I’ve called the USPS twice, each of the two mornings this work week. I’ve been assured that my problem “is being worked on” and I should expect a call back some time today. If I don’t hear from them, I get to call again tomorrow and really start pushing.
I need this resolved, ASAP, dammit.
Oh, yeah, and WaMu, in their efforts to be helpful and cancel my returned card for the sake of security, turned off my existing card as well. So I’m cardless, several days earlier than anticipated. Argh.
Let me lead off this entry by saying that I love Washington Mutual. I can send them a message via their website on a Saturday and get a reply that same day… and a reply to my reply on a Sunday. Nevermind the mess of a situation I’m in, that’s the kind of customer service I like.
That said, I’m screwed. Turns out that for the last month or so, mail sent to my home has been getting returned as if I don’t live there. First the property managers say that I don’t live there, now this? Is someone trying to tell me something? Considering that WaMu sent my replacement card back in May, that tells you how long this problem has been going on. Mind you, due to my general lack of paying attention lately (see previous entry), I didn’t even realize this until yesterday. So in the end, I’m the dumbass. (Like that surprises anybody, right?)
The bank says, “update your address and we’ll mail you out a new card.” Great, except that the address on file is my address. Do I need to move just to get a new card? The postal service, of course, isn’t exactly a font of information on the best of days, let alone a weekend, so I have no idea what’s really going on at their end. Did someone put in an address change of some sort, or is our mail carrier just utterly confused? How much mail have I missed? What sort of important things (besides my replacement card) have bounced back to sender? Last but certainly not least, what the hell can I do about it?
Go back to using checks for everything? Oh, but wait, those all have my old address on them, too… maybe I should have the bank mail me new ones. Heh.
Let’s see… how many things have I lost track of lately?
I’m sure there’s more, but I don’t want to get depressed about it just before going to visit my rugrats. Le sigh.
I’ve added to, subtracted from, sorted, tweaked and futzed with my massive taglines file, that which feeds the random tagline display you see just below the site logo, up there at the top of the page. Like a good ‘netizen, I’m sharing the fruits of my labors with the lot of ya. So, linked below is the straight text file containing every single tagline I have.
Enjoy, won’t you?
I’ll try to make this brief, ‘cause there’s not much point covering too many of the same bases that a bazillion other reviewers will already have covered. In short, Batman Begins is among the best comics-to-celluloid conversions I’ve seen. It’s surprisingly realistic, well-paced, and rarely disappointing.
What interests me most about the movie, looking back on it, is that on one level it’s the story of a man’s search for a replacement father-figure or mentor. Bruce finds what he needs halfway around the world… or does he? He learns many valuable lessons, but “Ducard” isn’t really the right fit. No, that would be Alfred, the man he actually rejects any number of times previously. Maybe I’m reading too much into this aspect, but hey, I’m just amazed that the movie manages to have this thread without it being obnoxious or blatant.
So, the cast. I liked seeing Gary Oldman in a fairly low-key role, and he does solid work here. His Jim Gordon is sensitive, somewhat harried, but unerringly devoted to the way things should be.
Morgan Freeman, for all that it looks like he’s mostly gliding his way through his part, is so damned enjoyable that I really didn’t care that he wasn’t trying all that hard. It’s not like he had a lot to do, and he did get a couple of sly, understated moments. “Oh, you wouldn’t be interested in that,” he says with a twinkle in his eye…
Michael Caine is a joy to watch, and while his Alfred isn’t quite the cooly composed and dry-witted butler we’ve seen in other renditions, he brings a heart to the role that works perfectly given the structure of this particular plot. He serves as the true mentor to Bruce, even after being rejected any number of times, and he is believable as the able and brilliant collaborator.
As for Bruce’s first mentor, the false one, Liam Neeson dips into his Qui-Gon Jinn bag of tricks pretty heavily, but manages to be dark and menacing in the right ways at the right time, and he’s never over-the-top.
Kat(i)e Holmes? She has very little to do besides look pretty and be Bruce’s other conscience from time to time, whcih she does passing well, but not that well. And while I’m here, can I just take a moment to say that “TomKat” had better damned well be the last of the “celebrity couple monikers” we have to suffer hearing about every single day? “Bennifer” was bad enough, but “TomKat” is just silly. What next? Oh, wait, I don’t want to know.
Anyway. The last actor I want to talk about before I wrap this up is Christian Bale. Is he a good Batman, and is he a good Bruce Wayne? That’s always been the problem, of course, the fact that there are two roles to play. Superman’s a goodie-two-shoes no matter whether he’s in costume or in disguise, but Batman is practically schizophrenic. Previous attempts have been hit-or-miss, with some actors doing the playboy billionaire part well but failing to convince as the Dark Knight, and others wearing the cape-and-cowl fairly well but faceplanting in a tuxedo. I think Mr. Bale does… okay. I’m not the first and won’t be the last to think that his “Batman Rasp” is a bit silly, but in all other respects his Bat-work is fairly decent. I’m not sure he’s the best Bruce Wayne we could’ve gotten, but he’s actually quite good enough to do the job. My biggest complaint with his work was a tendency towards a deer-in-the-headlights stare when surprised by events. That may have been the directing, but there you go.
So what about the story, the plot, the much-touted realism? The grounding in a kind of reality this film gives you is superb. You believe in this world and these characters. Sure, at the end there’s a kind of models-and-set-pieces action-flick feel to things, but until that point the movie is unrelentingly glitz-free. That’s not to say it isn’t stylish and flashy at times, but it doesn’t feel fake. This is the kind of genuinely dramatic, grounded-in-its-world movie that The Hulk tried so hard and failed so completely to be.
I’ll end with an observation that I didn’t make, myself, until the end of the movie. There is no opening credits sequence. The movie just… begins. Only when I saw the end credits roll did I realize this, and it made me love the movie that much more. I’m not knocking what Marvel’s done with its franchises, but having this movie just thrust you into the story from the moment the theater lights go down adds something immeasurable to the realism of the overall picture.
Batman Begins. If all goes well, it will continue with as good of quality as it’s started with. I hope.
