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Yes those are the figures as of right now for the Dark Knight. I did check it out Friday night, waiting an hour before the show started in blistering heat. I was lucky enough to snag tickets before standing in line on Fandango, because it sold out literally 5 minutes after I bought them.

I will probably be outcasted for saying this:

I'm going to start off by saying Heath Ledger was FLAWLESS! I cannot wrap my mind around the fact that it was Heath Ledger behind all the make up and pure insanity. He just really captured the mental disturbance and brilliant mind that is the Joker. The littlest things that were done help the character stand out, like the way his mouth kept twitching and his slight clumsiness when it comes to fighting or his lack of care of whether he comes out dead or alive at the end of it. Whether it was the writer's or the director, or Heath Ledger himself, the entire presentation of the Joker was phenomenal.

As for the rest of the movie... eh. Yes I said it... eh.

For the friends that are dearest to me, they know I have an immense hatred for Katie Holmes, but it kills me to say, she made a better Rachel. *flops over dead* There was just something about Maggie Gyllenhaal that I didn't like on the big screen. She didn't fit in with Christian Bale, and Aaron Eckhart who came out a tiny bit too goody-two-shoes with a hint of the need to be in the spotlight. His dire need to help the poor city of Gotham was annoying.

If it weren't for the Joker, this movie would bomb in my opinion. Whether it was Heath Ledger or the Joker's contribution in the storyline it doesn't matter. They carried the story. You sat in anticipation of the next scene that included the Joker. The rest was just fluff.

At the end I felt like I walked out of a B-rated movie instead of being wowed by all aspects of the film and not just one.

I made a bet with a co-worker at the office on who would win tonight. Before I say my prediction I have to say this is by far the worst season. It's a season of misfits. The last two seasons I always had a strong opinion on who would be the winner, and everyone else agreed. But this season is... blah. Nobody really comes out strong. Everyone is sloppy and mediocre.

Anyway the two finalists come down to Christina, fresh out of school and Petrozza, who has many years as a catering chef. My vote is....

Christina.

She shows leadership qualities. Petrozza is too nice. I can't see him ordering everyone around. Ideally it's nice to have a nice boss and not one who is screaming down your throat, but in a kitchen you need that presence.

We'll see what happens at 9. If I lose, I owe my co-worker 2 cans of soda.

Update: Yay! I win a can of soda.

I'm suggesting Jude Law up for the role of the Riddler. Even though I will embarassingly admit that I actually enjoyed the crazy version Jim Carrey gave. Come on! He was funny! Moving on...

From what I remember in the cartoon series of Batman, the Riddler was portrayed as this very intelligent and arrogant villain. If you mix Jude Law's performance in The Talented Mr. Ripley with A.I., I think you get the perfect Riddler.

As for the rest of the cast I'm not sure. I'll come up with something... I doubt I can come up with anyone worthy enough of Michelle Pfeiffer's portrayal of Catwoman or Danny DeVito's version of the Penguin.

Being a HUGE fan of Wall-E which is still out in the theater's right now, I strongly recommend that you check out this film. Not for the animation factor, which is really not the greatest I've seen, to be honest. It starts out with really great jaw-dropping effects. The opening sequence of the doomed Earth hundreds of years from now with garbage everywhere, and the detailed put into this planet was phenomenal. You'd have to blink and pinch yourself that this is an animated movie. Towards the end, as the humans get involved it just looks like a cartoon. But I'm not questioning the quality. The quality is still better than Dreamworks, but that's just cause my opinion is biased.

Wall-E is the only robot left behind on Earth and he lives his life day to day doing what he was programmed to do: to compact the garbage left behind by the humans into little cubes and build them into these piles as big as the skyscrapers. His only companion is a cockroach. They live collecting random trinkets while taking care of one another. Wall-E's clumsy, awkward and almost childlike naivete help make him relateable and sympathetic to be the ultimate underdog.

I gotta say that I'm surprised Pixar went where it did. They went brutally honest at what may become of the human race. The humans are morbidly obese living in the midst of a heavily commercialized community. Everything is flashing and announcing that you should be eating this or that and no one is talking to one another without the help of something electronic. They all float through the cruise ship on recliners with machines that give them everything they need. It's a scary but convincing rendition of what the future is expected to be.

Wall-E hardly had any dialogue but still carried a strong and very clear message of loneliness, love and the possible future of our planet. I know I know, it's a weird combo, but it works. The two songs used to help mold the story was "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" and "It Only Takes a Moment".

Found this article that shares a small interview with Jerry Herman, who was the award winning composer for "Hello Dolly!".
"My eyes were really wet at both the opening and the closing of the film, and just the wonderful way those songs were used to make him more human," Herman said. "That's really what they did."

You can check out the article as posted by the Associated Press, here.
Another interesting article. This one focuses more on Pixar itself.