Summertime Diversions

by Steve Soto

Reuters photo - Not a picture of McCain’s newest campaign advisor.

I thought it might be a good diversion to get your thoughts on summer movies you’ve seen. I’ll start off with a few comments on what I’ve seen. My family saw "The Dark Knight" last night, and my short review is that the movie is a half-hour too long, with too much crammed into the storyline. It’s still a good improvement over the earlier series of Batman movies (except I’m in the minority that liked the Val Kilmer/Nicole Kidman one), but not as good as the first Christian Bale Batman movie (“Batman Begins”) of several years ago. Yet there is one overriding reason to see this movie however: the late Heath Ledger. He dominates every time he is on the screen, and I found myself in awe of what he put into this part.

My favorite summer movie so far has been “Iron Man”, a movie carried by the perfectly-pitched performance of Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role. On the other hand, the only reason to see the newest “The Incredible Hulk” is to see a good cast do well with tired material. I admit that I haven’t seen “Get Smart” or Harrison Ford’s return as Indiana Jones. Lastly, “WALL-E” was a better movie than I anticipated.

Your reviews and comments are welcome.