Patient J (Joker)

Director and co-writer Aaron Schoenke delivers "Patient J", a half-hour long fan-film based on the infamous Batman adversary 'the Joker.' And it is a very decent fan-film for what it is, although it suffers from some major flaws, mainly due to the cheap production and some shaky acting.

Kurt Carley plays a psychologist whom has arranged to hold an interview with the deranged villain Joker (Paul Mathew Molnar) deep in Arkham Asylum. At first, the interview is very basic, as Joker explains his past and his various encounters with Batman, but as time passes, it becomes clear that both men have diabolical- and possibly deadly- ulterior motives.

The star of the film is the script by Aaron Schoenke, Sean Schoenke and David Hammond. It is very tight, very tense, and the dialog flows quite nicely. It is very natural and well-crafted and it was a lot of fun to watch.

The acting is pretty good. Molnar is alright as the Joker, although he isn't really a revelation- at times he seems very stiff and a bit forced. Carley is also adequate as the psychologist, but again, nothing special. And Kevin Porter as Batman is good, although the film doesn't really feature him too much, asides from a few action scenes where he yells and grunts, so we don't get a good gage of Porter's abilities. Rachel Nicole is a lot of fun as Harley Quinn.

The main problem with the film is the fairly poor visual direction and cheap production. The lighting is pretty poor and at times the color looks a little blown out, and the camera angles and editing are very amateur. It takes the film down a notch and is quite distracting. There wasn't much imagination with the visuals, which was a shame given the good script.

All-in-all, considering, this is a decent fan-film. It has a good script, but suffers from bad direction and editing. I'd give it a solid 7 out of 10. Check it out.

i liked this 34 minute short.i liked how it was photographed.i thought the acting was pretty good.the main focus of the movie is of course the Joker,so there is limited screen time for Batman or Robin,but i liked the scenes they were in.i also liked the story.it's original,as far as i know.i thought he atmosphere was great,and i liked the music and songs.this film is definitely not for young kids.it's pretty dark,and has a couple of violent scenes which are very vivid and brutal.this is the second short film i have seen.the first one was Nightwalking,which was only 2.5 minutes,directed by Daniel Cormack.if you are interested in watching Patient J,go to Google video.you can view Nightwalking at the virgin media shorts website.as for Patient J,i liked it a lot.my vote:8/10

I have to say, to date this is the best Fan-type Batman film I've seen. Great acting by Paul Molnar, as the Joker!! Makes you really wish there was more to watch! This has got to be the best Bat in the Sun production, yet. I hope to see more in the near future. There are a few confusing parts, but you instantly forget them as you are swept into a new scene. Would have liked to have more Batman, but the scene between Joker & Batman was honestly... the BEST. I love the filming style, and the writing was excellent, soundtrack was perfect! This really has all the ear-marks of being a major motion picture, Bat in the Sun have exactly what it takes and the ~style~ of this film is what will make them big! Grayson has NOTHING on this film. I've watched all of the other films listed for Bat in the Sun, but honestly I was so excited when I finished watching this that I really wished there were more films. I hadn't heard of Bat in the Sun productions before, but now I'm such a fan of their work. All of the films are well worth the look, though Patient J is the best of all of them (so far!).

Patient J tells the short story of Joker being taken down into the dark recesses of Arkham Asylum for further psychological evaluation. Through flashbacks his story is told but both men have secrets!

Patient J crams a lot into 30 minutes including Jokers Red Hood origin and even the infamous Death In The Family scene. The trouble is the flashbacks are by far the worst parts of this and just look tacky.

The scenes between Joker and the psychologist however aren't actually that bad, in part due to a decent enough script and strong performance by the clown prince.

I think this could/should have been handled better, maybe more mind games between the pair building up to the finale and less of the flashbacks.

Nice effort, but too badly flawed.

The Good:

Joker does a decent job

Some great ideas

The Bad:

Looks hit and miss

Doesn't come together that well

Things I Learnt From This Short:

That was a prosthetic chin, right?

With the right actor and script a Joker feature film could be better than every Batman film combined