Prosecutors in Colorado have announced that they will be seeking the death penalty for the guy who killed 12 and wounded 70 at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises last summer. Sorry about the picture, I’m trying to type his name and show his face as little as possible.

Prosecutors said Monday that they will seek the death penalty for James Holmes, the man accused of gunning down 12 people and wounding 70 at a Batman movie last summer in Colorado.
George Brauchler, the district attorney for Arapahoe County, said he made the decision after speaking with more than 800 victims and family members.
“It’s my determination and my intention that in this case, for James Eagan Holmes, justice is death,” he said at a hearing.
Brauchler had already rejected an offer from the defense to let Holmes plead guilty and serve a life sentence.
Judge William Sylvester of the Colorado circuit court entered a plea of not guilty for Holmes last month after his lawyers said they were not ready to plead. The judge left the door open for lawyers to mount an insanity defense.
Sylvester on Monday handed the case to a new judge, Carlos Samour. Holmes’ trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 5.
Brauchler wrote an Op-Ed in The Denver Post over the weekend defending the death penalty. Colorado legislators have considered banning it. He did not name Holmes but wrote of capital punishment as an important tool of justice.
“Repealing the death penalty would result in acts similar to those in Newtown, Conn., or the acts of Tim McVeigh being punished no differently than a single murder of one gang member by another,” the prosecutor wrote. “Each murder after the first would be a freebie.”
Injection is the method for capital punishment in Colorado. The state has executed only one inmate since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in the United States in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. That execution was in 1997.
Holmes’ lawyers have said that jailers determined he was a danger to himself and needed a mental evaluation, and that he was held for several days in a psychiatric ward, sometimes in restraints. [MSNBC]

Regardless of how you feel about the death penalty, I think we can all agree that this is one of the most tasteless April Fool’s pranks of all time.

MovieMistakes counts 24 mistakes in The Dark Knight Rises, good for third most of the year behind Men in Black III‘s 63. But CinemaSins, who created the above video, take a more liberal view of what they deem a “sin,” counting 73. Either way, the important thing is that someone is quantifying movies. If no one converts them into numbers, I’ll have to wash my hand 37 more times or else my mom will get cancer.

Some of these are nitpicky, obviously, but I think the two that bugged me the most in an “OH COME ON!” kind of way while I was watching the movie were the scene where the cops with pistols and batons charge the criminals with machine guns (why are you charging? your gun shoots projectiles. find some cover.) and Bruce Wayne getting his back fixed in prison.

ScreenJunkies seems to have a good thing going with their “Honest Trailers” series, and their latest coincides with today’s DVD release of The Dark Knight Rises (see our guide to this week’s DVD releases). In keeping with the sheer number of complaints a person could have about The Dark Knight Rises, this one clocks in at nearly five minutes. That’s impressive nit picking.

“The movie that will mildly entertain you while you’re watching it, but will ultimately anger and disappoint you when you really start to think about it.”

Yup, that about sums it up for me. And yet, if virtually anyone but Chris Nolan had directed it, it’d probably be about 100 times worse. Anyway, I commend ScreenJunkies for this blatant nerd trolling. Let’s check in with the YouTube comments, shall we??

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His soulful eyes will follow you around the room.  Especially if you are looking at this on a smartphone or tablet.

The Dark Knight Rises is out today on DVD and Blu-ray and nothing else matters. Still, I know most (all?) of you have seen it and might want to know what else has come out today, so I’m back, providing you with all you need to know when you ultimately decide to just watch Batman again anyway.  Other flicks you won’t actually be watching this week include new films from Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugh Jackman, and two films with Jennifer Garner.  We’ve got movies that will make you laugh (if Meryl Streep trying to fellate a banana is funny to you), movies that will make you cry (if you are a little kid) and Beasts Of The Southern Wild, a critical-darling  that Vince wasn’t very fond of.  There are films about butter and psycho Santas and professional athletes who believe in magic.  There’s super elves, some spooky VHS tapes, and even a Christmas movie with a talking dog!

The DVDs:
The Dark Knight Rises
Hope Springs
Butter
The Odd Life Of Timothy Green
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Silent Night
Thunderstruck
Elf-Man
V/H/S
Hemingway
Alps
Last Ounce Of Courage
Reel Evil
12/12/12
A Vampire’s Tale
The Magic Of Christmas II

Streaming: Check out your choices here.

One of these flicks stars a dude from Jackass as a superhero.  The only way to find out which one it is is to continue reading. Another one of these movies has vampires in it.  You might assume it’s A Vampire’s Tale, but you can’t be sure unless you continue reading.  If you want to know which film makes little kids cry -you guessed it, continue reading.  If you want to make me cry, just skip all the DVDs and go right to the Netflix streaming suggestions.  There’s a link right above this paragraph, if that’s how you want to handle things.  For my money (literally), you’d be much better off just clicking the ‘Continue Reading’ link that’s just below this paragraph.  You’d get to the streaming suggestions eventually, and there’s no reason to rush.

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Pfister, speaking with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

Q: What’s most important in shooting a film?

A: What’s really important is storytelling. None of it matters if it doesn’t support the story. I thought “The Avengers” was an appalling film. They’d shoot from some odd angle and I’d think, why is the camera there? Oh, I see, because they spent half a million on the set and they have to show it off. It took me completely out of the movie. I was driven bonkers by that illogical form of storytelling.

In conclusion…

Actually, I made a similar complaint in my Avengers review, that there were certain shots, especially in the beginning, that just had random detritus (leaves, bushes, etc) framed in the foreground that were only there so they could show off the depth of the 3D. It didn’t ruin the movie, but it was still lame. Nonetheless, I’m excited for the inevitable pissing contest between humorless Dark Knight Rises apologists and humorless Avengers apologists. I bet it will be humorless!

Okay, so that was the blatant link bait, here’s a more interesting bit:

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