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Lessons Learned from Movies: Movie Lessons

We all love a good film, right? If your parents were anything like mine, movies made great after school distractions, weekend entertainment, and even a decent babysitter every now and again. It is no wonder that I have ended up using movies as my source for information about the world. Thanks to Romero I’m solid if zombies ever show up at my door, and I know all the attractions I need to hit next time I’m in Tokyo thanks to Godzilla. Movies have taught me some valuable lessons over the years, and hopefully I can pass on some of the wisdom I’ve gleaned to you. Who knows, maybe that goateed fellow behind you is your evil twin…

Things I would never know if it wasn’t for movies:

Large, loft-style apartments in New York City are well within the price range of most people–whether they are employed or not.

At least one of a pair of identical twins is born evil.

Should you decide to defuse a bomb, don’t worry which wire to cut. You will always choose the right one.

Most laptop computers are powerful enough to override the communications system of any invading alien society.

It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts–your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.

When you turn out the light to go to bed, everything in your bedroom will still be clearly visible, just slightly bluish.

Radiation cause interesting mutations–not to your future children, but to you, right then and there.

If you are blonde and pretty, it is possible to become a world expert on nuclear fission at the age of 22.

Honest and hard working policemen are traditionally gunned down three days before their retirement.

Rather than wasting bullets, megalomaniacs prefer to kill their archenemies using complicated machinery involving fuses, pulley systems, deadly gasses, lasers, and man-eating sharks, which will allow their captives at least 20 minutes to escape.

During all police investigations. it will be necessary to visit a strip club at least once.

Most dogs are immortal.

All beds have special L-shaped cover sheets that reach up to the armpit level on a woman but only to waist level on the man lying beside her.

All grocery shopping bags contain at least one loaf of French bread.

It’s easy for anyone to land a plane providing there is someone in the control tower to talk you down.

Once applied, lipstick will never rub off–even while scuba diving.

The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. No one will ever think of looking for you in there and you can travel to any other part of the building you want without difficulty.

You’re very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.

Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it will not be necessary to speak the language. A German accent will do.

The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris.

A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.

If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be thrown through it before long.

Kitchens don’t have light switches.

If staying in a haunted house, women should investigate any strange noises in their most revealing underwear.

Word processors never display a cursor on screen but will always say:  Enter Password Now.

Any person waking from a nightmare will bolt upright and pant.

It is not necessary to say hello or goodbye when beginning or ending phone conversations.

Even when driving down a perfectly straight road, it is necessary to turn the steering wheel vigorously from left to right every few moments.

All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they’re going to go off.

A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.

If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you bump into will know all the steps.

Police departments give their officers personality tests to make sure they are deliberately assigned a partner who is their total opposite.

When they are alone, all foreigners prefer to speak English to each other.

An electric fence, powerful enough to kill a dinosaur will cause no lasting damage to an eight-year-old child.

Television news bulletins usually contain a story that affects you personally at that precise moment.

page topic: Lessons Learned from Movies

The Dark Night Movie Reviews: Reviews of the latest Batman movie

Here are some reviews of The Dark Night, the latest Batman movie. It’s blowing away almost every critic that sees it, and I suspect it will be nominated for best picture, and that Nolan will WIN an academy award for Best Director. Heath Ledger will certainly be nominated for an award for Best Actor, and will mostly likely win. Not because he died, but because all indications are, he truly deserves it.

The Dark Night Movie Reviews:

Rolling stones review of The Dark Night

How can a conflicted guy in a bat suit and a villain with a cracked, painted-on clown smile speak to the essentials of the human condition? Just hang on for a shock to the system. The Dark Knight creates a place where good and evil — expected to do battle — decide instead to get it on and dance. “I don’t want to kill you,” Heath Ledger’s psycho Joker tells Christian Bale’s stalwart Batman. “You complete me.” Don’t buy the tease. He means it.

…I can only speak superlatives of Ledger, who is mad-crazy-blazing brilliant as the Joker. Miles from Jack Nicholson’s broadly funny take on the role in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, Ledger takes the role to the shadows, where even what’s comic is hardly a relief. No plastic mask for Ledger; his face is caked with moldy makeup that highlights the red scar of a grin, the grungy hair and the yellowing teeth of a hound fresh out of hell. To the clown prince of crime, a knife is preferable to a gun, the better to “savor the moment.”

Review of The Dark Night from Variety:

Viewers who found “Batman Begins” too existentially weighty for its own good will be refreshed to know that “The Dark Knight” hits the ground running and rarely lets up over its swift 2½-hour running time. Nolan directs the action more confidently than he did the first time out, orchestrating all manner of vertiginous mid-air escapes and virtuosic highway setpieces (and unleashing Batman’s latest ooh-ah contraption, the monster-truck-tire-equipped Bat-Pod). In a fresh innovation, six sequences were shot using Imax cameras, and will presumably look smashing in the giant-screen format (pic was reviewed from a 35mm print).

Though not as obsessively detailed as “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” shares with that film a robust physicality and a commitment to taking violence seriously; a brief shot of bruises and scrapes on Bale’s torso conveys as much impact as any of the film’s brutal confrontations. Bale himself is less central figure than ensemble player, but the commandingly charismatic thesp continues to put his definitive stamp on the role, and also has devilish fun playing up Wayne’s playboy persona.


The Dark Night movie review by the Hollywood Reporter

“The Dark Knight” is pure adrenaline. Returning director Christopher Nolan, having dispensed with his introspective, moody origin story, now puts the Caped Crusader through a decathlon of explosions, vehicle flips, hand-to-hand combat, midair rescues and pulse-pounding suspense.

Nolan is one of our smarter directors. He builds movies around ideas and characters, and “Dark Knight” is no exception. The ideas here are not new to the movie world of cops and criminal, but in the context of a comic book movie, they ring out with startling clarity. In other words, you expect moralistic underpinnings in a Martin Scorsese movie; in a Batman movie, they hit home with renewed vigor.


Movie review of the Dark Night by Time Magazine

It’s been one of the best summers in memory for flat-out blockbuster entertainment, and in the wow category, the Nolan film doesn’t disappoint. True to format, it has a crusading hero, a sneering villain in Heath Ledger’s Joker, spectacular chases — including one with Batman on a stripped-down Batmobile that becomes a motorcycle with monster-truck wheels — and lots of stuff blowing up. Even the tie-in action figures with Reese’s Pieces suggest this is a fast-food movie.

.. This Joker is simply one of the most twisted and mesmerizing creeps in movie history…. And the actor, who died in January at 28 of an accidental prescription-drug overdose, is magnificent… The Dark Knight is bound to haunt you long after you’ve told yourself, Aah, it’s only a comic-book movie.


And the following Dark Night movie reviews were gathered by Cinemablend.com

“It isn’t an overstatement to call The Dark Knight the most sophisticated and ambitious work of its kind.” – Todd Gilchrist, IGN

“The Dark Knight is a masterpiece – an almost flawless comic book movie adaptation.” – Peter Sciretta, Slashfilm

“Dark, grim, haunting and visionary, “The Dark Knight” is nothing short of brilliant, the best and scariest comic hero adaptation you are likely to see this summer season, and perhaps during the whole year.” – Emanuel Levy, emanuellevy.com

“If DARK KNIGHT gets anything less than an Oscar nomination it would be a great injustice to the world of cinema. Nolan has delivered an epic masterpiece that will literally take your breath away.” – Brad Miska, Bloody-Digusting

“It’s the “Godfather II” of comic book films and three times more earnest than “Batman Begins” (and fuck, was that an earnest film). Easily the most adult comic book film ever made.” – Kevin Smith, director of Zack and Miri Make a Porno

“All the things you never thought you would see in a Batman film are present in “The Dark Knight.” Christopher Nolan’s dark, disturbing sequel to 2006’s “Batman Begins” pulls off an impossible task: making an epic from a movie with a man in tights.” – Erik Amaya, Comic Book Resources

“The Dark Knight manages to exceed expectation with a villain so maniacal, his desire for destruction begins to make sense to the point you understand his desire for all out anarchy while you are cheering for the opposition in a war that basically boils down to one side against individual terrorism.” – Brad Brevet, Rope Of Silicon

page topic: reviews of The Dark Night, the latest Batman movie