MOVIES
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY
RELEASE: 25 JULY
RELEASE: 22 AUGUST
Dur-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh, Dur-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh,
BATMAN! Batman, Batman, Batmaaaaan! The caped crusader is back for 2008 and, The fi rst Hellboy was scintillating comic-book cinema. Competing with Batman this issue
thank God, Robin is nowhere in sight. After Joel Schumacher turned the Batman comes a wholly different beast – a colourful, phantasmagorical story, about a young
franchise into a train wreck, Christopher Nolan went back to the roots with Batman Hellboy who is told a bedtime story by his adoptive pop about a legendary, ancient war
Begins. It was a great fi lm and although Batman looked like a bit of a knob, the story, between mythical beasts and humans. The tale peaks with a revelation regarding the
background information, character building and pretty much everything about it creation of a crown that gives its wearer total control over an unstoppable, clockwork
was good. This is the sequel, and Hollywood have brought out the big gun: the Joker, army. These mechanic warriors, totaling 4,900, are called The Golden Army, and were said
played by the late Heath Ledger. The promo posters and art looks amazing; it’s a to obliterate the humans so decisively that a truce was quickly drawn up. The clockwork
shame we can’t fi ll these pages up with it. But enough hype, let’s check out the story: army claimed the forests; the humans the cities, and peace remained. The crown was
ultimately broken, with one part going to the humans and the other to the elves. After this,
Within a cocoon of dazzling special effects, schoolboy fun and fi lm noir style, the the Golden Army was buried and fast became but a myth.
scriptwriters for The Dark Knight weave a gripping yarn. Paying proper respect to
Batman’s comic legacy, this is a tale of good and evil, where Batman and the Joker have This story sounds like a twisted version of Lord of the Rings. It’s directed by the
a symbiotic relationship where one can’t live without the other. “I don’t want to kill you,” genius that is Guillermo Del Toro, who also directed its prequel, and none other than
the Joker tells Batman, “you complete me,” is a quote that sums it up nicely. Batman is Metacritic’s highest-rated movie of all time – Pan’s Labyrinth. Del Toro is right at home
seriously pissed – he doesn’t want to be the white knight. This fi lm sees him plumb the with this fairytale and its forests, due to its similarity to the aforementioned classic.
depths of human depravity to become the dark, twisted, crook killer we all know he is. Toro is full of confi dence, and has obviously played up the ridiculousness and irony of
a movie about a red hulk with severed horns who’s a product of a collab between the
This movie – the best of 2008 so far – is like a mix of the fi rst Batman and Heat, Nazi’s and Satan doing battle with hellish beasts.
boasting a blistering swansong for Heath Ledger [he takes it much darker than
Nicholson did]. Irish locals watch out – the clockwork army is based on your island!
DVD & BLU-RAY
BATMAN: TERMINATOR 2:
ULTIMATE FIGHTING GOTHAM KNIGHT JUDGMENT DAY (BLU-RAY)
CHAMPIONSHIP 81: LUPIN THE THIRD:
BREAKING POINT RELEASE: 14 JULY SECRET OF MEMO RELEASE: 4 AUGUST
PRICE: £7.99 PRICE: £12.99
RELEASE: OUT NOW This DVD is truly awesome. From the RELEASE: 4 AUGUST Terminator 2: Judgment Day is about to
PRICE: £17.99 producers of the imminent Batman fi lm PRICE: £17.99 be released on Blu-ray. This is probably
Ultimate Fighting Championship is a and its prequel comes the epic known If you want to break away from the the best action fi lm ever made. Others
man’s game! You all probably know it by as Batman: Gotham Knight. Bridging stereotypical Japanese anime, this is are up there, including Aliens, which was
now. Basically, you can have any fi ghting the gap between Batman Begins and defi nitely the one to look out for. It goes also directed by the genius that is James
style you choose. Then you go inside a The Dark Knight, directed by Bruce right back to the vibe of vintage Manga Cameron. As you probably already know,
cage and beat the shit out of each other. Timm (Batman: The Animated Series), in the 1980s, boasting mind-blowing there are countless scenes in Terminator
Unfortunately, the people who do this Batman: Gotham Knight taps into fi nesse and style. See if you can fi nd a 2 that have been copied to the point of
are well trained, and so you won’t see the work of three, pioneering anime few more images of this movie before parody in popular culture. The leather
haymakers connecting with chins and studios [Production I.G., Studio 4C, and you buy it, because there really isn’t biker gear, traffi c chases, chain-gun
teeth very often, if ever. It’s more about Madhouse] and fi ve renowned anime anything else quite like it. Combining wielding, liquid metal special effects,
rolling around on the fl oor like randy directors [Shojiro Nishimi, Futoshi the action, sexiness and exotic globe- grenade launching, future apocalyptic
teenagers, getting all up close and Higashide, Hiroshi Morioka, Yasuhiro hopping of a Bond adventure with the wit landscapes – all of that stuff is now
personal, then making your opponent Aoki, and Toshiyuki Kubooka]. The results and bizarre hilarity of an Austin Powers clichéd within the temperate loony bin
scream like a little girl when you twist are six interrelated, animated shorts movie, Lupin the Third is an animated that is Hollywood. There can only be one
their arm. In this UFC, you will see Brock in the style of Animatrix, depicting a sensation. Packed with gratuitous nudity, fi lm allowed to do all of that and still be
Lesner’s debut. Remember that steroid- badass, take-no-prisoners Batman plenty of swearing and tons of explosive enthralling, and this is it. The fact that
fuelled chump from WWE about three complete with blood, bullets and undead action, this probably isn’t the best DVD to James Cameron made Arnold Schwar-
years ago? Well, here he’s out to prove beasts. If you order from
Play.com you get leave on when little Gary is peering out zenegger look like a good actor is the
that he can do it for real. And he loses! a Batman USB stick fi lled with images. of his bespoke Burberry playpen. greatest feat of all time.
www.kmag.co.uk
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