Never Mind Pop Film

Video: The Dark Knight Rises: Bane’s football explosion
The DVD/Blu-Ray for The Dark Knight Rises doesn't come out until December 4th, but you can catch a glimpse of how they filmed Bane (Tom Hardy) blowing up Gotham Rogues stadium here. Ravens fans will be disappointed to find out it was special effects, I'm sure most hoping that they actually destroyed it.

For all of the hardware Heath Ledger took home and all of the guild's nominations the film received, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight got a goose egg for Best Picture four years ago. Will this time around be any different? Peter Jackson's film took best picture when the trilogy concluded, but that was against weaker competition and the reviews for Rises are not as strong as its predecessor. We shall see have to wait to see what happens.

Characters that sound unique are rarely found in cinemas. Globalization has made most voices recognizable to moviegoers all over the world. Very few characters make one turn their head and go "huh?", so one when such characters present themselves, we have to take notice.

Bane - Tom Hardy
Of the many discussed items of The Dark Knight Rises this summer, Tom Hardy's voice for the masked villain was easily the most popular. What was it? Scottish? Indian?

Anton Chiguhr - Javier Bardem
Another villain with a voice hard to detect. While Bardem slipped between accents in scenes, no one was really wondering anything other than "what is he going to do with that cattle prod?"

Batman - Christian Bale
Bale's growl that he used as Caped Crusader has been described as many things: a mix between Clint Eastwood and a Gorilla, a severe case of bronchitis, and induced by childhood nightmares. All I know is, it is the best Batman voice done.

Vito Corleone - Marlon Brando
One of …

When times are increasingly desperate, men of violence rule. The Bondurant brothers are such men. Forrest (Tom Hardy) and Howard (Jason Clarke) are chief bootleggers in the wettest county in the union. Practically everyone in Franklin is on the take from the moonshine trade: sheriffs, owners, and church-going folk alike. From churches to nightclubs these outlaws go untouched. The boys are legend and believed to be immortal, worse, they believe the tales about themselves.

Jack (Shia LaBeouf) is the black sheep of this backwoods flock. He does not possess the size of his brothers, nor the brutality. When a spiffy, special agent from Chicago comes down to enforce a new law, the Bondurants are forced to make up for their brother's inefficiencies.

Brutality is not new to the Bondurants, but what Special Agent Rakes (a deranged Guy Pearce) presents is remarkable cruelty. He is a gloved poke right in the center of Forrest's chest. The Bondurants can be touched, he implies, and they …

"Because he's not the hero we need right now, but he's the one we deserve."

Eight years have passed since Gotham last needed Batman. Without the ornaments and implements of Batman, Bruce Wayne rings hollow. When we last left the Dark Knight he was on the run from the police and held in contempt by virtually all of Gotham. Shouldering the weight of Harvey Dent's crimes and suffering the loss of Rachel, he is in his own personal hell. Any semblance of a normal life ended with a sick joke and a cleansing burn.

Gotham itself is also in a transitional phase. The dark, transient city from BatmanBegins was melded into a shiny metropolis for The Dark Knight and now is waiting to be torn apart in Rises. The have-nots have dragged on for far too long and now the socialites are ticking down the seconds before the doors burst open.

What Christopher Nolan does with this Batman trilogy is take a mirror and—under the guise of being only a comic book movie—holds it up to society an…

Most would look at the new banner for The Dark Knight Rises and appreciate how good it looks. I, however, cannot help but wonder what Bane is thinking. My first guess is "job well done," either that, or "I hope I didn't leave the tank on the bridge."

Christopher Nolan has decided that fans aren't excited enough for The Dark Knight Rises—despite the fact that some IMAX showings are sold out through August—and another full-length trailer has been released.

As pathetic as this sounds, I can't bring myself to watch the trailer before seeing it on the big screen along with The Avengers on Friday. Enjoy!

Tense. Riveting. Bold. Everything that you want from a Nick Cave-scripted film about bootlegging in the South. "Do you know what a Thompson Sub-Machine gun does to a mortal?" may be the best line that I've heard in a long, long time. This summer is shaping up to be one of the best in recent memory.

This premise works with political parties too.

Being the most anticipated film of the year comes lots of news stories. In order to avoid reader fatigue combing the posts seemed like a simpler idea. Why take up three stories what you can do with one?

The above image comes from the prologue that came out in December.

Tom Hardy on Bane and his resistance to go to a dark place to play him:

Hardy described the character as "brutal" and "heavy-handed", but "I didn't get into a dark place at all. A lot of dark characters are easy to have distance from, it's something I feel comfortable with, I suppose."
Christian Bale on his mindframe playing Bruce Wayne/Batman:

For me he is an anarchist and a free spirit. He knows that there are parallels between him and his enemies because life is never stable – you always have to fight for it. Keeping in mind that it may never be boring and that nobody is obliging you to behave like a superhero and to always have your muscles flexed and bulging.
(Courtesy…

Taut thrillers have been left by the wayside in recent years - action films and romantic comedies are more sure investments for studios - but here, a prize one, has been placed right into our laps.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy opens as George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is about to receive the boot. Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), Bill Haydon (Colin Firth) and Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds) have the favor of Control (John Hurt) so the failure of their most recent assignment must fall square on the shoulders of Smiley.

Retirement suits Smiley well enough: he swims daily, reads the paper, and even decides to update his eye-wear (a nice reference when keeping track of the non-linear story). Yet retirement doesn't last long for Smiley, he is called in by Control. The Russians are have infiltrated "the circus" and Smiley has been tasked with finding a mole in his agency. When men start dying the stakes cannot be higher. But who can you trust?

Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of John le Carré’s nove…

As with Shame, I won't be watching the trailers for the film. Enjoy!

I promised myself that I wouldn't look at any screencaps online, but surfing the web over Thanksgiving proved to be too fruitful to pass up. The focus of the final Nolan-Batman film is headed in the right direction and one can only hope that maybe... just maybe that a comic book film will get its due. The other two screencaps are available at Empire.

(Courtesy: Empire)

According to Empire's sitdown interview with Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises will take place eight years after the events of The Dark Knight:

"It's really all about finishing Batman and Bruce Wayne's story," Nolan comments. "We left him in a very precarious place. Perhaps surprisingly for some people, our story picks up quite a bit later, eight years after The Dark Knight. So he's an older Bruce Wayne [and] he's not in a great state."

Apologies for the belated nature of these covers, but this week has been a busy one for me. They don't reveal a great deal, but Batman (Christian Bale) has one hell of a taser. Even a superb Venom-high couldn't keep that from taking you down.

(Courtesy: Empire)

This trailer features more unseen footage and a rigid emphasis on Tom Hardy's character.

Those dead eyes. They could make any man cower. Even a dark knight. Hardy may not be able to top Ledger's intense vision of a true psychopath, but he absolutely poses a physical challenge to Batman.
(Courtesy: Warner Bros.)

There's almost zero chance (unless you're me) that you missed this before seeing the final chapter of the Potter saga, but for those of you who have, enjoy!

This is unsurprisingly creepy. Ledger may have competition for most disturbing villain after all. I suppose the next question is where is Bane at? Arkham? The League of Shadows compound? India?

(via SuperHeroHype)

It has been decided. Tom Hardy will be playing Bane and Anne Hathaway is confirmed as Catwoman in the third and final Nolan-helmed Batman film. Hardy seems like perfect casting - if you have seen Bronson anyway - and Hathaway has a darkness that could be mined for her role in the third film as well.
The questions now are: is Bane associated with a new League of Shadows? Or is he a rogue agent? Is Catwoman a villain or an interloper?