The jokes on us

Rating: 1/10 (4 August 2008)

I may run out of words to end with "less". Mindless, witless, a view of the world that's hopeless. Horrible acting, writing, editing, lighting and music. I've seen it all before only done better. Nicholson's turn at Joker was far, far superior. Ledger? Mirthless, just a distracting concoction of tics. Bale? Who knows? His augmented voice and masked face made his 2-dimensional performance meaningless. Dent? What a horrible performance, something you'd see on "Knot's Landing". Where have we come as a society? Kubrick made "A Clockwork Orange" in '71, a devilishly clever, mean and stylish film that pushed the limits when it came to on-screen violence. His young monster, Alex, played by the brilliant Malcolm MacDowell, was a thing to behold. Now we have families taking their kids to the '08 version of ultraviolence and yukking it up. The dark night of America film-making is more like it. Are we really this numb, are we really this nihilistic?