Sunday, September 9, 2012

Who is that guy? Dark Knight Rises Edition


So unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably seen The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in the Dark Knight trilogy. If you haven't, uhmmm, what the heck are you waiting for? It was amazing. Not just "amazing for a comic book movie", but just plain amazing. It was well acted, had a great cast, the storyline was awesome, the action was perfect, the suspense level was high. It was just a great darn movie. If you HAVE seen the movie, then you probably realized that everyone and their mother was in it. While most of the actors were well-know, there were a few characters where you might have said to yourself, hmmm.... "who is that guy?" Well guess what. That's where I come from. Welcome to...

Who is that guy? The Dark Knight Rises Edition

Batman and Bane
Image from totalfilm.com
Let's start with the obvious. Batman is played by Christian Bale. Aka my baby daddy. Aka hubba hubba. He is just a sexy piece of Welsh meat. Christian has been in a bunch of movies, most notably American Psycho, The Fighter, Rescue Dawn, Equilibrium (one of my top five favorite movies), and Newsies. He was also the voice of Thomas in Pocahontas, and the voice of my dreams. Yum.

Next I'm just going to list a few of the most famous actors in the movie because you should probably know who they are and what they've been in.

Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon) - Star of Dracula, Harry Potter (he's Sirius Black for goodness' sake!), Air Force One, The Scarlet Letter, and my mother's dreams. Gary is on the list of men I wish were my father.

Morgan Freeman (Fox) - Uhhmmm... he's God. Duh. In Bruce Almighty anyway. I do imagine that he might actually be the voice of God though. He is also well-known for Lean on Me, Driving Miss Daisy, Glory, Unforgiven, The Shawshank Redemption, Se7en, Amistad, Deep Impact, The Sum of All Fears, Dreamcatcher, Lucky Number Slevin (in my top ten favorite movies), The Bucket List, and Million Dollar Baby. He won an Oscar in 2005 for Million Dollar Baby, and has been nominated four other times. He also won the Lifetime Achievement award on 2011 from the American Film Institute.

Michael Caine (Alfred) - He is actually also on the list of men I wish were my father. What a coinky-dink. He is arguably one of the greatest actors of all time. He's been acting since 1958, so I will list only his most recent well-known films. He has starred in Zulu, Alfie (the original), The Italian Job (also the original), The Man Who Would be King (in my top ten favorite movies of all time), Ashanti, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, Hannah and Her Sisters. Now for movies everyone has seen : The Muppet Christmas Carol, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Cider House Rules, Quills, Get Carter, Miss Congeniality, The Quiet Man, Secondhand Lions, Bewitched, The Prestige, and Harry Brown. He also provided voices for Cars and Gnomeo and Juliet.

Ok, so now for the supporting cast.

Image courtesy of  http://geekmundo.net
Foley, played by Matthew Modine.

You probably recognize him from Full Metal Jacket, Fluke (awwwww), Vision Quest, Cutthroat Island, Any Given Sunday or the TV show Weeds. He is ridiculously tall and actually turned down the role of Maverick in Top Gun. Hmmm... a world without Tom Cruise... I like it.

Israeli-born actor Alon Aboutboul (ah-boot-bool) played Dr. Pavel. Before The Dark Knight Rises, he was in many Israeli movies. His most notable appearances in American film have been in Munich and Body of Lies. He is also a slightly typecast character actor, appearing in Fringe, NCIS, Castle, and the Mentalist, playing various Israeli or Arab villains.

All my nerds out there, did you recognize Stryver? Did you?! The guy who works for the douchey member of Wayne Enterprises until (SPOILER) Bane kills him, then he says he's in charge and yet is taken before Scarecrow (yep that was Scarecrow as the judge) and sentenced to death. This guy --------------------------------->
No, not the one on the left, we'll get to him in a second. The one on the right is Owen Harper from Torchwood!!! And who is the one on left? Why it is Frodo Baggins himself, Elijah Wood. I can't find any information on imdb or the internet to confirm that. But I know me some Frodo Baggins, and that is definitely him.

Before you go, fellow nerds. Did you notice that you seemed to find a lot of people familiar? There's a reason. This movie was like every nerdy tv show and movie got together and spawned a baby. Here's all the people who stopped by from their respective nerdy tv shows.

  • Did you recognize the big, burly, bad-ass police officer who (SPOILER) throws the bomb behind him in the tunnel? It was Teal'c from Stargate SVU. Known in real life as Christopher Judge.
  • There was an appearance by Aiden Gillan, who plays Petyr Baelish on Game of Thrones, as the CIA agent who "captures" Bane in the beginning of the movie. 
  • Remember gross redneck Felton Norris from True Blood? That actor, James Harvey Wood, was a member of the SWAT team in an alley. 
  • Lex Daniel who played Judge Brisco in the original Judge Dredd made an appearance as one of Bane's thugs. 
  • The red-eyed demon himself, Azazel from Supernatural, was the security guard at the stock exchange. That actor Frederic LeLehne has also appeared on Castle, Big Love, Lost, The Mentalist, Law and Order SVU, CSI, Ghost Whisperer, Bones, Medium, Night Stalker, JAG, NCIS, Cold Case, Touched by an Angel, even the X Files. 
  • Also making an appearance from Supernatural was Robert Wisdom who played Uriel, Castiel's angelic nemesis. In Dark Knight Rises, he was the Army Captain on the bridge keeping people out. 
  • Ian Bohen, who plays Peter Hale in the newly popular Teen Wolf, also played a police officer in the movie. He was the one who was guarding Commisioner Gordon. 
  • Blake's partner who is stuck in the tunnel is played by Reggie Lee. Recently, Reggie Lee starred on Grimm as Sgt. Wu. He was also on Prison Break, The Division, and No Ordinary Family.
  • Officer Jansen was played by Will Estes, who also starred on the short-lived but awesome Blue Bloods. Before that he was on American Dreams and 7th Heaven. 
  • The shoe-shiner who is actually a member of Bane's posse was played by David Dayan Fisher. He also played on NCIS and was one of the villains on National Treasure.
  • I don't remember which scene he was in, but Thomas Lennon, who is most well-known as Lt. Dangle from Reno 911 played a doctor in the movie. Why can't I remember a doctor? Hmmm.
  • Rob Brown, who played the adorable Jamal Wallace in Finding Forrester, was in the movie as someone named Allen. I forget who he was too. Guess I need to go back and re-watch the movie.
  • Father Reilly was played by Chris Ellis. He has starred in a ton of things, including every tv show that ever existed. I honestly can't list them all, but there are a ton.
  • Captain Jones, the douchey officer who sneaks into Gotham somehow, was played by Daniel Sunjata, who played Franco on Rescue Me. He has since been on Grey's Anatomy as Eli, but he'll always be Franco to me. 
  • The mayor of Gotham was played by mr. guyliner Nestor Carbonell. My hubby didn't believe me that his eyes always look like that. Recently he was on the short-lived Ringer. Before that Lost as Richard Alpert. 
  • One of the former prisoners who then goes to work for Bane as an executionar was played by Noel Gugliemi. He has been on a ton of shows as that nondescript hispanic guy. You may have seen him on The Mentalist, The Walking Dead, The Bucket List, Hood of Horror, CSI Miami, Monk, Wrong Turn. In Bruce Almighty, he's the guy who has a monkey fly out of his butt. 
  • Did you recognize the police officer on the bridge who wouldn't let the kids on the bus pass? It was Joey from Dexter. In real life he's known as Desmond Harrington. He has also been on Gossip Girl as Chuck Bass' uncle Jack and as Troy on Rescue Me. 
  • Bruce Wayne's lawyer was played by Tomas Arana. Arana is probably best known for appearing as Quintus in Gladiator and Martin Marshall in the Bourne movies. 
  • The President of the US was played by William Devane. You probably recognized him from Revenge where he plays Edward Grayson, or the shows 24, What About Brian, or the West Wing. 
  • Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont played one of the members of the board at Wayne Enterprises.
I could honestly go on and on and on. Do I have to? Let's just assume that everyone and their mother was in this movie. Before I end, I will finish up with a couple of the special guest appearances and the other three main characters. 
image from http://screenrant.com

Catwoman aka Selina Kyle was played by Anne Hathaway. I love her. I feel like we could be friends. She started off in the Princess Diaries, then went on to The Devil Wears Prada, and most recently will be in Les Miserables as Fantine. 

Officer Blake was played by Joseph Gordon Levitt. He started off as the goofy kid in Third Rock from the Sun and Ten Things I Hate About You. He sure grew up nice. He was recently in Inception, GI Joe, 500 Days of Summer, Miracle at St Anna, and Stop-Loss. 

Miranda Tate was played by Marion Cottilard, who won an academy award last year for La Vie en Rose. She has been in a ton of foreign films. I recommend A Very Long Engagement. 

Liam Neeson came back as Ra's Al Ghul and so did Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow. I shouldn't have to tell you where else you've seen Liam Neeson because he's LIAM NEESON. Cillian Murphy has also been in Inception, 28 Days Later, Red Eye, Cold Mountain, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. 

Tom Hardy
Image from  http://www.inquisitr.com
Oh yea, and Tom Hardy played Bane. I want to love Tom Hardy, I really do. I mean there's nothing to dislike about him. He's ridiculously attractive and seems like a pretty nice guy. But he always plays guys who give me the creeps. Ooooh, I bet it was because he played Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. I hate Wuthering Heights. He played Bronson in the movie Bronson, which I couldn't watch because it was ridiculously violent. He was in Rock N Rolla, which I enjoyed. He was also in Sucker Punch, Marie Antoinette, Sweeney Todd, Layer Cake, Black Hawk Down, and Star Trek Nemesis. I feel like Tom Hardy is just so pretty that he feels the need to be disfigured or horrifying in every movie he played. I loved him as Bane though. LOVED. I cried when... you know... stuff happened to him. All he needed was a hug. 







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8 comments:

  1. LOL at Christian Bane being your baby's daddy! I am a movie buff so enjoyed this post. :) Thanks for sharing!

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  2. I like Elijah Wood. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. So many great actors! Love this review and no, I haven't seen it yet. Sorry. I can't wait to see Anne Hathaway in it. That is great casting! How can that possibly be Joseph Gordon Levitt? What? He looks awesome.

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    1. I know! He looks amazing. He's definitely grown into himself. I'm like a proud mommy. Except that I'm pretty sure he's either the same age or a few years older than me. :) Sorry for the spoilers, I didn't really give much away, but you should definitely go see it!

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  4. I hate Batman, but you make me want to watch this movie with all those great actors!

    I am new to Tom Hardy. I just saw him in Lawless (in which he is occasionally terrifying, but mostly delightfully charming... those old man sweaters!), and my fiance was like, that's the guy from Nemesis. And I was like, no way... I can see it now, though, when I look at normal-looking pictures of him. I believe I have become a fan of this Tom Hardy fellow.

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  5. I am not into Batman but my hubby sure is as is my brother. My husband and son are going to be batman and robin for Halloween this year! That's cool that there are so many actors from other shows in the movie.

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  6. Love this post, since I am a huge Christian Bale fan (crazy yelling episode aside) and really liked the movie.

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  7. We haven't seen Batman yet, but I loooove Anne Hathaway in Ella Enchanted. If you haven't seen it, it's super cute. It's a twist on Cinderella. And Eric Idol narrates =)

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