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Sheep Movie Review: Joker (2019)

Joker (2019)
Oct 3, 2019
Directed By: Todd Phillips
Written By: Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen

Rating: R (for strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language, and brief sexual images)

Genre: Action & Adventure, Drama, Mystery & Suspense

Runtime: 122 minutes
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

"Joker" centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips' exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham's fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night...but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.

Wow...there is so much to unpack with this movie. But let's get this out of the way...I loved it. It is dark and brutal and sad but it is one of the best villain character developments I've seen on the screen. The writers and directors got this one right. It was so believable, which is why it is disturbing. My emotions were everywhere. The more I think about it, the more I like it.

It does move slow, but it has to in the beginning. Once the Joker accepts his fate things get exciting and violent. I liked how they tied in Bruce Wayne's fate and the reason why the Joker laughs like he does.

Joker is a dark movie but from a storytelling point of view, it is brilliant.

5 "Send in the clowns" Sheep

SharonS

Today is Batman Day!

Batman Day!

The purpose of Batman Day is to celebrate the anniversary of the character’s first ever appearance in Detective Comics #27 back in May 1939.

Check out all the actors that got to say "I'M BATMAN." Do you have a favorite?

1. Lewis Wilson -1943 first ever-screen adaptation, a 15-chapter action comedy. You can watch the entire three-and-a-half-hour series on YouTube

2. Robert Lowrey 1948 the second Batman serial.

3. Jack Smith -1964 Batman Dracula directed by Andy Warhol isn’t an official Batman movie but it counts.

4. Adam West - 1966 Batman TV series

5. Michael Keaton -1989 Tim Burton‘s movie

 6. Val Kilmer - 1995 Joel Schumacher brought back Batman’s campy side with Batman Forever.

7. George Clooney -1997 Batman & Robin and the nipple suit!

8. Christian Bale -2008 The Dark Knight trilogy directed by Christopher Nolan.

9. David Mazouz -2012 Gotham TV Show.

10. Ben Affleck - 2016 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice directed by Zack Snyder

And of course, the best batsheep Baaart!

Winning the Internet this Week...vintage comic fun and vine fun

Sheep Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises

I'd like to make a personal note of dedication to the folks in Colorado who went out to a midnight showing of this film. Their lives, and those of their family and friends, were forever changed. My deepest sympathies are with you and my prayers continue today. Jessica Ghawi, Alex Sullivan, Matt McQuinn, John Larimer, Veronica Moser (6 years old), Micayla Medek, Alexander Boik, Jesse Childress, Jonathan Blunk, Rebecca Ann Wingo, Gordon Cowden, Alexander Teves.

***Spoiler free review***

The Dark Knight Rises, directed by Christopher Nolan, stars Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard. While the film starts out in a slump it ends up being a fun action adventure ride with some nice plot twists and bad villans!

Plot:

It has been eight years since Batman vanished into the night, turning, in that instant, from hero to fugitive. Assuming the blame for the death of D.A. Harvey Dent, the Dark Knight sacrificed everything for what he and Commissioner Gordon both hoped was the greater good. For a time the lie worked, as criminal activity in Gotham City was crushed under the weight of the anti-crime Dent Act. But everything will change with the arrival of a cunning cat burglar with a mysterious agenda. Far more dangerous, however, is the emergence of Bane, a masked terrorist whose ruthless plans for Gotham drive Bruce out of his self-imposed exile. But even if he dons the cape and cowl again, Batman may be no match for Bane.

Hands down Christopher Nolan has got to be one of my favorite directors; he's breathed some much-needed life in the Batman franchise that was sorely missing for quite some time. (And don't even get me started on Inception!) But sticking to Batman, let me say that the director owns his craft and knows how to get both the audiences and actors invested in the story. You team Nolan up with the music master Hans Zimmer, who's brought the world such wonderful movie scores to the likes of Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, and Sherlock Holmes, and you have the makings of a fantastic flick. A movie should not only grip you with the acting, plot and cinematic wonder, but with its score as well. Hans makes the audience feel what it should feel during the whole journey; from beginning to end you will be moved and brought to an emotional climax time and time again!

Now the film itself was very enjoyable and while it felt a little bloated in parts, overall Batman gives the audience what it was looking for: an ending that leaves us satisfied. The special effects were pretty outstanding, but a few parts were a tad unrealistic. Look, I know I'm watching a film of a made-up superhero, but let me at least buy into the fantasy that it COULD be real. The first five minutes of this film were definitely just rough and I was so nervous that the whole shabang was going to end up in some kind of awkward weird mess. But after trudging through a muddled beginning the movie gradually climbs up the redemption ladder.

Action and adventure take over in the second act as the plot continues to build and our villains pick up more steam. Overrunning a city and holding millions hostage is no easy feat, but with Tom Hardy playing Bane just about anything is possible. Tom's got the bad dude thing down pat and he brings the nasty to this performance. His facial mask does make it hard to understand him at times, but it definitely worked for dramatic effect. While some of the fight scenes between good and evil felt a little too staged for my tastes, the majority of the action goes off without a hitch. Anne Hathaway also holds her own as the new Catwoman. I had some reservations about this initial casting, but I was completely impressed with the performance she delivered: an equal mix of sassy and badass all mixed into the perfect burglar bow.

Characters from previous Batman movies pop in and out *winks* plus a whole lot of actors faces you may recognize from tv shows out now like GOT actor Aidan Gillen and Dexter's Desmond Harrington. This is definitely one to watch for both comic fans and movie fans of the franchise. You get your money's worth and then some!

Getting 4 'who took my pearls' Sheep

KD

Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises

I Smell Sheep is lucky enough to know Marc Savage of Following The Nerd, who got to see The Dark Knight and he shares his thoughts with you!

The Dark Knight Rises (12a)
Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman
Running time: 164mins

After the events of The Dark Knight, Gotham has been living is a state of relative peace, with crime at an all-time low there is a sense of foreboding, as everyone remembers the anniversary of Harvey Dent’s death and the dawn of peace, a new threat is planning to make its move in the form of muscular crime-genius Bane…

Oh my. There’s so much riding on this one. The end of the Dark Knight trilogy. The pressure on Christopher Nolan and the crew is immense. Can they avoid the curse of the trilogy (Jedi, Godfather, Matrix) and build on what has gone before? Or, more realistically, can they top The Dark Knight?

The Dark Knight Rises is, let’s get it out of the way quickly, the weakest of the trilogy. But, given the first two chapters, this is not necessarily a disaster.

With all the principals returning to their now familiar roles, it’s a quick jump into the story. And for the sake of spoilers, I’m loathe to go into much detail. All I will say is the story is a natural progression from The Dark Knight, that said it’s a very different beast right out of the stables. Oh and the movie you think you’ve already mapped in your head based on trailers and rumours? It’s unlikely you’ve worked this all out.
Gotham’s peace is very quickly pulled back to reveal a Bruce Wayne (Bale), Alfred (Caine) and Commissioner Gordon (Oldman) who are all haunted in different ways by the events of the last movie. A dark passenger rests in all the principal characters that is fighting to get out and tell the truth about past events.

The death of Harvey and the sacrifice of Batman weighs heavily on everyone. Instead of leaving them in peace it tears them apart and right away we know that things are going to be much, much darker than before. From the fresh enthusiam and idealism of Batman Begins through the confidence of The Dark Knight, we now reach the dark, unforgiving and relentless third act and we are left in no doubt that there is suffering to come.

And come it does as Gotham plays host to two new – but very different – villains: Hathaway’s Selina Kyle (never called Catwoman), a cat burglar who is in deep with ‘the wrong crowd’ and Hardy’s Bane, a pumped-up monster of a man who is not only blessed with the strength to kill with one blow, but the brains to bring down governments. A lethal combination.

And while both actors are great, Hathaway is very solid in the role but never feels quite right and Hardy does the best he can behind a mask that sadly allows little expression of character and while his Bane has a great presence and certainly comes across as the terrifying man he should be, the role could really have been played by anyone. And that’s a big part of the problem with The Dark Knight Rises. Eveyone does solid work but the movie really lacks a performance like Ledger’s Joker and sadly no-one comes close and although we knew this going in, the movie feels the void.

Another problem is plot holes – remember the scene in The Dark Knight where Batman dives out the window and rescues Rachel after Joker drops her? Well, remember the way no-one mentioned how Batman actually left the Joker and his henchmen in the penthouse full of prisoners? Well, this movie have many similar plotholes that are never resolved. And while The Dark Knight was so good we let them slide, The Dark Knight Rises is slowly paced (and could have been easily fifteen minutes shorter) and these things stick in the memory.

Joseph Gordon Levitts’ character, John Blake, is the new addition to the side of the angels but sadly feels very much like a wasted opportunity, with little development. And Batman has shockingly little screen time, which is very disappointing.

Ok, enough of the negative. What are the pluses? Well the performances are all great, and you know that scene in the trailer where Bane blows up the football field? Well there’s a lot more to that whole sequence than the trailer shows and it’s superb. As the tension builds as Bane makes his move on Gotham it’s pulse-racing stuff and Nolan, as we come to expect, handles it with aplomb. And there are several set pieces throughout the movie that are stunning – the opening sequence is incredible, especially when you realise it was all done practically.

And what of THAT scene? The breaking of the bat? Well, I’m not going to spoil it but I personally felt a little underwhelmed by it. As a fan of the Knightfall story arc (where Bane is introduced and breaks Batman’s back) I expected to be rocked to my core by it, but sadly it just didn’t have the impact (no pun intended) that I hoped for.
Nolan shows the confidence we expect and his direction is mostly solid here, but his pacing, especially in the mid-section is too slow and some of the movie feels disjointed.

This all said it is still a good movie and I feel that expectation was a big part of the problem, with my hopes raised unachievably high. I also think that it suffers from Revenge of the Sith syndrome where there’s just too much to wrap up, but it’s clear that Nolan did have a vision for the whole trilogy whereby there are threads from the last two movies picked up and given a satisfactory finish. But there are a few left open-ended too. Deliberately? Perhaps. But I felt that the scale was just a little too epic in places as odd as it sounds with Nolan a little lost with just how to handle it; Batman Begins and Dark Knight both worked so well because they were blockbusters that had a small, personal movie at heart, and it feels like this movie tries too hard to be massive.
So all in all, solid performances and confident direction but there are loose ends and it’s poorly paced. However, the thing I’m most interested in seeing is fan reaction to the end, I have a feeling it’s going to split audiences right down the middle.

Much like Prometheus, I loved a lot of it but there were many little things that niggle at the back of my mind that leave me coming away feeling it is something of a missed opportunity.
But it certainly isn’t a disaster. After coming out of the Dark Knight I remember commenting that there was no way it would be topped and sadly I was right.
A good if deeply flawed ending to the trilogy. But not the barn-storming finale I hoped for…

3 out of 5 Sheep 

Marc Savage (find more of Marc's reviews and all things nerdy at Following The Nerd)

Sheep Interview: Spawn creator Todd McFarlane + giveaway

By: Katie Dalton

Founder & Head Writer

Image Expo 2012 Oakland, CA. After months of waiting and days without sleep our interview with the mega legend himself Todd McFarlane was upon me. With hands shaking and paramedics standing by I pressed on in this once in a lifetime opportunity. Make sure to stay tuned until the very end for a special giveaway.

Our full interview is transcribed below, I hope you enjoy.

Katie: Hi Todd, I'm Katie from I Smell Sheep. So outside of Spawn your very unique style of art is best known for Spider-man and Batman. How did you end up drawing two of comics's most iconic characters and who rocks the most? Batman or Spider-man?

Todd: I think Batman's cooler because Batman is more of a shape. So he's geometry, for a guy like me that's more of a designer than true artist ya know? Jim Lee and Mark Sylvester know the anatomy way better than I do. I was more of a designer. Spider-man was arms and legs so I couldn't hide him behind anything but the guys with the capes, it's no accident Spawn's got a cape, the guys with capes and stuff you can create these cool silhouettes with them that look pretty imposing. And I gotta tell ya anyone who's got a million bucks and doesn't want to spend it and doesn't want to date pretty girls and just sits in his house and waits and waits until 3 o'clock in the morning and says "get me the black suit I'm going to go scare the shit out of the bad guys" I kinda like that guy. Right?

Katie: *laughing* Right.

Todd: He's just like, "I don't want all the normal stuff I just want to get rid of the scum of the earth." I kinda dig that guy.

Katie: Okay.

Todd: I wish he'd kill somebody every now and then though…

Katie: Hey, maybe he will.

Todd: No. That's why I created Spawn. *smiles*

Katie: Since we're speaking of Spawn, he is your greatest body of work. Tell me how you came up with the character and how you feel about having such creative control?

Todd: The character I created when I was about sixteen in high-school. I just started collecting comic-books at the age and feel in love with the medium. Started training myself on how to do comic books, and as you might imagine almost anybody who wants to break into comics does the same thing you start creating your own characters. So I started creating dozens of them but the guy that I sort of liked the most was this guy that I called Spawn. At sixteen I was going to do a comic book about him. It was originally set in the future because Star Wars was kinda popular at that point but the concept was still there. A guy who's in love with his wife, to me it's a romantic story. A guy who wants to get rid of all the white noise in the world, good or bad, and just wants that one last moment to say goodbye to his loved one.

I have to believe in spite of all what people say that I don't care what your religious background is that most people would do the same thing. If they got into a fight with their wife, left, got hit by a bus and somebody said you can say goodbye one last time to them and you don't want to end it on a bad note 'cause you had a fight. I think people would cause we're just humans we would want that. So he takes that deal. Then again you get into the fantasy part of it, who made the deal? He didn't look at the details of it which makes for a good comic book with all the back-story. But at its core is a guy that says I don't want to serve Hell or Heaven, I don't want to serve either of you guys. I'm my own man I just want to live my own life. It's all metaphors for me. That's who I am too.

Katie: Recently you worked with the man, the myth, the legend Stan Lee on Red Dragon. How was that?

Todd: I met Stan, I think I was seventeen, I was accidentally at a hotel that had a comic convention in Miami. I meet him for the first time and I thought he was the most energetic guy I ever saw. We now fast forward over thirty years later and he's STILL the most energetic guy. I mean, he's like a machine! I think he's like the movie Dave, there's something inside him little people or something because I see him and go "If I could have half the energy that man has when I'm his age I would be happy." He's awesome. He really knows how to make the people and the fans feel good after they've meet him. And he doesn't take himself too seriously. He brings so much.

Katie: Superhero movies have finally come into their own over the past decade, why has it taken films so long to finally come up with the right recipe for summer blockbusters?

Todd: I don't know. I don't why it took until 1945 before we let minorities step onto a baseball field. Sometimes we as humans can't figure obvious stuff out. I always thought it was weird that at sixteen when I started collecting I was a geek. I was the classic closet collector. I literally had my comics in my closet, and a couple people found out and they would roll their eyes. They would say oh he's mentally arrested, because they would say that's sorta childish. But the odd thing was I would say "well what are you doing this weekend?" And they would say going to the movies to see Star Wars and James Bond and Indiana Jones and its ALL comic book stuff! Just because they aren't wearing spandex and wearing armor instead. It was some big sort of divide.

Fast forward Batman comes it and breaks down the wall, we now have a dozen-plus movies out there. Now we're not geeks anymore because regular folks have accepted us. The Geeks have inherited the world now, all those things we've been doing for years now we're saying you guys are the ones that are late for the party!

Katie: Do you think the iPad is going to be a game changer for comics?

Todd: Depends what your definition of "game changer" is. Well, taking a step back, the definition of a comic book in its simplest form is words and pictures. A novel is words. So you can sort of break it down. Movies are moving images and sound. Comics are words and pictures. Words and pictures are never going away. They've been there since the hieroglyphics so the question then becomes what's the delivery mechanism of the words and pictures? Maybe a thousand years from now they'll go, "They used to put it on paper!" then something else but I don't care if words and pictures are now on the sides of blimps and thats how everybody gets them. We still have to tell good stories, good characters. All those things will remain the same, but how people get it I don't know. If there is an easier way to get it into your hand sitting at home in pajamas hit a button versus going out getting dressed and walking in the rain to the comic store that might change.

Katie: Right, and then there's what happens to the comic stores and the chain effect that takes place.

Todd: We saw it a lot with music. The world evolves and you just go with it, can't fight it. With us we're just going to go with it. Not fight the delivery mechanism.

Katie: Would you like to do some fun questions?

Todd: It's your interview, you do what you damn well please. *smiles*

Katie: *laughing* Awesome! So, I'm going to ask you some rapid fire questions and just answer with the first thing that pops up.

Katie: Spongebob or Patrick?

Todd: Spongebob

Katie: Coke or Pepsi?

Todd: Coke

[people in background hiss YESSS, including myself]

Todd: My wife likes Pepsi.

Katie: No, no. YOU said Coke.

Todd: Well, I'm just saying...

Katie: Super strength or super brains?

Todd: Super brains. Because super brains would hire the super strength guy to work for him. Every time.

Katie: Serenity or Enterprise?

Todd: Serenity

Katie: Shaken or Stirred?

Todd: Stirred

Katie: Lucky Charms or Trix?

Todd: D'oh. Captain Crunch

Katie: Vampires or werewolves?

Todd: Vampires

Katie: Which fictional character would you want watching your back in a zombie apocalypse?

Todd: Godzilla. He would just *stomps feet* he would see them coming from a mile away, that would be too easy. Wouldn't even be fun.

Katie: If you could pick a theme song when you walked into a room what would it be?

Todd: Born Free. That's it. That's what I want on my grave. " Here lies Todd, he died a free man". That's all I want, I don't want anybody to tell me what to do in my life. That's why I do what I do. It's not like I want to do anything crazy, I just want to do art.

A big thanks to Todd for taking the time out of his busy schedule to interview with us and to Image Expo for grating us the media access. Truly an incredible time hosted by a classy venue.

Photographed by: Michael Natusch

***GIVEAWAY***

Todd was kind enough to sign a copy of his hit comic series Spawn which one lucky winner will receive. This contest is open the everyone and ends March 10th. Good luck!