Reviews

Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale stated early on that their goal with "Batman Begins" was to make the world forget their had ever been a Batman movie made before this picture. This is both understandable and admirable, as I myself had been trying to accomplish this very task (on a much smaller scale) ever since "Batman Forever". What is tremendous about this film is that this task is successfully achieved with astounding results. The director-actor combination of Nolan and Bale does more than justice to the back-story of the super-hero who possesses no super powers; answering the question of how a billionaire playboy is able to morph his grief and anger over his parents murder into a force powerful enough to combat the crime filled streets of Gotham. The whos, whys and hows are all answered in a viable and powerful manner. Much praise must be given to Christian Bale for his complex and captivating performance of the conflicted Bruce Wayne; to Gary Oldman who never fails to amaze with his delicately nuanced characters and to Michael Caine who brings new life and sensitivity to Alfred. Furthermore, Christopher Nolan proves himself an exceptionally capable director, capturing the story presented with an equal balance of sensitivity, darkness, honesty and above all, believability. "Batman Begins" is just the remedy the bat-chronicles needed.

To be completely honest, I was actually impressed with this film. It is sweet, but there is an honesty and a strong sense of realism at the heart of this film, which to me, provides the base of its appeal. "Rudy", unlike the majority of films about athletes, paints a picture of the real everyman (basically, the jock who isn't a jock) and it does so in a way that is plausible from start to finish. Working hard, eating, breathing and sleeping the game does not mean that you will wind up the star quarterback. Rudy's struggles are genuine: his family is poor and has never sent anyone to college, his grades are sub-par (largely the result of an undiagnosed learning disorder), he can't afford his junior college let alone Notre Dame and Rudy is, at best,only a moderate athlete. It is in the way that he overcomes these obstacles (not to mention the beautiful performance by Sean Astin) which provides the refreshing realism which is at core of this film. "Rudy" is what sports are really all about.