Bruce Almighty against the Man who laughs at his own jokes or Call it, Harvey

Rating: 9/10 (2 August 2008)

Not every day or month or even year, a movie comes up that after first weekend jumps to the number 1 position on the list of the best movies as decided by the international movies watching community, leaving behind such giants as both Godfather I and II and...Wait a second, practically every movie ever made. That alone makes the newest The Dark Knight a cinematic event that must be seen by any cinema lover.
I liked the latest in the series of Batman movies a lot. It is dynamic, appropriately dark and bleak, it is shot amazingly, staged artistically, the music by James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer truly adds to the atmosphere. On the top of it, it is cleverly written and gives each character time and chance to become interesting and compelling. With all that said I don't believe that The Dark Knight is the best movie ever and deserves its present #1 spot on the list of Top 250 film on IMDb.com. As the story of Bruce Wayne goes, I liked the previous Nolan's movie "Batman Begins" where Christian Bale had much more to work with better. There were also the moments in the film that made me laugh while laughing was not exactly the emotion expected in the particular scenes. It has to do with the habit of one of the characters to flip a coin while deciding on very grave matters. When the character flipped the coin third or fourth time, I was ready to address him, "Call it, firend-o".
But - where the movie truly fascinates is without a doubt Heath Ledger's performance. He is a reason enough to see the movie. I noticed that when he was not on screen, I could not wait for him to appear; the film seemed to lose its appeal without him. All actors were very good, especially Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhart, and their characters were not caricatures but interesting deep persons but Ledger towered everyone. It was his show and he ran it. His Joker that reminds a lot another fun loving villain, "horoshiy mal'chik Alex DeLarge, is absolutely brilliant and sadly the last work of the young actor who never got a chance to see his triumph on the screen and who without doubt will become a cult figure, an icon as it had happened with James Dean over 50 years ago