Book Review: The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe

 

The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe was a biography published in 2000 by Sarah Churchwell. She took a bit of a different track when writing the biography basically summarizing many of the various things that have been written and said about Monroe, both while she was alive and after her death, pointing out inconsistencies and contradictions, etc. Churchwell also summarizes many of the more popular books that have been written about Monroe over the years, going into detail about how those authors engaged in speculation, made things up, and either used very sketchy sources or essentially used themselves as a source (by citing to a different author whose work cites to their own work). Then, in the last chapter, Churchwell gives her take on who she thinks Monroe really was, and what she was like.

The book discusses Monroe's life, both things that were rumored and facts that were verified, from her childhood to her days of modeling, breaking into acting, and transforming herself into a Hollywood icon. Churchwell addresses the rumors of her sleeping around (including her alleged trysts with women), her mental state, her drug use, etc. Churchwell does a great job breaking down the various inconsistent reporting on Monroe's life (depending on who is telling the story she either had multiple abortions or none, she was either bisexual or homophobic, she was either stupid or brilliant, she was either naive or cunning, she either slept with Robert Kennedy or she didn't, she either could barely remember her lines or she purposely messed up to make a point when feuding with directors and producers) and explains what could things could be verified and what could not.

The book is just over 330 pages, but it reads fairly quickly. My only real issue with the book is that the print used is pretty small and light, especially for the notes that are at the bottom of some of the pages that flesh out detail from the text. That might slow people down a bit when reading, but if you are a fast reader you can get through it in 2-3 days pretty easily.     

DVD/TV Series Review: Baywatch Season 3

 

Season three of Baywatch aired during the 1992-1993 TV season, and was another transitional season for the show. This was really the season that the show became a huge hit with Erika Elaniak, Billy Warlock, Tom McTigue, Monte Markham, and Richard Jaeckel leaving the show. Jaeckel did appear a couple of times toward the end of the season using a cane and seemed to be far less mobile than he was in season two. Elaniak and Warlock did appear in the two-part season premiere but then were written out of the show at the end of the second episode. Gregory Alan Williams was bumped back up to a series regular, and the big cast additions were Alexandra Paul, Nicole Eggert (best known for the series Charles in Charge up to that point), Kelly Slater, David Chokachi, and probably the biggest addition to the cast in the entire run of the series, Pamela Anderson as C.J. Parker.

The show continued to be a procedural drama with most of the episodes (with the exception of some two-part episodes) being self-contained and not tied into earlier episodes at all. The storylines could go from horribly bad and downright stupid to okay. It is not what I would call a well-written, award-winning masterpiece, and as a result, the acting could be pretty cheesy as well. The show still continued to use the music montages, which were again mostly to show off the ridiculously good-looking cast for a couple of minutes without any actual dialogue. The show did get some recognizable guest stars this season including a returning Danny Trejo (in a completely different role than he had in season two), Elizabeth Berkley, coming off her role on Saved by the Bell, and Lou Rawls. 

Ultimately, you know what you get with Baywatch (or Babewatch). About 45 minutes of a very good-looking cast, most of the time a dumb story, and a couple of what amount to music videos that interrupt the story. The show was not ever really interested in continuity, making a lot of sense (for example having Hasselhoff's character in the hospital nearly paralyzed in one episode and kickboxing in the next), or being an award-winning drama. If you can accept it for what it is, it can still be entertaining. 

Video Game Review: Star Wars: Fallen Order

 

Fallen Order is a first-person combat game set five years after the fall of the Jedi (Revenge of the Sith). You play as Cal Kestis (voiced by Shameless and Gotham actor Cameron Monaghan), who was a padawan at the time the Jedi order fell. The game does not start out with Order 66, but it is not a major spoiler to say that you do see Order 66 from Cal's perspective during the video game. The game starts out as Cal is working in a scrapyard on the planet Bracca where he has to use The Force to save himself and a co-worker, which brought the main antagonist of the game, the inquisitor Second Sister to Bracca. Once Cal is outed as a Jedi he has to escape the Empire he is helped by Greez Dritus and former Jedi Cere Junda who has cut herself off from The Force. Cal joins the crew of their ship and embarks on a mission to find a Holocron that holds the names of a bunch of force-sensitive children, with designs to keep the names out of the hands of the Empire and to rebuild the Jedi order.

Throughout the game, you travel to a bunch of different planets, some of which are recognizable from the movies (e.g., the Wookie planet Kasyyyk) and others that you would only recognize if you have read the novels or seen some of the television series such as Rebels and Bad Batch. There are four different levels of difficulty you can play the game on, Padawan, Jedi Knight, Jedi Master, and Jedi Grandmaster. In the Padawan mode, Cal can more easily block enemies, and the enemies are not as aggressive (e.g., when there are groups of stormtroopers they attack in an "evil ninja" like fashion, mostly one at a time), but in the harder modes Cal is more vulnerable and the enemies attack you more aggressively. Basically, the Padawan mode allows you to finish the story/game easier, and the harder modes make the gameplay more challenging. But, even in the Padawan mode, you can be killed by a low-level stormtrooper. 

Overall, the game is a good blend of a puzzle or strategy game in which you have to find different things, figure out how to navigate past obstacles, and the like, and a combat game in which you have to battle stormtroopers and/or creatures. It is a lot like the Batman Arkham series of games for people who are familiar with those games. Cal is aided mostly by a droid named BD-1 who follows him throughout the game and can help him along the way and is aided by some of the other human and alien characters he encounters. There are a few different "boss fights" throughout the game that get progressively more challenging, and the game tells a very entertaining story, which is a part of the overall Star Wars canon. If you are a Star Wars fan and like playing video games, it is definitely worth checking out. 

Product Review: True fresh dishwasher cleaner tablets 18-Pack

 

This is a pack of 18 dishwasher-cleaning tablets that you run through a cleaning cycle (with the dishwasher empty) and it cleans the racks and sprayer arms, but will also remove lime scale from the heating elements at the bottom, clean the tubes and pumps, etc. Basically, it cleans all the parts of the dishwasher where water (and the food particles on your dishes go). You just put it in the door that will hold the cleaning pods or soap and run the dishwasher like you normally would. 

Obviously, unless you take your dishwasher apart you will not be able to see all of the parts that the packaging claims it will clean, but I can definitely confirm that what I can see on the inside of my dishwasher looks a lot better when I run a cleaning cycle with this. If you have an older dishwasher, you might want to run 2-3 cycles with this the first couple of months and then ease back to once per month. But, if you have a relatively new dishwasher, then this will keep it looking and smelling clean on the inside for a long time. I definitely recommend it.

Product Review: Dawn Powerwash

 

Dawn Powerwash is basically a liquid foam version of their platinum soap. This is essentially a two-pack including one bottle that has the spray head attached and a second refill bottle that you can attach the spray head to when the first bottle runs out. 

The big advantage of this over liquid dish soap is that you have better control of where it goes because of the spray head, and have better control over the amount that you are using. And, you can use it in ways that you cannot use liquid soap. For example, I use it to spray my silverware after I put it in the silverware holder in my dishwasher, especially if I do not plan on running the dishwasher right away because it helps to loosen any stuck-on food particles. It is a bit more pricey than liquid soap, especially since there is no generic version (that I have seen anyway), but it is definitely worth it.

Book Review: Extreme Measures: (Mitch Rapp Series Book 11 Chronological Order; Book 9 Publication Order)

 

Extreme Measures is the 11th book in the prolific Mitch Rapp series of spy/political thriller/terrorist hunter novels written by Twin Cities author, Vince Flynn (if you read the books chronologically). If you read the books in publication order, it is the 9th book. It was published in 2008 as the public opinion tide of the war on terror had started to shift as the "enhanced interrogation techniques" and the domestic spying programs had become public. Those concepts are definitely themes of this book, with the Bush Administration's position that the enhanced interrogation techniques were not torture and were necessary to keep Americans safe presented through Mitch Rapp, and the other point of view, that it was torture and was ineffective was presented through the new political adversary of Rapp and the CIA, namely a senator named Barbara Lonsdale. A middle-of-the-road view was presented through a new character named Mike Nash, who was the head of the domestic spying program. Nash did not rough up detainees, but would not stop Rapp from doing so.

The book starts out with Rapp and Nash impersonating Navy officers in Afghanistan in order to interrogate a couple of high-level Taliban and Al-Qaeda members in order to try and track down and stop a terrorist cell that was going to be a part of three coordinated attacks in the US. They are discovered, Rapp is arrested, and the rest of the story plays out from there. Most of the book can be summarized as Rapp versus Congress (and more specifically, Lonsdale), with Lonsdale trying to get Rapp to incriminate himself during congressional testimony. The last few chapters have the action that the prior novels in the series are known for, and there are also a couple of side stories.  And, fans of Twin Cities sports radio will recognize that Flynn gave a shout-out to Dan Barreiro (who had Flynn on his show several times over the course of many years), naming one of the characters Joe Barreiro. 

The book has a similar tone and flow as the previous books in the series. Even though Flynn was a pretty staunch conservative, and definitely writes the character of Rapp with an a-political yet conservative viewpoint, he does not make all Democrats bad and all Republicans good. In the interviews I heard with him, Flynn did not seem to be particularly fond of politicians overall and tended to write them as greedy, amoral, and/or stupid, regardless of their party affiliation. The book is moderately long, a little over 400 pages, but it reads fairly quickly. I do not think it is the best book in the series (of those I have read), but it is still very good, and worth reading if you have liked the other books (which are definitely helpful to read, although you can follow the story even if you have not read the previous books) or are fans of the genre.  

Food Review: M&M'S Almond Chocolate Candy Sharing Size 2.83-Ounce Pouch 18-Count Box

 

This is an 18-pack of small sharing-sized packets of Almond M&Ms. Each packet contains approximately four servings, so if you eat an entire package in a sitting, it ends up being about 420 total calories. I personally like these because, while they have a lot of sugar and are definitely not healthy, the fat in the almonds does help offset the blood sugar spike that eating other varieties of M&Ms causes, which, even if you are not diabetic, is beneficial. Of course, you have to like almonds to enjoy these, but if you do, it is a nice snack.

Product Review: Colgate 360 Extra Soft Toothbrush for Sensitive Teeth and Gums with Tongue and Cheek Cleaner

 

This is a two-pack of toothbrushes that have soft bristles and on the other side of the bristles a tongue and cheek cleaner. While they are marketed as extra soft, I would say that they are softer than normal, but not as soft as others out there, and are not close to some of the toothbrushes with "ultra soft" bristles. They are still very good if you have moderately sensitive teeth and gums, but if you have more severe dental issues, then you will probably want to look for something with softer bristles than this.

Book Review: Star Wars: Cataclysm

 

Cataclysm is the third (in chronological order) main storyline, adult canon novel in the Star Wars canon material. It is set during the early High-Republic era and picks up shortly after the events of the previous book, Battle of Jedha. The story is still set around the warring neighboring planets of Eiram and E'ronoh. The Jedi discover that "The Path of the Open Hand", which is basically a cult that appears to be set up as the precursor to the Nihil who are the antagonists in the later High-Republic novels, sabotaged the peace talks on Jedha and are using the warring planets as a part of the larger plan to take out the Jedi. The climax of the story occurs on a planet called Dalna, where the Path has a stronghold, and a massive battle between the Jedi and the Path occurs.

This book finally does what I have been waiting for the High Republic novels to do, namely incorporate Yoda, the most recognizable Jedi alive at the time, into the larger storyline. In all of the other novels, be they the adult novels or the young adult novels, if Yoda is mentioned, it is in passing and amounts to a sentence or two. In this book, he actually appears and takes part in the story. Actually, he and Yaddle both appear, and Yaddle has an even larger role in the story.

The book is a good blend of action and suspense. It reveals more about the mysterious entity that can block the Jedi's use of The Force and turn people to ash (which introduces a bit of a plot hole in the later High Republic novels in which the Jedi seem totally clueless about what it is), and the author does a good job of making you care about and get invested in the new characters, having used the two previous books to establish those characters. The other big issue I had with the first batch of High Republic novels (which occur later in the chronology than this book) is that it seemed like every book introduced a bunch of new characters and it would take three books to return to the storylines of previously introduced characters. And by then, it was hard to keep them all straight. While this book does introduce some new characters, many of the characters that were introduced in the books Convergence and Battle of Jedha also appear in this book, so it feels like a cohesive story. 

In my opinion, this is the best of the High-Republic novels (at least so far), with the proviso that I have read all of the adult novels and most of the young-adult novels set in the High-Republic era. The story flows well, it wraps up the story told in the first two books and provides almost a blank slate from which future books can pick up. The book is just under 400 pages and can easily be read in a week or so, depending on how fast you read and how much time you have to read. It is definitely on my must-read list for die-hard Star Wars fans.

Supplement Review: Premium Mushroom Gummies Supplement - Mushroom Complex for Immune Health, Brain, Mood & Stress Support

 

This is a blend of mushrooms, specifically Lion's Mane, Turkey Tail, Reishi, Chaga Extract, and Cordyceps. You get 90 gummies total (two gummies make up a serving). If you are one who is aware of some of the health benefits of mushrooms but hates the texture of eating them raw or cooked (or the thought of eating fungus creeps you out), these are a good option. They do not taste as good as some other mushroom gummies (to me anyway), but if you don't like the taste you can always chase them with something you do like to mask the flavor a bit. Of course, it is pretty much impossible to know how much benefit you get from any supplement like this, and it is not likely to make you go from feeling like crap to feeling in perfect health overnight. But, if you are aware of the health benefits of the mushrooms in the blend, I believe it is worth trying.

Product Review: Computer Speakers, Bluetooth Computer Soundbar, HiFi Stereo, 3.5mm Aux-in Connection, USB Powered Computer Speakers

 

This is basically a soundbar that can connect to a computer (desktop or laptop) or a tablet (assuming it has an AUX port). It powers via a USB connection, so it definitely has fewer wires than the old-school computer speakers that had to be connected together via a wire and had to be plugged into a wall outlet and it is definitely a major upgrade in sound quality over the PC speakers on my laptop. 

The sound through the speaker is very good (in my opinion anyway, but I am not exactly an A/V wonk), and the big feature for me is that it can be connected to devices via Bluetooth, so I can play things from the apps on my phone through the speaker, and do not have to wear headphones to get better sound than what is emitted through the speakers on my phone. I definitely recommend this.

Product Review: Allen Company Safety Fit-Over Glasses for Use with Prescription Eyeglasses

 

This is a comfortable pair of safety glasses that will fit over prescription eyeglasses. The frames of my prescription glasses are rectangular shaped and fairly thick because I have thick lenses. These fit over my prescription glasses well. They are not tight nor do they move around too much or fall off my nose. These are perfect for use when woodworking, trimming tree branches, or the like. I would definitely recommend them to anyone who needs a pair of safety glasses to wear over their prescription glasses.

Workout Update: P90X3 and PIYO doubles workout- Day 44

Day 44 was Trimetrics in X3 and Sweat in PIYO. Both of those went pretty much the same as the last time I did each of them. No gains, but I did not regress or backslide either.  

Workout Update: P90X3 and PIYO doubles workout- Day 43

Day 43 was Decelerator in X3 and Sculpt in PIYO. After a couple of times doing the modified version of Decelerator, it is a bit easier than it was the first time I did it, but it is still very hard, especially if you are using a full range of motion. This was also the first time doing the Sculpt workout in PIYO. It is another strength-focused workout that has you doing a bunch of squats, lunges, and push-ups and fewer yoga or pilates moves. If you can get through the strength intervals workout, you should be able to make it through this one without much problem.

Workout Update: P90X3 and PIYO doubles workout- Day 42

Day 42 was the rest day in X3, which I took advantage of. Tomorrow will start up the doubles workouts again incorporating in month 2 of PIYO so I can finish up X3 and PIYO at the same time. 

Workout Update: P90X3 and PIYO doubles workout- Day 41

Day 41 allowed for a choice between Total Synergistics or Complex Lower. I decided to do the latter since I was not a huge fan of TS and had not done CL in this round of X3 yet.  In CL, you do four rounds of the same five exercises. All of the exercises are some version of a squat or lunge and some of them require you to balance on one leg as you do the exercise. So, it is another one that is very challenging, and if you are doing the workout for the first time, depending on what kind of shape you are in, you will probably need to modify most of the moves, at least during the first round until you figure out what you are doing.

Workout Update: P90X3 and PIYO doubles workout- Day 40

Day 40 was the Tiometrics workout and the first time since block 1 that this workout is on the schedule.  Like Agility X earlier in the week, this one is still challenging, but a bit easier than the last time I did it. I still had to modify most of the moves, but there were a couple in which I could finally do all three versions, which was nice to see.

Book Review: Star Wars Timelines

 

"Timelines" is what I would describe as a coffee table book. It is not a novel that people are likely to read word-for-word, cover-to-cover. It basically summarizes the Star Wars canon, incorporating material from the novels, comics, video games, animated series (e.g., Rebels, Clone Wars, and Bad Batch), live-action series (e.g., The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and The Book of Boba Fett), and the movies. The book has multiple "main" timelines that set out events in relation to The Battle of Yavin when Luke blew up the first Death Star. The first timeline summarizes the early history, starting about 25,000 years before the Battle of Yavin (abbreviated BBY). Then the last timeline is the rise of the First Order, which ends with the battle of Exegol (basically the end of The Rise of Skywalker movie) 35 years after the Battle of Yavin (abbreviated ABY). 

Each of the main timelines has several "sub-timelines" that flesh out details of events that happened in the main timelines. For example, in the Fall of the Jedi timeline, events like Order 66, Obi-Wan and Anakin's battle on Mustafar, hiding Luke and Leia, etc., are all detailed. The sub-timelines for the High Republic timeline summarize the events in the various High Republic novels, such as the hyperspace disaster. The sub-timelines also provide short character profiles for the various characters, and the major characters like Anakin, Luke, Leia, Obi-Wan, etc., get their own dedicated timeline that summarizes the major events in their lives. 

Overall, the book is good. As I said above, it is not one that most people (aside from the most die-hard of die-hard fans) are likely to read in full, and definitely does not read like a novel. But, if you are one of those people who does not read all of the books or have not played the video games (like Fallen Order), it has some of the detail and information on some of the characters that you may not be familiar with. Also, it does not include the events of the most recent seasons of The Bad Batch and the Mandalorian, since it was written before those were completed. But otherwise, it is very comprehensive and is worth getting for anyone who is more than just a casual fan.

Workout Update: P90X3 and PIYO doubles workout- Day 39

Day 39 was X3 yoga again. There is really nothing new to report about this workout. I do not think I had any flexibility gains or losses from the last time I did the workout.  The only thing of note is that I could get a little closer to doing crow (which has always been very tough for me) for at least a few seconds.

Workout Update: P90X3 and PIYO doubles workout- Day 38

For day 38 in X3 you have the choice of doing "The Challenge" or complex upper. I chose to do the latter since I have not done that one before. Complex upper has you doing five moves, for four rounds. Basically, you do the five moves, take a short break, then do the same five moves again. It is a full-body workout that has you doing chin-up/pull-up moves, legs and arms, and core. I personally like The Challenge more than this one, but I think they are pretty close in terms of difficulty and intensity. 

Workout Update: P90X3 and PIYO doubles workout- Day 37

Day 37 was a return to the agility-x workout for the first time since the end of month one. It was still challenging, but definitely easier now than it was the first couple of times I did it. Because you are jumping both forward and back and laterally, you do need enough room to really get the most out of the workout, but you can modify a bit if you need to because of space limitations, which I definitely have in my basement.

Workout Update: P90X3 and PIYO doubles workout- Day 36

Day 36 was the Decelerator workout in X3. This is a very challenging boot camp type workout that has you doing squats and pull-ups, but the twist is that you are doing the moves slowly and are often doing exercises like sumo squats while on your toes, and elevator pull-ups in which you hang (bottom floor) then pull yourself to the middle and then get your chin over the bar, holding each floor for a few seconds. Then you also do some explosive moves like a jump with a freeze landing with one foot off the floor and in a lunge-type position.  The prior workouts do prepare you somewhat for this one, so there is a reason it is in the third block. As I said in the last update, this week I am not doing any of the PIYO workouts so I can end them at the same time. 

Book Review: Hoax: Donald T***p, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth

 

The subject matter of the book is apparent from the title. It is basically about the inner workings of FOX during the run-up to the 2016 election and throughout the 2017-2021 presidential administration.

The book was written by Brian Stelter who, at the time, was the host of one of the Sunday shows on CNN (Reliable Sources). In it, Stelter covers how FOX pretty much abandoned all pretense of being a news organization and became a propaganda machine for the orange genital wart with the early morning and prime-time entertainers basically in a non-stop circle jerk with agent orange, which ended up pushing out the few pure newspeople that (like Shep Smith) that the network had left. Stelter definitely had sources (whom he kept anonymous) inside FOX and inside the White House, the latter of which confirmed that the "executive time" on the schedule was just the time that t***p was watching TV and tweeting about the various news shows that he DVRd. Stelter got a lot of good behind-the-scenes dirt but did not manage to get everything, such as the fact that Fucker Carlson privately hates t***p and that all of the hosts that verbally fellate t***p on a nightly basis then talk shit about him behind his back.

Stelter admits up front that he did not write this book as an objective journalist, and he most definitely interjects his personal opinions of Fox, the people that run it and work there, t***p (and his administration as a whole). The book is about 350 pages (some of which are just footnotes citing to different sources of information) but is a pretty quick read. It is something that, if you read relatively fast, you can get through in a day or two. It is a revealing look behind the curtain at FOX and exposes some of the hypocrisy of those who work there. While I would not classify it as a must-read, it is definitely worth reading if you are into news, politics, and current events (with some gossip mixed in too). 

Book Review: The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda

 

The Black Banners is a book about the investigations against and attempts to capture members of al-Qaeda, really from the time it began to become a threat to the United States, up to the killing of Osama bin Laden. It was written by Ali Soufan who was an FBI agent stationed in the NY office, who worked for John O'Neil, and who was one of the lead investigators of the bombing of the US Cole and heavily involved in the interrogations of various al-Qaeda members after the 9/11 attacks. 

In the book Soufan provides his perspective on the fight between the FBI and the CIA before 9/11 and the two agencies' refusal to cooperate with each other. Of course, Soufan is coming at the issue from the FBI's point of view, but he is convinced that if the CIA had shared relevant information with the FBI (especially after the FBI requested information that Soufan states the CIA claimed to know nothing about, but actually had a lot of intelligence on) before 9/11 that the attacks could have been stopped. He also rails against the "enhanced interrogation techniques" that were authorized by the Bush administration and were largely carried out by the CIA and military contractors. Soufan is convinced it amounted to torture and did not yield any useful information, whereas the traditional interrogation techniques that he and other FBI agents used garnered a lot of useful information from detainees, including the identity of Osama bin Laden's courier, and led to the discovery of bin Laden's location in Pakistan. Soufan also alleges that one of the detainees that he initially questioned probably could have provided information that would have led to finding bin Laden sooner, had Soufan been allowed to let the detainee make a phone call to his family, which was overruled.

The material can be quite dense, and it is hard to keep all the people that Soufan mentions in the book straight. There is an appendix in the back of the book that does detail who the key players mentioned in the book are (or were), but even if you read that first, keeping all of the names straight can be difficult. There are some portions of the book that are redacted with black bars. In a note at the beginning Soufan states that while the FBI cleared the material in the book, he was required to submit the book to the CIA for review (which he argues should not have been the case), and the redactions are largely due to the CIA. Frankly, some of them are very stupid, such as a sentence like "I interviewed so and so, and I asked him about [insert topic]," and the only thing that would be redacted were the two Is in the sentence. In some cases, however, entire pages of material got redacted. Most of the redactions are in the final 2/3 of the book in which Soufan discusses the interrogations that occurred after 9/11. 

The book is over 500 pages long and is not what I would call a quick read. If you have read other books such as The Looming Tower (or have seen the Hulu miniseries of the same name, in which Soufan and O'Neil are basically the main characters), you will know some of the material in the book. However, Soufan provides a lot of behind-the-scenes information that would otherwise not be known if you haven't read this book. It is very informative and definitely worth reading.

4k-UHD Box Set Review: The Dark Knight Trilogy

 

This is, as most probably know, the trilogy of Batman movies (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises) that were written and directed by Christopher Nolan, and starred Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Batman Begins (released in 2005) represented the resurrection of Batman in live-action movies after the turd that was Batman and Robin had pretty much killed it off in 1999, and arguably set the stage for the success that superhero movies have had to this day, including the MCU movies because Nolan (and the studio) wanted to make a serious movie that was grounded in some kind of reality. The Dark Knight (released in 2008) is best known for the masterful performance of Heath Ledger playing The Joker, and The Dark Knight Rises (released in 2012) was a good conclusion of the story. The movies have a strong supporting cast including Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Ken Wanatabe, Anne Hathaway, Katie Homles, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhall, Mathew Modine, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, and Joseph Gordon Levitt (among others). 

In this set, each of the movies is packaged in individual cases within a decorative outer box. Each movie is a three-disc set with a 4k UHD disc and two regular blu-ray discs. The UHD discs just have the movies themselves, and then one of the regular blu-rays has the movie (which can be played with an in-movie experience that pops up facts about the movie throughout) and the second regular blu-ray disc just has special features. For each movie, you get 2-3 hours of bonus content with a lot of behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes that include interviews with members of the cast and crew, as well as featurettes on some aspect of the overall Batman mythology, and trailers. The A/V quality of the UHD discs is awesome, especially for the scenes filmed in IMAX for the second and third movies, and are reference quality, especially if you have a large screen and a great sound system to watch it on.

Overall, the movies are great. They are, arguably, the best of Batman in live-action. I liked that they set the movies in the "real world" and made his gadgets have some grounding in reality so it looked and felt like the things in the movie could happen in real life. In my opinion, Bale, at least up to that point had done the best job playing both characters (Bruce and Batman) in live-action and being believable in both roles. I think Michael Keaton was a great Bruce Wayne, but was not as believable as Batman. I think Kilmer played a good Bruce Wayne and a good Batman, but he was not as good as Keaton or Bale as Bruce and not as good as Bale as Batman. And Clooney was not great in either role. I think the A/V quality of the UHD presentation is good enough that it warrants the upgrade even if you already own the movies on blu-ray. I definitely recommend this set.