Random Awesomeness

You know what doesn't get nearly enough attention on The Common Man's site? Awesome stuff. Here's a bunch of awesome stuff The Common Man thinks (nay, knows) you need to be aware of:

1) This Is Why You're Fat, a website full of terrifying and awesome food monstrosities that are at once tantalizing and off-putting. Thusfar, The Common Man's favorite (as in, the thing he would most like to eat) is The Giant Breakfast Burrito:


Described as "A seven pound breakfast burrito stuffed with potatoes, eggs, onions, and ham bits, lots of cheese on top and smothered in red chile," it elicits but two questions 1) can The Common Man get jalapenos in that? and 2) Do you mind bringing some Tobasco or Tapatio with you when you come back? Of course, The Common Man couldn't eat all of it in one meal. However, as long as you keep getting coffee or soda or what have you, most diners will let you hang around until they close, giving The Common Man ample time to make it three (or four) full meals.

And for dessert? Clearly the mega double-stuff.

2) Change Blindness. In this article on Cracked.com, Brian Watson explores five ways that your brain is messing with you. First and foremost on his list is change blindness, which "is usually related to something called inattention blindness. If you tried to process everything in your visual spectrum you would go insane, so your mind picks and chooses what to focus on." This means that, as long as you do not see a change occuring in front of you, you are not likely to notice it. Watson describes it thusly:

"It's like your brain is sitting in class, staring out the window at a cloud that sort of looks like a boob. When you call on your brain it does the same thing you do when a teacher calls on you in those circumstances: Start bullshitting. It doesn't really know what [whatever you were looking at] looked like a second ago, but it's not going to tell you that. Since it has no visual memory of the image, it just tells you it's always looked the same. Even when that's a lie."

Watson backs up his description with a couple of really impressive videos, neither of which The Common Man can embed here. Also mindblowing is Watson's description of saccadic masking, in which The Common Man learned that he is effectively blind for approximately 40 minutes a day.

3) Batman is inherently awesome. He has no superpowers, but has crafted himself into a one-man anti-crime task force through a freakish dedication to martial arts, a keen mind (Batman doesn't suffer from change blindness, The Common Man bets), and really wonderful toys. But perhaps the most wonderful toy of all is this Batman squirt gun The Common Man found on the Daily Scans Journal:

That's right, you fill Batman's bum with water and squeeze his naughty bits to get him to shoot water (God, let's hope that's water). Insert your own Robin joke here.

4) The Common Man has given Ron Rollins at Baseball Over Here his due. Ron's site focuses on baseball from an international perspective (and such was his dedication, Ron picked up and moved to England. America's loss...). Anyway, Ron's got a couple killer posts up right now, first and foremost picking winners from all four brackets of the WBC (The Common Man isn't ready to let go, yet). He also profiles the top European prospects in the minor leagues. Ron counts four players from Curacao, and The Common Man thinks that's probably cheating, given that Google Earth tells The Common Man Curacao is just 45 miles north of Venezuela (speaking of which, Google Earth is pretty freaking awesome too). Then again, if he didn't include the four players, it'd undoubtedly be a disappointing list, and The Common Man vows not to complain about the methods of a man willing to do far more leg work than himself.

Better Late Than...

Look, The Common Man knows that he's a little late with this review. Heck, the movie opened a week ago. But between having to arrange childcare for The Boy, finding a time that both The Common Man and The Uncommon Wife could go, and not wanting to deal with obnoxious crowds, The Common Man feels like he did a pretty good job of getting out to the theater in a timely fashion. And it's a good thing, because The Common Man was totally geeked up when he finally got there.

Yet, The Uncommon Wife leaned in to get close to The Common Man as they entered the darkened theater. Very innocently, she mused that a co-worker had said that he didn't like The Dark Knight. Very sweetly, almost non-chalant. The Common Man's bulged wide, but he can understand that point of view, he supposes. The movie is incredibly dark and violent, after all. And perhaps most importantly, it isn't at all what moviegoers have come to expect from a superhero flick. Director Christopher Nolan constantly keeps his audience guessing with fake-outs and curveballs and red herrings. And while The Common Man may be willing to accept the fact that not everyone will like the new Batman movie (though the jury's still out on that), there is no denying that this is an excellent movie and that anyone who says otherwise is itching for a fight.

The film is impeccably cast. Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine return, of course, from the first movie and are all very good. Maggie Gyllanhall does fine. And of course Heath Ledger shines (or slinks), more on him later though. And Aaron Eckardt is terrific as the pivot point around which the movie turns. Sure, the film stars and features Batman and The Joker, but Eckardt's Harvey Dent is the soul of the film.


More than anything, it is about him. The secondary casting choices are also excellent, however. Bit parts went to big time actors. William Fichner plays a pissed off bank manager. Michael Jai White is a mob boss, as is Eric Roberts. Anthony Michael Hall is a reporter. "That guy" actor Ron Dean plays a prominent role. And gravel voiced Keith Szarabajka (who Angel fans will recognize) seethes. It's like good actors were pounding on Nolan's door, begging to be part of this film.

The tone of the film is just so dark. Like the first film, there's not much to laugh at here. It's a punishing grind of murder and explosions. It's like a two-and-a-half hour root canal for your mind, as Bale, Eckhardt, Caine, Ledger, and Nolan play with your notions of heroism, bravery, and decency. And the conclusions that they come to about those things, and about the nature of humanity and our Dewmocracy will bend your brain.

Yet, it's gripping in a way that the first film was not. A large part of that is due to Heath Ledger's scintilating performance. His Joker oozes slime, hate, and bile. When he's on screen it's impossible not to feel greasy, but even harder to turn away. He's the worst kind of villain, one who hates himself but doesn't want to change. So in order to feel better about himself, he has to bring everyone else to his level. He's the antithesis of manliness.

The Common Man can certainly see how someone could buy into the hype surrounding Ledger's untimely death and it's connection to the movie and overrate his performance accordingly. However, that doesn't change the fact that Ledger has given one of the most memorable performances in modern movie history. His Joker, while not definitive, is iconic and will leave a mark in the minds of all those who see it.

If you haven't already, you should see this movie, as The Common Man believes it is destined to become a cultural touchstone. When critics and scholars and filmmakers look back on the current era of filmmaking, the era of blockbuster superhero/comic book action movies, they will have to talk about this film and its legacy on the superhero genre. And if you don't like it (though you really should), at least appreciate it for what it is: the most cerebral and intense film of its kind thusfar.