It is official; The Summer of 2008 is definitely the Summer of the Joker.  Yes, we should say the Summer of The Dark Knight, but forget about that, it's Heath Ledger's portrayal of the homicidal maniac that is shooting this movie to heights that haven't been seen in  a long time.  In this week's Crystal Ball, Mitch talks about that, this week's two theater releases of note ("The X-Files" and "Step Brothers"), as well as this week's DVD releases and Hollywood rumors.

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Batman has sent Spidey packing as king of Hollywood's box-office superheroes.   "The Dark Knight" took in a record $155.34 million in its first weekend, topping the previous best of $151.1 million for "Spider-Man 3" in May 2007 and pacing Hollywood to its biggest weekend ever, according to studio estimates Sunday.  Did it live up to the hype?  Just how good was the deceased Heath Ledger in his role as The Joker?  The Mitch Man answers all of these questions in his review of the year's most anticipated film.

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Well, by far the biggest box office release of 2008 is today as "The Dark Knight" hits theaters all across America amid lofty praise, stellar reviews, and sky high expectations.  You know The Mitch Man will be at the theaters this evening to review it for us, and we will run that piece on Sunday afternoon.  Mitch hits on "The Dark Knight" and all of the week's other theater and DVD releases in this Friday's edition of The Crystal Ball.

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During a Summer of one week of superheroes after another, we have a bit of an anomaly this week; a sequel that may in fact be a sequel to two different movies.  "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" may be the second film about the big red demon who fights on the side of good, but Mitch says it is visually much closer to Guillermo del Toro's inventive fantasy "Pan's Labyrinth".   Mitch liked this one, and he reviews it for us tonight on The Cleveland Fan.

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