The fact that the first shot says "Entracte" and that it's in the middle of the film and features music means it has all the hallmarks of an intermission, but it's nothing you'd want to duck out on to take a leak. That was amazing.

I knew there was a reason I loved you.

Other than the sex, I mean.

I don't think Tosh's off-the-cuff heckler reply was any good, but I do think he's generally funnier than Louis CK, at least on Tosh.0. CK always seems to me to sort of try too hard to be disgusting.

Admittedly, maybe I should be comparing stand-up to stand-up and Tosh.0 to Life With Louis, but that's not how I experience them.

Oh, absolutely, but that's true of MOST genre films. (Tysto has joked on some of his Schwarzenegger commentaries that Judi Dench could have played Arnie's role; he mostly just shoots people.)

I like Nolan's movies. He's just not helping genre cinema be very diverse. I think probably the same kind of list could be made of ethnic minority characters. Somehow, there are more Chinese and black people in Harry Potter's Scotland than there are in Nolan's Gotham City.

To me, good writing (outside narrative writing), means clear structure and straightforward sentences. Have a point; state it simply; support it with a few clear sentences; and move on to the next point.

A good opening should have a somewhat narrative feel, perhaps with a personal connection (explaining why you are addressing this topic now). A good conclusion should reiterate your point and summarize your case, and it should produce a slightly unexpected twist.

And it isn't Shakespeare you should emulate. It's Lincoln, Churchill, and FDR.

And Hitler, of course. Say what you will about him, the man really had a way with words.

No, but the fact that he writes crap female characters kind of does.

Here are ALL the named female characters in Nolan films:

• In Memento, Sammy and Leonard's wives are dead (and actually don't have names). Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss) betrays Leonard but also helps him in his investigation.

• In Batman Begins, Martha Wayne is dead. Rachel Dawes does nothing but talk to Bruce about his feelings and get kidnapped. "Jessica" is a model Bruce is screwing. Barbara Gordon does nothing.

• In The Prestige, Julia (Woverine's wife) dies tragically in act 1. Sarah (Batman's wife) kills herself in act 2 out of despair for having anything to do. Olivia (ScarJo) is secretly working for the bad guy. "Jess" is just Batman's little daughter.

• In The Dark Knight, Rachel Dawes does nothing but talk to Bruce about his feelings and get kidnapped and killed. Officer Ramirez is secretly working for the bad guy. Barbara Gordon does nothing. "Natascha" is a ballerina Bruce is screwing. Judge Surrillo exists only to get murdered.

• In Inception, Ariadne BENDS A CITY and is told "Never do that!" and then never does anything but talk to Cobb about his feelings. Mal is dead and still manages to betray Cobb and generally fuck with all his plans. "Phillipa" is just Cobb's little daughter.

• In The Dark Knight Rises, Selina Kyle is secretly working for the bad guy but then helps the good guy kick some ass. Miranda is secretly working for the bad guy. "Jen" is Selina's friend (and apparently is only credited with a name to make it clear that she's not Holly "Catgirl" Robinson.)

In retrospect, I should give Nolan credit for THREE rather than two types of female characters: furniture, corpses, and betrayers. These account for all 22 of the females characters, 4 of whom kill themselves.

Meanwhile, there are a dozen or more named male characters in each film (except the low budget Memento), and they often get to have real impact on the plot even when they are minor. (Think of Postlethwaite, Berenger, and JGL in Inception; Caine and Bowie in The Prestige; and Caine, Freeman, and Oldman in the Batmovies.)

Only in Insomnia, the one film Nolan directed but didn't write, does the female lead get to be a good guy all the way thru and come out on top. Plus there are several other named female characters.

Well, let me clarify. The movie-going audience HAS matured since the late '70s. And even young male movie-goers today are interested in well-written female characters. So all hope is not lost. For that, I think James Cameron actually deserves a lot of credit, along with ass-kicking actresses like Milla Jovovich, Uma Thurman, Angelina Jolie, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Kate Beckinsale (yes, even she).

But somehow, Hollywood in general hasn't caught on. We still get movies like National Treasure and The Da Vinci Code and Batman Begins and Transformers, where the entire role of the female lead consists of maybe giving a clue to the male lead and then following three steps behind him for the rest of the movie.

Consider watching Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. Creep, yes (he also had a relationship with an underage Nastassja Kinski), but a creep who tried to get right with the victim and the law and got jerked around.

And it's not like Polanski is the only creep who ever made a movie.

You know who's really good at writing for women? Women.

There used to be a lot of them in the US and UK film industries, mostly given outlines and asked to write the dialog. That fell apart in the 1960s when the studio system collapsed. But the female audience also collapsed, staying home and watching daytime television instead.

And by the late 1970s, the audience was quite young and mostly male, and they are not very interested in compelling female characters.

My only disappointments were the Thor-Loki story and the precise way the heroes came together as a team.

The Thor-Loki story didn't actually follow on from Thor. I mean, they worked Coulson into the previous movies like there was this grand plan, and then they fucked up the villain for the climactic film, leaving both him and Thor in Asgard.

The team dynamic between the Avengers wasn't quite Whedonesque ENOUGH for me. Their whole storyline is about coming together as a team, but we didn't see that play out as clearly as I'd like. I would have liked 1) Stark coming to realize that Cap is a leader while he is a loner; 2) Thor realizing that Cap is his equal in heart if not brawn; 3) Banner realizing that Hulk just plain LIKES Cap; and 4) even Black Widow and Hawkeye getting some compassionate advice from Cap (re: getting the red out of their ledger) that they never got from Fury. That stuff fits with Cap finding his purpose in this strange new world of Jersey Shore and the designated hitter rule.

To make all that work, you'd need a somewhat clearer line from Loki to the final battle. Loki needs to be stopped by the helicarrier initially. Then he tricks Fury into bringing Banner on board to figure out some science, and he uses the scepter to get Banner to Hulk out and ruin the ship. The heroes all try to fight Hulk and Loki and his minions their own way and fail, and Loki escapes. Gradually, based on the stuff I mentioned above, the heroes decide that Cap is in charge. Then they go after Loki and the Chitauri as a team.