Half in the Bag: Joker

Speaking recently of John Travolta’s heyday, did anyone else notice that Brian Di Palma’s ‘Blow Out’ (an homage to Antonioni’s ‘Blow Up’) was playing at the theatre the Waynes were shot coming out of? That along with ‘Zorro, the Gay Blade’ which would definitively set this Joker in 1981.

Nick McGrath

Jay likes Tales of Halloween, we shouldn’t expect too much.

James E Carrey

It needs to be Batman because that would probably at least double the box office revenues on average versus it being a new concept. I bet the "Thomas Wayne is shot" line was on a bulleted list of things that had to be in the movie for it to otherwise be a "free reign" effort; the shoehorning in of Wayne is pretty much all that connects this "Joker" to the character "Joker", otherwise people may even wonder if he was actually the character or some loose homage.

David Perek

Jay actually owes this movie a rewatch. Missing the fact that it was Thomas Waynes comments (related to murder and poor people and clowns) and the desperate financial situation of the city that sparked the Riots. Also Fleck asks where the meds are going to come from with no reply from the social worker, and it cuts to a near empty medicine bottle.

Loved the review. I loved the movie but the criticisms Mike and Jay make are 100% valid. Keep up the great work fellas.

I noticed that too. One of my friends said that name has been used in the comics before but I never looked into it.

Steven Raines

why is nobody mentioning that his name is "A.fleck". Is this some sort of joke?

warren blyth

I liked it.

Josh Wright

Yup, that scene was definitely inspired by the Bernie Goetz shooting now that you brought it up. I didn't put two and two together during the movie.

Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?

Steve

This HitB is very timely to me, just yesterday I was reading a booklet about Horror movies being unhealthy for children, which states the usual arguments. It's never bad parenting, or an accident, or a bad decision, or assholes outside the family, or intensive propaganda, it's always the alleged message, the suspense and the imagery of a Horror movie/whatever movie whose alleged message doesn't confirm a certain world view or is seen as statement against the own group. It's like so many people are just searching for what they perceive as messages against them/their own group. Of course, in some cases it's almost unavoidable to get a certain message, especially when the hype around a movie is built around that message.

Marvin Falz

Great stuff, fellas. I always appreciate your opinions. I hadn't considered Mike's opinion of it being the inverse of the Batman/rich person story. Also I totally agree with Jay that it didn't need the Batman stuff. How many times do I have to see Thomas and Martha Wayne getting shot?

AllGoodNamesRGone

I disagree about the riots. They were perfectly explained and you could trace how they gradually became worse. It established in the beginning that Thomas Wayne is running for mayor and he thinks that poor people are lazy and need to make something of themselves. Afterwards he calls them clowns on tv after the subway incident. And that causes a small civilized demonstration in front of the cinema. It leads to more clashes with the police and culminates with the killing of cops on the train. Now it becomes a proper riot that is escalated to a city wide scale after the interview. I thought it worked wonderfully and it made sense in the movie.

I haven't seen this movie but it sounds way more interesting than I thought it would be. It sure does sound like a modern day taxi driver/ king of comedy. The subway scenario might have been inspired by https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_New_York_City_Subway_shooting

jas722

I genuinely liked this film. Some aspects were very obvious but overall it didn’t hurt the movie for me. Although I agree I wish we didn’t have it pounded over our heads that he’s unreliable as a narrator.

Raj Patel

Fleck does ask “Where am I supposed to get my meds?”. I think the boys missed that line.

Myles Fletcher

I’m surprised you two never mentioned King of Comedy. I haven’t seen Joker yet but the comparisons were pretty obvious.

Lauren R

Watching now. The review I’m most looking forward to. I’d like to hear Rich’s thoughts too.

Mike St Louis

Woah! Awesome surprise.

James Farr

Thank you for this <3

Ricardo Rodriguez

Sunday night HitB upload!