Dark Knight

Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart Directed by Christopher Nolan. Blu-ray. Warner $35.99 *** 1/2 ( 3 1/2 STARS) dvds The Dark Knight, the best Batman movie ever made and easily one of the top films of the year, leads the list of this week's Blu-ray releases. The high-definition DVD format with its flawless picture and dynamic sound makes for a memorable viewing experience on any home theater system. What makes it even more special is that the film shifts back and forth between regular letterbox to full widescreen IMAX images.

Police in the Baltimore area increased patrols around movie theaters, and local theater owners added security precautions - including banning face masks and fake weapons - after the mass shooting early Friday in suburban Denver sparked fears of copycat attacks. The shooting rampage at a midnight showing of"The Dark Knight Rises"in Aurora, Colo., shattered the perception of safety in yet another public place in a nation that has seen attacks at schools, shopping centers and workplaces.

Harry Potter, give your Hogwarts robes a rest. Spider-Man, hang up your spidey-suit. There's a new box-office savior in town from the world of fantasy fiction, and he wears a cape and cowl. Beating the reigning champ Spider-Man 3, The Dark Knight set box-office records this weekend, bringing in a more than $155 million from the widest opening ever - 4,366 theaters. Hollywood was abuzz after opening day, when the movie set a record by raking in $67.85 million. "We knew it would be big, but we never expected to dominate the marketplace like we did," said Warner Bros.

Under Armour, a company that angles to outfit the country's most prominent sports stars, has managed to get in on one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year -- "The Dark Knight Rises. " The Baltimore sportswear maker has declared itself the "official outfitter" of the movie's football team, the Gotham Rogues. Under Armour made the team's uniforms featured in the movie. And they're making the fanwear that people can buy. There are jerseys, jackets and hats, all in the team colors that look suspiciously similar to a certain team from Pittsburgh.

Unprecedented ticket demand. Serious Oscar talk. The adulation of fanboys everywhere. A week before its opening, Warner Bros.' The Dark Knight is shaping up as the movie event of the year, if not the millennium (keeping in mind the millennium is only eight years old). Already, theaters have scheduled midnight Thursday screenings - to begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday, so as not to violate film's contracted July 18 opening. There's talk of 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. screenings Friday, to meet the advance-sales demand.

LONDON - Did Batman attack his family? Christian Bale was arrested and released here yesterday and then denied allegations made by his mother and sister that he had assaulted them Sunday night. The arrest reportedly was delayed until after Monday night's glittering European premiere of the actor's latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight. The British press reported that Bale was accused of lashing out at his mother and sister Sunday in his suite at the downtown Dorchester hotel. Bale was questioned by police for four hours yesterday morning and released.

last call The Dark Knight : ** I bet, deep down, even comic-book fans were more entertained by Iron Man than The Dark Knight, but the latter became the most fiercely debated movie of the year and the most honored comic-book film of all time, thanks partly to Heath Ledger's ineffably scary Joker. The movie is on DVD and Blu-ray, but audiences who want to see what the fuss was about should take it in on the big screen (preferably, an IMAX) when it returns to theaters today. Even those of us who cooled to it got a tingle or two from the huge, eerie images of the Cowled Crusader stretching out his scalloped cape and swooping through the night.

When Tim Burton set out to create the first Batman movie that adults could enjoy, screenwriter Sam Hamm recalled recently, studio executives were stunned that he intended to make a comic-book film in which people would suffer severe injury or actually be killed when they were shot, stabbed, poisoned, gassed or crushed. What a difference two decades make! For the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan was able to snuff cops, goons and crime bosses without any fuss.

Staid scientist by day, big-time entertainer by night. That may sound like a set-up for the next comic book superhero and his requisite secret identity. But these days, it's increasingly the story of IMAX theaters like the one at the Maryland Science Center, where daytime programming restricted to movies documenting the natural world gives way at night to Hollywood fare celebrating the fanciful and the make-believe. At the Science Center, it's Kung Fu Panda and U2 3D. At Smithsonian Institution museums in Washington and Northern Virginia, as well as the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia, it's Earth's reigning box-office champion, The Dark Knight.

Politicians become big celebrities during election NEW YORK : As she inspected the stage where she would later address the Democratic National Convention, a look of recognition flickered across Hillary Clinton's face when she peered out to see who had asked how she was. "Good! Glad to see you," she called out to Kevin Frazier of Entertainment Tonight. She always enjoys seeing him, Clinton added.

The long-awaited “The Dark Knight Rises” -- the latest big-screen treatment of DC Comics' Batman -- will hit screens this week, and the early movie reviews are looking good. The movie builds on the 2008 hit "The Dark Knight," and maintains its dark, brooding tenor. Though the mayhem is not for everyone (were comic books?), I'm glad that the Caped Crusader has developed into a strong movie franchise in director Christopher Nolan's trilogy. The Superman movies never achieved this sort of complexity, and some other recent super-hero movies have turned into an amalgam of special effects.

As we wait (im)patiently for Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises" to finish filming already so we can all drool all over it, a teaser poster for the film has made its way on the internets. Looks cool, no? And sort of "Inception"-y. And looks like something rough is happening in Gotham City, but the destruction is beautiful enough to form the Batman logo. Debris does that sometimes.  Out July 20, 2012, "DKR" (we expect that to catch on) will feature new cast additions Anne Hathaway (Selina Kyle)

It's fitting that Michael Caine is opening at the Charles in "Harry Brown" today, just when the AFI-Silver in Silver Spring is launching a mammoth retrospective for this astonishingly gifted and versatile actor. Caine has gone from his signature role as a Cockney womanizer in "Alfie" (an opening-day attraction at the AFI series) to playing Alfred the Butler for the screen's reigning vigilante, the Dark Knight. In "Harry Brown," he could be called a Cockney vigilante. But that label would be reductive because Caine is extraordinary at infusing this character with everything he's learned about life and death and art. He turns a graphic urban-terror film into the story of a man who refuses (in the poet Dylan Thomas' words)

If you've had enough of all that late-night poker playing on NBC, how about watching what Hollywood can do with a standard 52-card deck? 21, starring Kevin Spacey as a university professor who recruits six MIT students to count cards for him in Las Vegas, gets a free screening Saturday at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral St. The 2008 film, directed by Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde), also stars Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne and Jim Sturgess. Showtime is 2 p.m. in the library's Wheeler Auditorium.

Christian Bale's rant against the cinematographer who stepped into his sight lines during the filming of Terminator Salvation might have been unforgivable, but it is understandable, especially after you see the pounding and lugubrious finished film. Some actors gas on about dates and sports or crack abysmal jokes but click into character as soon as the director calls "Action!" Others live their characters even during lunch. Early on, Bale received tons of admiring press for being one of the latter.

Series Dancing with the Stars: : Belinda Carlisle, David Alan Grier, Shawn Johnson, Lil' Kim, Gilles Marini, Ty Murray, Steve-O, Denise Richards, Lawrence Taylor, Chuck Wicks and Steve Wozniak partner with dance professionals in a new season of this unscripted competition series. (8 p.m., WMAR-Channel 2) How I Met Your Mother: : Ted's college girlfriend (Laura Prepon) moves to New York. (8:30 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13) Medium: : When an earthquake follows an apocalyptic dream, Allison (Patricia Arquette)

Series Dancing with the Stars: : Belinda Carlisle, David Alan Grier, Shawn Johnson, Lil' Kim, Gilles Marini, Ty Murray, Steve-O, Denise Richards, Lawrence Taylor, Chuck Wicks and Steve Wozniak partner with dance professionals in a new season of this unscripted competition series. (8 p.m., WMAR-Channel 2) How I Met Your Mother: : Ted's college girlfriend (Laura Prepon) moves to New York. (8:30 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13) Medium: : When an earthquake follows an apocalyptic dream, Allison (Patricia Arquette)

CONCERT OK GO: Although you may know them as those dancing treadmill guys, these exuberant rockers are more than just a passing YouTube fad. The foursome hits Recher Theatre this week ahead of the release of their third album, which lands in June. Show starts at 8 p.m. Saturday. For more: rechertheatre.com OFFBEAT Fortfest: Discussing subjects like UFO sightings, the Fortean Organization's annual gathering isn't a buttoned-up academic affair. The group is all about debunking and exploring "anomalous phenomena" like the famous face on Mars (above)

If Heath Ledger wins an Oscar on Sunday, history suggests his untimely death will have had little to do with it. For when it comes to the Academy Awards, death is almost never a good career move. That may come as a shock to some Oscar critics, convinced the awards are far more about sympathy and public opinion than merit. Academy voters, they argue, love to vote for older stars who have yet to win (Henry Fonda, winning for On Golden Pond in 1982, at age 76), or actors who have endured serious tragedy or heartbreak (Elizabeth Taylor, who won for BUtterfield 8 in 1961, after nearly dying from pneumonia)