{"id":3984,"date":"2008-12-08T03:04:13","date_gmt":"2008-12-08T02:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=3984"},"modified":"2008-12-10T18:17:07","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T17:17:07","slug":"uk-dvd-releases-monday-8th-december-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2008\/12\/08\/uk-dvd-releases-monday-8th-december-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"UK DVD Releases: Monday 8th December 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

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DVD PICKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Dark Knight<\/a><\/strong> (Warner):\u00a0The best blockbuster of the year gets a handsome DVD release from Warner Bros. If you missed it at cinemas this sequel to 2005’s Batman Begins<\/a> reunites director Christopher Nolan<\/a> and star Christian Bale<\/a>, who reprises the role of Bruce Wayne\/Batman<\/a>. With the back story of the first film out of the way, this jumps head first into the ongoing war against crime in Gotham City.<\/p>\n

Now the forces of law and order under Batman, Lt Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) have to deal with a new criminal known as The Joker (Heath Ledger). Maggie Gyllenhaal joins the cast as Rachel Dawes (replacing Katie Holmes) whilst Michael Caine (as Alfred) and Morgan Freeman (as Lucius Fox) both return in key supportg roles.<\/p>\n

Managing to transcend the usual limitations of the comic book genre, its ambitious approach owes more to crime epics like Heat<\/a> and The Godfather<\/a> than the usual summer comic book adaptation. The admirably dark and oppressive tone is cleverly offset by some ingenious\u00a0plotting and some truly memorable performances, especially from Ledger and Oldman.<\/p>\n

Overall the technical contributions are outstanding – of particular not are Wally Pfister<\/a>\u2019s cinematography, Nathan Crowley<\/a>\u2019s production design and Lee Smith<\/a>\u2019s editing. Special mention must also go to the diverting score by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard<\/a>, which sadly won’t be up for Oscar consideration due to a technicality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It really struck a chord at the US box office – it is currently second only to Titanic\u00a0there – \u00a0and managed to tap into current themes of terror, corruption and surveillance without being preachy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The extras on the 2-disc edition include:<\/p>\n