Teen Pays Tribute to Heath Ledger

Teen critic will miss Heath Ledger, seen here in his last completed role as the Joker in The Dark Knight (Universal)

By Candace Kavanagh

If there was one name that carved a niche in every slumber party across the country in the late nineties it was Heath Ledger. With his Australian accent and bad boy appearance in 10 Things I Hate About You he dug himself -- and his character Patrick Verona -- into the middle of every prepubescent teenage girl's heart. Even I found time for the occasional re-viewing of all his movies with gasps of "aww" and "oh my god" on a constant loop. And if you're a girl my age, you probably remember every move he did and every word that he said to woo the social outcast Kat (Julia Stiles) in this update of the Taming of The Shrew. And of course we could no longer think of that classic song, Oh Pretty Baby, in the same way. Oh yes, Heath Ledger was the actor that made every high school boy seem inferior and every girl want to act like a mean-spirited Julia Stiles, in the hope he might give you that symbolic guitar.

His heartthrob reputation proved durable in any era as he played a 14th century squire going against all odds to become a jousting knight in A Knight's Tale. This film was fun, and like 10 Things, I watched it over and over until every line was permanently burned in my brain, lines like, "Your breasts... they're beneath your throat." So it was mildly surprising when in an interview he said that he loathed those heartthrob roles, and that he never wanted to do play them again. I guess he feared that his career as an actor would be summed up by shallow comments on how cute he was.

The Dark Knight- WOW!

Teen Critic picks The Dark Knight as the year's best so far. (Universal)

By Vikram Bhoyrul

I could list hundreds of amazing adjectives or I could just say The Dark Knight. Wow. Where to begin? I guess if I had to stick with one adjective the only one that might do justice to the movie is flawless. From the moment the movie started to the credits at the end The Dark Knight (opening July 18 throughout San Diego) kept me on the edge of my seat, kept my heart pumping, and the sweat pouring. The entire audience was swayed and equally impressed as I was. After every movie I like to stick around for a minute or two and listen as people walk out and talk about the film just to get a general consensus of the film. As you can imagine only great comments. Some of which included "wow," "beautiful," "that was crazy!" or "I'm naming my kid Heath." Okay, so maybe that last one was me but still there is no arguing that this movie was in fact spectacular.

Before this movie was released Hollywood lost one its finest actors, Heath Ledger, at the age of 28. Ledger plays the Joker in The Dark Knight. To say that he finished his career well would be the greatest understatement of the last century. Every scene he was in, you could see he was totally immersed in the role and in doing so mesmerized the audience. He was such a convincing villain that for the first time victory for the good guys seemed improbable.

Tell No One

Francois Cluzet finds himself a suspect in his wife's murder in Tell No One (Music Box Films)

I don't envy any film opening against The Dark Knight. That's tough. But I hope the new French thriller Tell No One (opening July 18 at Landmark's Hillcrest and La Jolla Village Theaters) doesn't get completely over shadowed by the Batman. Based on American writer Harlan Coben's novel, Tell No One serves up an obsessive love story wrapped up in a thriller about murder and deception.

The Dark Knight

The Joker robs the mob while Heath Ledger steals the show in The Dark Knight (Warner Brothers)

There was a time when people thought it was crazy to try and have someone else take on the role of the Joker because no one could possibly fill Jack Nicholson's shoes. But after you see The Dark Knight (opening July 18 throughout San Diego and in IMAX at Edwards Mira Mesa Cinemas), you won't be able to think of anyone else besides Heath Ledger. Now Nicholson's Joker looks like a naughty clown while Ledger's Joker is downright nasty and disturbed (yet still oddly likable). Ledger's manically endearing performance as the unhinged psycho giving both cops and crooks nightmares is so riveting that it makes you sad for all the roles he'll never have a chance to tackle. Ledger died at the beginning of this year just after wrapping production on The Dark Knight. So this film offers his last completed performance.

Batman: The Movie on Blu-Ray

Adam West in Batman: The Movie (20th Century Fox) and Christian Bale in the upcoming The Dark Knight (Warner Brothers)

With the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, just around the corner, I wanted to highlight the new Fox Home Entertainment Blu-Ray release of the 1966 Batman: The Movie with Adam West and Burt Ward as the Dynamic Duo and a quartet of villains played by Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin and Lee Meriwether. Adam West is the Batman I grew up with and I remember having a Batman TV show pillow that I would snuggle up with to watch every episode. Same Bat time, same Bat channel, without fail. The movie, I later discovered, was actually conceived as the pilot for the TV series but ABC had trouble in their primetime lineup and debuted the TV series early. So the film came out between seasons one and two of the TV show. The vibrant new film transfer of Batman: The Movie boasts an explosion of eye-popping colors that scream 1960s pop art. The film, like the TV series, has a definite cheese factor but both are still wildly entertaining today. Watching the movie the other night made me feel like a kid again and reminded me how much fun Batman was.

For those who grew up with Tim Burton's Batman (1989) or the more recent Christopher Nolan-directed Batman Begins (2005), the old Adam West Batman may strike you as silly. But if you don't realize where Batman came from, you can't fully appreciate how far he's come. What was intriguing about the movie and TV show was the way it packaged conservative values - law and order - in a hip, pop package that made it seem cool. You also had Hollywood veterans like Cesar Romero and Burgess Meredith chewing up the scenery with absolute glee. Their audacious performances worked because Adam West gave them such a straight hero to play off of. In some of the bonus feature interviews, people compare West to William Shatner in the way both used low vocal tones and over enunciation to create an oddly stiff but earnest character. West is also compared to the dry Jack Webb of Dragnet. Meanwhile, Robin is described as a straight man to a straight man and miraculous for managing "astonished enthusiasm" at all times. And not to be outdone in the somber delivery of wacky lines, Neil Hamilton gets an award as Comissioner Gordon who gets to say such lines as "status report on known super villains at large" or "the sum of the angles of that rectangle are too monstrous to contemplate."

Hulk Smash Gets Teen Thumbs Up

The Incredible Hulk is pretty incredible says KPBS Teen Critic (Universal)

By Tony Galindo

Being a comic book kid, and surrounded by many a geek discussing Batman's greatest foe or the X-Men's greatest member it should come as no surprise to those who know me that I would be the first to sign up to review the new Marvel movie of The Incredible Hulk (opening June 13 throughout San Diego).

Being disappointed by the attempt to bring The Hulk to the big screen in 2003 by Ang Lee, I was a little skeptical about how close this movie would be to the true essence of the Hulk, how it would keep us in awe of the not so jolly green giant ripping apart cars and dealing with anger management issues. Let me tell you, walking into the theater there were nothing but Hulk fans. Of course there were promotional shirts and hats being passed out so maybe that could have had something to do with it. All I could think was why did they choose Edward Norton to play Bruce Banner? I could not picture him at all in the role even after watching trailers and looking at screen shots.

It opens with Bruce somewhere in Brazil, exiled from the world because of his mutated condition. He longs to control his anger as he looks for a cure to his gamma radiation. As the film progresses, the military finds him because of a mishap on Banner's part. The chase begins as we see our geeky Dr. Jekyll become the Mr. Hyde. That's what we all wanted to see -- Hulk kicking some serious butt in a bottling factory. Bruce then makes his way back to the states and reunites with his love the stunning Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). He continues to run from the military that's happily lead by Betty's dad General Ross (William Hurt).

I must say this movie was ten times better then the one made in 2003. It had more action and what I consider a better storyline, and one close to the comics. Sure there was still the love story you find in EVERY superhero movie to come to the big screen but it wasn't that bad and it wasn't the main point of the movie. Memorable scenes such as Banner becoming his alter ego in a glass hallway on a college campus and the fight between Hulk and the Abomination put this film on my "will actually pay for" list. Special effects were amazing. This Hulk definitely looked like my childhood hero and had the moves to back it up. I highly recommend this movie to geeks and anyone looking for a good story and sweet action. I'm looking forward to paying next time around and sitting there with my friends.

The Incredible Hulk (rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence, some frightening sci-fi images, and brief suggestive content) was great and from it we can expect even better movies to come. Not to give away the ending or possible movie spin-offs but at the very end of this movie we meet up with General Ross and the one and only Iron Man, Tony Stark (Robert Downet, Jr.). They talk about starting an organization that I and fellow geeks can only imagine being S.H.E.I.L.D., an anti terrorism/ law enforcement group. Not trying to get crazy on you with this idea but I must say I'm pretty excited. General Ross and Stark's meeting sets up a possible movie about one Captain America. If my knowledge is correct, Stark is a prominent executive member of S.H.E.I.L.D. Betty Ross (Banner's love) also becomes a member and is head of public relations. To top it off, Bruce Banner (Hulk) is part of a research team whose purpose is to recreate the very formula that created CAPTIAN AMERICA!!!!! I am very excited at where this could go and how it will play out. I can say one thing: Comic Con should be very interesting this year if they let us in on any of these little secrets.

-- Tony Galindo just graduated from Mount Miguel High. He was recently accepted at the Art Institute of San Diego where he wants to major in game art design and pursue a career in environmental design. Writing is a hobby of his as well as watching movies, so he thought it would be great to be able to share his opinions on film with people.

Blade

Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff  in Blade.

Dracula turned a 100 years old last year but the vampire genre is as vigorous as ever with this month's Blade (written by David Goyer) and John Carpenter's soon to be released Vampires. KPBS film critic Beth Accomando spoke with writer David Goyer at San Diego Comic-Con and has this review of Blade.

Vampires have been a popular subject for film ever since Max Schreck donned fangs for the 1923 classic Nosferatu. When New Line Cinema decided to bring Marvel Comics vampire killing Blade to the screen, writer David Goyer, a self-confessed comic book geek, insisted that he was the only man for the job.