of that ilk. Our trope protagonists go hand-in-hand with our trope villains. But, just because one set of characters are generalizations doesn’t mean they couldn’t be mixed with a set of characters that are specific.

I realize that if my conclusion is “no, the film would not have been enhanced,” then you’d wonder what the hell the point of writing/reading this was. And if my answer is “yes,” I better have same damn fine reasons as to why, though knowing this merging of copywritten characters was never possible anyway, why even pretend? For those diametrically opposed reasons, there is no conclusion. I know this is maddening. I hate it when documentaries focusing on issues never present any solutions as to how to deal with them. Underlining things doesn’t automatically provide answers. They’re meant to provoke thought. And just because I don’t necessarily have the answer doesn’t mean you don’t. Share with me, won’t you?

‘The Avengers’ Director Joss Whedeon Narrates A Fight Between Iron Man and Thor In Video Clip

To say that The Avengers will be the biggest movie of the summer is no stretch. It debuts on Friday, but internationally has already smashed records in just a few days. The movie has “hit” written all over it and it has therefore been discussed on every blog imaginable. We have so many post tagged the avengers we don’t know what to do anymore. Yet again, here is another in anticipation of the film’s release this week. In this video clip, exclusive to Yahoo!, the director Joss Whedon (soon to be a mega millionaire with this film’s success) talks about a fight scene between Thor and Iron Man. Check it out for yourself below. We really have nothing more to say.

The Avengers Mondo Movie Posters Cause A Scene

Here is a special edition of our usual weekly movie posters post, featuring several Mondo posters for next week’s The Avengers movie release. These posters, in addition to the few we’ve seen before, are for The Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye and Thor. Might I say, bravo. Job well done overall. These are certainly better than the minimalist Black Widow one we saw recently.

Check out these special limited edition one sheets below and let us know what you think. Are these something you would buy? Collectors apparently are showing great interest already. The franchise film is off to a big buzz already. Enjoy.

Marvel’s The Avengers Film Clips Show More Fun and Even, Gasp…Suspense

There are two more The Avengers movie clips that have been released to us, further showcasing what we can expect from this summer’s most anticipated film. According to tracking data within the industry, the expectations are The Avengers will open to $150,000. Tracking is stronger for this film than it was for The Hunger Games, which has only won the box office crown for 4 straight weekends and The Dark Knight Rises, which really surprises me considering that it is the final crown in the trilogy. Our poll (see sidebar) shows the same. Still, the concept of seeing all these superheroes in one film can’t be denied.

These two clips differ in tone. One features Nick Fury chatting up a detained Loki, with Black Widow and Thor looking on. The other showcases a brawl between Iron Man and Thor, which is really unexpected that this would be released prior to the film. Not that we didn’t know already, but apparently we can be prepared for plenty of in-fighting to see which Avenger is the toughest. My money is on Hawkeye…kidding. The movie clips…

This is a special mid-week edition of our Movie Poster Round-Up. One Sheets This Week will still post on Friday as normally scheduled. This week however, there was a flurry of The Avengers character posters released into the wild and we also recap some of the previous Avengers one sheets that were previously not posted on the site. A movie that is generating this much excitement warrants it. These are all in addition to the previous Avengers poster film art that we have seen, including both fan made and actual studio released editions. Here you go. Enjoy.

2004′s ‘Layer Cake’ Signaled The Rise of Two Big Hollywood Stars

Director Matthew Vaughn’s coming out party also signaled the rise of one of the biggest acting names in Hollywood in Layer Cake star Daniel Craig. He’s now referred to as “Bond. James Bond,” however back in 2004, Craig was still a relative unknown having acted in a few roles of note, most recognizably in Sem Mendes’ Tom Hanks vehicle Road to Perdition. But Layer Cake gave Hollywood the authority to recognize the talent of Craig, take a chance and turn him into a star.

Craig (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) plays an unnamed, mid-level drug dealer in Cake. A smart man, with a plan to quit the drug game once he’s made a cool million. He is rightfully on the cusp of doing so when his boss asks a favor of him, which leads to all sorts of problems for the non-gangster. Craig is part of a deep plot to essentially set him up and kill him, but he is naturally underestimated while he learns the ways of gangsterism in the British lands.

Risk be damned, when faced with Sienna Miller in "Layer Cake."

Colorful characters abound in Vaughn’s film. Colm Meaney expertly plays Gene, the muscle of his boss. Morty is Craig’s muscle, who settles an old score in the process. The Duke is a loud, obnoxious wanna-be gangster who is in the drug game for the fame and recognition. Dexter Fletcher, known from Guy Ritchie’s (RockNRolla) career-defining Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, is a great con man and Sienna Miller has never been and likely never will be, more fetching than she is here. It’s a wonderful cast and an expert script.

‘Layer Cake’ Captures a Different Side of Gangster Life Than ‘Pulp Fiction’

Layer Cake only made $2.2 million at the U.S. box office and despite it’s $5-6 million dollar budget, only did about that amount of business in it’s native U.K. It’s surprising in retrospect, given the maturity of the film, the actors in it – note another young star in Tom Hardy, soon to be of The Dark Knight Rises “Bane” infamy – and the multiple comparisons that have been made to Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.  The comparisons are understandable, if a little unfair, given the different tones of the film. Layer Cake is more slick and subtle, while Pulp Fiction more audacious and sprawling. Both films, of course, stand on their own – they do not need to be inextricably linked.

Daniel Craig's XXXX almost meets his maker in "Layer Cake."

Despite a smallish budget, the production values make the film look gorgeous. Vaughn does yoeman’s work here and it’s understandable why he’s continued on to bigger projects (X-Men: First Class). The man who got his start as a producer on the aforementioned Richie film, is a talented auteur indeed. Layer Cake’s locations are vibrant with defined color tones and an overall cool of the gangster life is ever present, even given the innate danger of the game. If you’ve not seen the film, it’s essential you do so if you are even remotely interested in the genre or it’s brilliant cast. I won’t give away the ending, but this layered cake is one to chew on for years to come. So sweet.

Justin Timberlake Stars in Andrew Niccol’s Sci-Fi Movie ‘In Time‘

Director Andrew Niccol’s In Time stars Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried as 25+ year olds who are stuck in a world where people stop aging physically at that age ’til the end of time. The only question is – is how long people live past that point. How that is determined is by how much “time” they have left. Time is like money – aha a metaphor! – in In Time, so it can be passed on from one person to the next, it can be stolen, it can be gambled, you earn time through work, etc. The more time you have, the longer you will live. In Niccol’s world, some people have lived for well over a hundred years. And even if that sounds like fun, it can wear on a person mentally.

We are thrust into this futuristic world immediately when Timberlake’s Will greets his mother Rachel (Olivia Wilde), as they, naturally, look about the same age, although Rachel is celebrating her 50^th birthday. When Will encounters a man who draws attention to himself and might end up getting killed as a result, Will attempts to save him. Unfortunately, while Will temporarily succeeds, this man was cursed with having too much time on his hands, more than a hundred years and he already was 150 years old (though he looked 25, again). The man commits suicide, gives Will all his time and Will is framed for the murder.

"Breakin' the law, breakin' the law!" Timberlake and Seyfried avoid the Timekeepers.

‘In Time’ Used to be called ‘Im.Mortal’, an Equally Silly Title

Will uses his time to move to a better area, but is completely out of place among the rich, people that “come from time.” Seyfried’s Sylvia is one such person, the daughter of one of the most-wealthy men in this world we are in. Will kidnaps her when the authorities known as “Timekeepers” (mainly Cilian Murphy) come to put Will in jail. Thus the chase is on, as Will and Sylvia dodge the authorities throughout this world, nearly running out of time at several opportunities.

Describing the whole premise is a bit exhausting and the only thing you really need to know when you are watching is that it is a “chase” movie. That is unfortunately my biggest gripe with the film. It’s fun enough, but also reduced to standard fare, while the duo dodge the cops, fall in love and you have your usual twists and turns. Niccol makes the world look pretty enough, but the premise is a little weird to grasp and the love story a bit forced.

In Time has a clever premise and should be respected for trying to step out from something basic and put a new spin on it. For me, it was all a little too cutesy though and when the time on the movie ran out, a shrug was about all I could muster. If you like sci-fi or Niccol, you might feel differently, otherwise, I would say this is simply an average film. Rentable, but don’t waste too much time with it.