What kind of maniac would drag a steamship over a mountain?: Klaus Kinski stars in "Fitzcarraldo."

Last week, my esteemed buddy/colleague/self-confessed music nerd Troy Reimink hopped on the latest blogging trend, and listed a favorite album for every year he's been alive.

Being a 21st-century journalist means being a compulsive list-maker, so I made my own yearly heavy metal compendium (check the comments section at the link above), and decided to explore the same utterly pointless, but fun, concept for my own little corner of reportage: film.

So, 34 years, 34 movies, a couple hours of deliberation (that is, some cheating via a few ties) and voila: Another completely unnecessary list. If you feel the need to waste some of your own precious time, please, add your list to the comments section.

Would "The Dark Knight" have opened so big if not for the Heath Ledger-as-James Dean factor? No, but lost in the ghoulish curiosity over Ledger's posthumous performance is the fact that his Joker is simply one great villain.

The facepaint-smeared freak is made every bit as distinctive by how he's conceived by screenwriters Jonathan and Christopher Nolan - the latter also the director of this excellent superhero flick - as by Ledger's manic, cackling interpretation.

Would "The Dark Knight" have opened so big if not for the Heath Ledger-as-James Dean factor? No, but lost in the ghoulish curiosity over Ledger's posthumous performance is the fact that his Joker is simply one great villain.

The facepaint-smeared freak is made every bit as distinctive by how he's conceived by screenwriters Jonathan and Christopher Nolan - the latter also the director of this excellent superhero flick - as by Ledger's manic, cackling interpretation.

Would "The Dark Knight" have opened so big if not for the Heath Ledger-as-James Dean factor? No, but lost in the ghoulish curiosity over Ledger's posthumous performance is the fact that his Joker is simply one great villain.

The facepaint-smeared freak is made every bit as distinctive by how he's conceived by screenwriters Jonathan and Christopher Nolan - the latter also the director of this excellent superhero flick - as by Ledger's manic, cackling interpretation.

Would "The Dark Knight" have opened so big if not for the Heath Ledger-as-James Dean factor? No, but lost in the ghoulish curiosity over Ledger's posthumous performance is the fact that his Joker is simply one great villain.

The facepaint-smeared freak is made every bit as distinctive by how he's conceived by screenwriters Jonathan and Christopher Nolan - the latter also the director of this excellent superhero flick - as by Ledger's manic, cackling interpretation.

File Photo"The Dark Knight," the latest Batman film, set a record for highest first-weekend haul after opening with a gross of more than $158.4 million, beating out last year's "Spider-Man 3." The movie has its sights on a new target, highest second-weekend gross.

GRAND RAPIDS -- When a movie performs steadily at the box office, it's said to have legs. This one has wings.

"The Dark Knight," the latest Batman film, set a record for highest first-weekend haul after opening with a gross of more than $158.4 million, beating out last year's "Spider-Man 3."

The movie has its sights on a new target, highest second-weekend gross.

Tracking numbers released earlier this week -- sometimes accurate, often not -- predict about $70 million for the coming weekend, which would put "The Dark Knight" near the record of $72.2 million set by "Shrek 2" in 2004.

Even the biggest movies usually see a large drop in their second weekends, especially in the summer, when the schedule is full of potential blockbusters. "The Dark Knight" will next go up against another buzzed-about film with a built-in audience, "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," opening Friday.

The winner? "Dark Knight," hands down, said Steve VanWagoner, vice president of marketing for Loeks Theatres.

"I can't look into the darkness anymore, Mulder: I cannot stand what it does to you, or to me," Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) declares in THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE. In this postscript to the long-defunct TV series, Scully and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) have left the FBI and the world of the paranormal behind to live mostly mundane lives in rural West Virginia.

Nothing bizarre could ever happen in West Virginia, of course. Except the disappearance of a FBI agent and the appearance of a suspicious psychic who cries tears of blood. And the discovery of a huge chunk of ice that contains horrifying secrets. Whether Scully can handle it or not, the darkness is settling all around her.

Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigate a kidnapping in THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE.

Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly played arch-rivals on the NASCAR circuit in TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY. Now they resurface as fussy, 40ish underachievers who are roaring down the road to Loserville in STEP BROTHERS.

Life is one long sleepover for bunk bed buddies John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell in STEP BROTHERS.

AP PhotoAccording to a British media report, Batman star Christian Bale was arrested Tuesday over allegations of assaulting his mother and sister.

LONDON - Batman star Christian Bale was arrested Tuesday over allegations of assaulting his mother and sister, police and British media said.

British media had reported that Bale's mother and sister complained they were assaulted by the 34-year-old actor at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Sunday night, a day before the European premiere of his latest film, "The Dark Knight."

Saginawians heading out to see the latest film in the Batman series, "The Dark Knight," may spot a familiar face or two in the blockbuster hit.

Two graduates of Saginaw Valley State University are in the movie.

Justin Berkobien and his wife Julie (Bland) Berkobien appear as reporters in a scene featuring a news conference.