Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Date Night

I always loved the idea of date night. Richie and I don't get them on a regular basis, so when we do find ourselves on a night without children, we like to take advantage of our time together. Last night was one such night. Trey's staying in Pawleys Island for the week with his Grandma and Papa, and Cathy asked if Cathryn could spend the night with them.

As soon as they were out the office door, Richie looked at me and asked me if I wanted to go see The Dark Knight. Those of you who know me, know that it didn't take me a nanosecond to answer "YES!". You see, as big a Batman fan as I am, I've never seen it on the big screen, so this was a really special thing that Richie wanted to do for me.

We don't have to do anything elaborate, though sometimes we do plan special nights. Richie and I have fun eating pizza and cheese steaks at the food court. We also traipsed around Books-A-Million. (Ok, fine. I didn't traipse. I drooled, oogled, and touched all the books. I also may or may not have smelled one or two selections. I'll blame that on the delightful coffee scent that was wafting through the book store.) Richie ended up buying Twilight by Stephanie Meyer as a gift for me. (I can sense your excitement from here, Stacy!) I think Richie was reluctant at first, because a) "it's another series to get into" (that's a direct quote!) and b) it's about vampires. Let's just say that my weirdness about vampires--and the slaying of, *cough*Buffy*cough* has resulted in much stress for him.

I promise to be good this time and not spend all my spare time with my nose in the book. When I get around to reading it. Actually, I can't wait to read it, but I've still got to finish Confessions of An Ugly Stepsister (just another chapter or two to go!) and Bull's Island by Dorothea Benton-Frank before I can read Twilight. Because I have to read them in the order that they were purchased. That's just the way it works, folks.

How should I approach talking about The Dark Knight? By telling all of you that it was, by far, the best movie I have seen in a long time. It might be the best movie ever. My heart pounded long after the movie was over, and still this morning when I think about it. While I hate it that Christian Bale sounds like he swallows gravel when he dons the Batman costume, it's minor. Everything else about the movie is amazing. I'm not sure that I have enough superlatives and adjectives to describe it, so I'll just make a list.

Awesome things about The Dark Knight:

  1. The Joker. For the first time ever, the character scared me. I spent half his screen time with my face in Richie's sleeve because I was constantly afraid that someone was going to get their face ripped off.
  2. Waiting for Harvey Dent to become Two-Face. At every turn in the plot, I found myself thinking "This is it! He's going to get his face ripped off/burned/blasted!" When it doesn't happen, I was both relieved and disappointed at the same time. The anticipation killed me.
  3. The unexpected twists and turns. Obviously, if you haven't seen it, I'm not going to tell you. But people die that you don't expect, and some people come back to life.
  4. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Seriously, who needs Robin when you have Alfred and Lucius Fox? They're much better sidekicks because they serve as Batman's mentors as well as his conscience. They are his family, and I think a film without them would be lacking.
  5. Everything else.
When the movie was over, people applauded. I'm not ashamed to say that I was one of them, and so was Richie. It was that good, folks. Richie walked out saying how it was the best movie he'd seen in a long time, and he's not even a hardcore Batman fan like me. We both agreed that it was a shame that comic book movies generally don't get recognized, because that movie deserved some awards.

Besides, how awesome is it that Eric Roberts plays the head of a crime family?

Seriously, go see it. It would make for a great date night, even if you just eat pizza in the food court like Richie and I. Sometimes, the best dates are of the simple and spontaneous kind.

Toodles!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I saw Batman last night too! Loved it, very dark. Did not see a lot of that stuff coming!

Enjoy Twilight...the 4th book in the series comes out in August.

I ALWAYS have my nose buried in a book. My family is used to being neglected. You are not the only one.

Sue said...

Daniel would love to go see it. Maybe I will plan us a date night. Sounds like fun! I am with you on the books-forget the tv, just let me read :)

Anonymous said...

Jamey and I are going to see it tomorrow with his brother and sister in law...CAN'T WAIT!!! I may get to twilight before you do, I just have to get through Son of a Witch first!! Tell Me what you thought of the end of confessions!!