April 30, 2024
BYOB
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BYOB: 235 Years Of Relative independence
BYOB Weekend: Hop, An April Fool’s Gag?
| Friday | Screens | % Chg | Cume | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Gross | Thtr | % Chgn | Cume |
| Venom | 33 | 4250 | NEW | 33 |
| A Star is Born | 15.7 | 3686 | NEW | 15.7 |
| Smallfoot | 3.5 | 4131 | -46% | 31.3 |
| Night School | 3.5 | 3019 | -63% | 37.9 |
| The House Wirh a Clock in its Walls | 1.8 | 3463 | -43% | 49.5 |
| A Simple Favor | 1 | 2408 | -50% | 46.6 |
| The Nun | 0.75 | 2264 | -52% | 111.5 |
| Hell Fest | 0.6 | 2297 | -70% | 7.4 |
| Crazy Rich Asians | 0.6 | 1466 | -51% | 167.6 |
| The Predator | 0.25 | 1643 | -77% | 49.3 |
| Also Debuting | ||||
| The Hate U Give | 0.17 | 36 | ||
| Shine | 85,600 | 609 | ||
| Exes Baggage | 75,900 | 62 | ||
| NOTA | 71,300 | 138 | ||
| 96 | 61,600 | 62 | ||
| Andhadhun | 55,000 | 54 | ||
| Afsar | 45,400 | 33 | ||
| Project Gutenberg | 36,000 | 17 | ||
| Love Yatri | 22,300 | 41 | ||
| Hello, Mrs. Money | 22,200 | 37 | ||
| Studio 54 | 5,300 | 1 | ||
| Loving Pablo | 4,200 | 15 |
| 3-Day Estimates | Weekend | % Chg | Cume |
|---|---|---|---|
| No Good Dead | 24.4 (11,230) | NEW | 24.4 |
| Dolphin Tale 2 | 16.6 (4,540) | NEW | 16.6 |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | 7.9 (2,550) | -23% | 305.8 |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | 4.8 (1,630) | -26% | 181.1 |
| The Drop | 4.4 (5,480) | NEW | 4.4 |
| Let's Be Cops | 4.3 (1,570) | -22% | 73 |
| If I Stay | 4.0 (1,320) | -28% | 44.9 |
| The November Man | 2.8 (1,030) | -36% | 22.5 |
| The Giver | 2.5 (1,120) | -26% | 41.2 |
| The Hundred-Foot Journey | 2.5 (1,270) | -21% | 49.4 |
Review: Little Women (no spoilers) - The Hot Blog
Box Office First Look - The Hot Blog
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree - The Hot Blog
As soon as I get my head round you
I come around catching sparks off you
I get an electric charge from you
That second hand living it just won’t do
And the way I feel tonight
I could die and I wouldn’t mind
And there’s something going on inside
Makes you want to feel makes you want to try
Makes you want to blow the stars from the sky
I can’t stand up I can’t cool down
I can’t get my head off the ground
As soon as I get my head round you
I come around catching sparks off you
And all I ever got from you
Was all I ever took from you
And the world could die in pain
And I wouldn’t feel no shame
And there’s nothing holding me to blame
Makes you want to feel makes you want to try
Makes you want to blow the stars from the sky
I’m taking myself to the dirty part of town
Where all my troubles can’t be found
Apply directly to the forehead?
I heat up, I can’t cool down
You got me spinnin’
‘Round and ’round
‘Round and ’round and ’round it goes
Where it stops nobody knows
Every time you call my name
I heat up like a burnin’ flame
Burnin’ flame full of desire
Kiss me baby, let the fire get higher
Abra-abra-cadabra
I want to reach out and grab ya
Abra-abra-cadabra
Abracadabra
You haven’t been the same since ThinkFilm banned your video. Make new york story mobilsodes, your stuff’s perfect for that and you might even make a buck.
A 152 run-time will mean very little if the movie runs at a brisk-pace. If it runs like a 152 minute movie that has slow moments between the action. The world of mouth will be… what’s the word… balls.
152 minute run time means 2 and 1/2 hours of Batman infused cinematic joy
Film-wise, it will hopefully mean that there is lots of plot and character development between the handful of action set-pieces (don’t expect alot of action, since nearly 90% of the action beats in all the commercials and tv spots are from the bike chase and the opening bank robbery). Obviously, if the film ends up dragging or feeling long, then Nolan will take a hit for the running time. But if it all works, then we’ll all wish it were four hours.
It won’t mean anything box-office wise, since that’s about the same running time as Spider-Man 3 and Pirates 2, the last two movies to bust the opening weekend record. Yes, I know I wrote a long rant a month ago about how The Dark Knight’s kid-unfriendly marketing would cost it at least at first, but now I’m not so sure. Yes, that’s still a major factor, but… do you know anyone who isn’t at least extremely curious if not outright pumped for this one? The last time there was this much anticipation was for Pirates 2, and we all know how that turned out. Frankly, I haven’t seen this level of anticipation for any superhero movie since Batman back in 1989. At this point, I’ve upgraded to hopefully optimistic.
Ooh, IMAX. It means, worldwide, a lot of noisey explosions and crying children or a bunch of cackling middle aged woman. Fortunately, there’s Lou Reed’s Berlin at a reasonable decible level.
Scott: I agrew with your sentiments about the Dark Knight, but a lot of people were hyped up for Iron-Man. These same people — I would wager — are just as pumped for the Dark Knight. This leaves me with the 300 million number looming over the precedings next month.
Agrew? Agrew? Fucking blog without a fucking edit feature… it’s AGREE… moving on and GO TURKEY!
So this is what it’s come to.
It’s always been a battle of the sexes, you’re just all grown up now.
Considering that Fandango alerted me on Friday that 12:01AM IMAX shows for Dark Knight were on sale, and when I went to mobilize my Nolan-Batman-fan friends to get tickets on Saturday, it and the 4AM and the major Friday night showings were all already *gone*… I’d say it won’t matter too much, although I guess it might hurt IMAX business in that demand is going to be ridiculously high and they can only do four or five shows per day (depending on how late/early they go).
Granted, almost all first-weekend IMAX shows in NYC sell out… but still, a month ahead of time! And a 4AM show, gone!
Anyone hear anything about the possibility of real Thursday-night showings (not just midnights), a la Hancock and the odd other blockbusters (usually, but not always, on a holiday weekend; I remember that Austin Powers 3, actually, did those)? I’m going out of town the next day, so I’m hoping against hope for an 8PM IMAX show. Otherwise I’ll be settling for Times Square at midnight, IMAX another day.
Jeff: Turkey are a good squad. They are a spunky lot who need our support!
I’m guessing if there were going to be early evening Thursday shows, they would have gone on sale already. Fortunately, my IMAX (Universal Citywalk) isn’t sold out yet. But yeah, I’d pay extra, a lot extra, to be able to see The Dark Knight at a reasonable hour on Thursday night.
Back in the 90s, many of the big event films had advance evening showings and I remember enjoying everyone of them (Batman Returns, Mission Impossible, ID4, Men In Black, Lost World, Godzilla, Austin Powers 2, Austin Powers 3, etc) even if the movie left something to be desired.
I’ve always said that there’s nothing like a packed advance-night screening.
Pardon the sentimental musings, but, to this day, arguably the best filmgoing experience of my life is still the Thursday night 10pm screening of Jurassic Park on June 10th (they had screenings starting at 7pm and running all night). I was thirteen, and I went with my dad, him picking me up on the way home from a business trip and me scrambling to read the last few pages of the book before he arrived. Now, this was before the internet and there was no buzz to speak of. Spielberg was coming off of Hook and no one knew if his mojo was gone. And everyone in the theater was stunned, both at the quality of the special effects and the sheer entertainment, intensity, and spectacle of the film itself. Even at thirteen, I knew that this was something special (the movie, the moviegoing experience and the bonding experience, natch).
…for me it indicates that Nolan has turned out another indulgent, senselessly overlong fanboy wetdream of a comic book movie…just like his egregiously overrated “Batman Begins.” And this time he’s even got Ms. Smarty Pants/”I Wanna Be the Indie Poster Girl” Maggie Gyllenhaal tossing her smarmy attitude around.
Pardon me while I barf.
Gawd! I still have nightmares thinking about “BB”‘s beyond-labored Liam Neeson “training” scenes. (And how sore my ass was when that thing was finally over.)
Knock yourself out, gang!
“Mamma Mia!”–with or without an exclamation point–is my preferred moviegoing wallow for the July 18th weekend. ABBA and Meryl Streep do it for me in a way that a programmed-by-Harry-Knowles-and-Comic-Con geekfest like “The Dark Knight” never will.
There will never be a “Batman” movie as good, or as hauntingly memorable, as Tim Burton’s sublime “Batman Returns.”
IOI, I wasn’t writing in regard to you or the fine nation of Turkey or the bird of the same name.
Why is Turkey even in the Euro? Are they in Europe? Or in the EU? I don’t think so.
Jeffmcm — “fine nation of Turkey”…? HAHA. Don’t get carried away.
They aren’t in the EU but they’re applying, and they are in NATO.
Movieman’s an idiot, but I agree about Batman Returns.
At 140 minutes, Batman Begins was already way too long. I only hope that this is a significantly better movie.
That’s the question, isn’t it? Not just if it’s a good movie but is it a good movie all the way through? If it is than the length won’t damage it too much. In fact, it will guarantee that while there will be fewer showing during the day, the ones that will be there will be more likely to be sold out – which, in turn, means it will lose theaters at slower rate.
I would expect the upper ceiling for this movie to be around $240 million – just under $500 million worldwide. Very profitable but it won’t break any records.
Yeah, I hate it when these stupid superhero movies take the time to develop their characters and THEN hire intelligent, idiosyncratic actors to play them! Lousy highfalutin’ indie actors. I much prefer when an Oscar-winning actress stars in a studious recreation of a mediocre stage musical that is in turn a studious tribute to mediocre, wafer-thin music. Nothing indulgent about that!
However, I second Rothchild’s agreement about Batman Returns. Well, maybe not that there will NEVER be a Batman movie as good (as I loved Batman Begins and can’t wait for Dark Knight)… but I do love it. Terrific, underappreciated movie — haunting, psychological, funny, strange, and gets a certain aspect of Batman — the melancholy freakshow part — perfectly right.
Turkey is the last nation that touches Europe. So they have a think about being considered Europe and Asian. You get this every year from Inside Grand Prix when they do the Turkey Grand Prix edition. Nevertheless, movieman, you really hate Maggie Gyllenhall that much? Goodness. I love that broad. Good times all-around, but Batman Begins giving you nightmares will get you work at CHUD.com. I hear they are hiring.
Here’s a double post for you.
I am always shocked when people love Batman Returns. It’s easily the worst of all the Batman films, and one of Burton’s weaker moments in his ouevre. It still bugs me all these years later.
…not sure if this made it on before, so here we go again:
Maggie Gyllenhaal is the anti-Christ (or whatever the female derivation is: the anti-Virgin Mary perhaps?)
Bring back Katie Holmes Cruise fer crissakes.
Glad I got the attention of all you comics lovers out there with my previous post, lol.
Nolan has just never done it for me. I actually happen to think that his 2002 “Insomnia” remake with Pacino is Nolan’s best movie to date.
Let the Movieman bashing continue.
But hey, at least give me geek points for loving “Speed Racer”!
I also love Batman Returns, I think it’s easily the best of the group. Most interesting characters, most polished Burtonian visuals. Story schmory.
Katie Holmes was the worst thing in all of Batman Begins.
Movieman is the only person in the world that wishes Holmes came back.
Batman Returns is also the only time Daniel Waters’ voice was filtered into something vaguely commercial. He tried and tried and tried. Hudson Hawk. Ford Fairlane. His aborted Pfeiffer Catwoman script. I dig almost everything he’s done even though it’s messy and sloppy and trying to hard to change shit up, but Returns works perfectly. Even if the tone alienated some people looking for a clone of Batman ’89.
I hated the writing in Batman Returns. Snarky, lame humor. That movie was a mess, and it could have been interesting. People complain about Batman Forever being too cartoony and cheesy, but I think Batman Returns was goofier in a lot of ways.
I thought Batman Begins had a perfect pace…I was never bored, and it moves along at a quick clip. Maybe I might have cut down the ninjas, but hey…they’re ninjas. What are you gonna do.
Word to the Perm above.
Batman Returns has some touches that are both absurd and oddly beautiful. Catwoman’s entire arc is probably the strangest thing to ever come out of a major studio. Well, except for Dreamcatcher (in a bad way) and the hell stuff in Pirates 3. But the combination of Tim Burton’s ballsy direction and execution and Waters’ crazy choices on the page couldn’t have been more complimentary.
a real hero just died.
R.I.P George Carlin.
Batman Returns is my favourite Batman flick as well. It also features the greatest performance ever in a superhero movie – that’d be Michelle Pfeiffer’s Oscar-worthy Catwoman. Yeah. She shoulda been nominated and she shoulda won!
Just wanted to add to the Batman Returns love. It’s the only one I’ve seen more than once, and the only one I have on DVD. Sure, it’s got some goofy stuff in it, intentionally so. But it was fun.
Batman Begins was an improvement over the Shumacher films, of course, but I’ve never understood the love for it. I guess it’s great that Nolan wanted to treat the source seriously and somewhat realistically. But the result is neither fish nor fowl. It’s a so-so comic book movie and a so-so drama, IMO. And yes, I grew up with the comics and totally dig the character, so I really wanted to like it. I’ll probably give it another look before DK. Maybe it’ll work better for me the second time around.
152 minutes will mean 152 minutes. Whether or not the movie is any good, well that’s something we’ll talk about when we all see it.
Personally I can’t wait. I love Batman Begins. I’m already gonna be seeing The Dark Knight at least twice. So hopefully it’s gonna be worth it.
Batman Returns is no Batman story, but I do love it so. I actually re-watched it recently. It’s weird, slightly perverted and just great fun.
I’m not feeling all the “BATMAN RETURNS” hate out there. Go back and look at the first two Burton Batmans back to back now and BR is infinitely superior to the first. The Catwoman scenes are sublime. Agree with the above poster who noted it’s Daniel Waters’ finest “commercial” hour. It also has none of the toxic Jon Peters influence that kills the first movie.
BR is a watershed in one bad way, however — it was the pioneer of the “why have one villain when you can have two?” school of superhero filmmaking (also, it was notable as the first movie to have an outdoor campaign with full posters of just the individual characters, a tack later adopted by animated films). This was at Warner’s behest, no doubt in a feeble attempt to sell more toys, and was the prime motivation behind the re-writes to Waters’ script.
The Penguin stuff feels like a different movie because it is. Funny that the studio took the wrong lesson from its relatve “failure,” blaming the “darkness” and mature tone, instead of the schizophrenic tone and has made the “two villains” thing the template ever since.
…the Katie Holmes (Cruise) comment was a joke, gang.
But Gyllenhaal annoys the s**t out of me: it’s the whole fingernails on a blackboard effect: every time I’ve seen the “DK” trailer (which is maybe 50-60 times in the past six months) my stomach does carthweels whenever Ms. Smarty Pants turns up. There’s just something so smug and smarmy about her that rankles me to no end.
Delighted to see my “Batman Returns” comment elicited so much affection for a movie that I dearly love. Kamikaze is 100% correct about Pfeiffer’s performance: she definitely deserved an Oscar nomination…it’s the single greatest perf ever in a comics-derived flick.
The heartbreaking scene where Catwoman (in her street clothes) and Bruce Wayne dance–both realizing who the other’s secret identity is, and knowing that any ordinary kind of love is all but impossible for them–makes me weepy every damn time.
The only other superhero/comics movie that has that effect on me is “Spider-Man 2:” when Tobey Maguire tells Kirsten Dunst that she “saved” him, the waterworks simply go into hyper-drive.
I’d love Holmes to be back. I loved her THO that was clearly visible at the end of Batman Begins.
I’m glad Daniel Waters isn’t doing a lot. I hate his snide writing.
I’d sort of agree with Yancy about Batman Begins…it’s a good movie. But it was no Tim Burton Batman, which is a work of art. BB was solid, and entertaining, and good. But tome, the trailers and everything for The Dark Knight look much more gripping. I thinkpart of the problem with the first is no compelling villain. But now we got the Joker again, and I think that character alone will ramp up the box office and the story.
Rothchild, if you think Pirates 3 or Catwoman are the weirdest thigns to come out of a major studio, you need to see Zabriskie Point.
NO CONTEST.
totally agree with The Big Perm that Batman Begins lacked a compelling villain.
Does Batman/Bruce Wayne have a serious love interest in the comics a la Superman and Lois Lane? I know that Rachel Dawes was created.
Batman Returns is the only Batman flick I truly love. The original was actually a bit of a slog to sit through when I rewatched it a couple of years back and I haven’t gone back to Forever despite enjoying it when I was younger. Only ever got halfway through Batman & Robin and really liked Begins, but I’m hoping getting all the backstory out of the way – ya know, backstory we already knew – helps The Dark Knight continues the “second time does it best” way of the series.
..speaking of major studio weirdness, Perm, what about Fox in the summer of 1970 when they released “Myra Breckinridge” and “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” back-to-back?
I don’t know about you, but a “Myra”/”Dolls” combo is a helluva lot more interesting than Fox’s “Meet Dave” and “”Space Chimps” double-header this summer.
The only way I get to sit through 2 1/2 hours of Batman is if it’s full of SOCK! BAM! KERPOW!
OTOH one of the Imax theaters will be showing “The Dark Knight” for 72 hours non-stop come the moment of release. New York and New Jersey readers take heed.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Carlin. You made life better.
Also… if you think Batman 89 is a piece of art. I would go as far to say that you really never read a Batman comic. Batman 89 as it’s own entity is a beautiful film, but it’s horrible as a Batman movie. This is why so many people are jacked up to see a more comic-accurate version of the Joker in a Batman movie. This is also why many people love Begins because it walks the great tightrope between the animated series and the best arcs of the comic.
Movieman, I really wish I had been around to see the days when studios were so insane they would produce movies like that on a semi-regular basis. Of course, realistically it’s probably a good idea for them to not do that, financially speaking. I’m not even a fan of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, but damn I’m glad it exists!
Perm- That was the era when all of the big studios–except maybe Universal and Disney–were so desperate to court the “young” audience that they were wiling to try just about anything…even producing and distributing X-rated, borderline “avant garde” films like “Zabriskie Point,” “Myra,” “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls,” etc. Sometimes it worked (“Midnight Cowboy”), sometimes it didn’t (Haskell Wexler’s “Medium Cool” lost a lot of money for Paramount despite its miniscule budget). But it was fascinating to watch as long as it lasted.
Now I’m not one of those old fogies–hey, I’m not THAT old,
lol–who insists that movies were better back when I was a kid. The studio specialty divisions–the few left anyway–have picked up the slack, and routinely make movies nearly as good as the best studio films from the “New Hollywood” era.
But it’s still depressing to look at the slate of upcoming “big studio” releases (“Space Chimps” et al) and realize just how tame and unambitious most of them are.
Actually, Universal did release at least one X-rated flick: Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? Directed by and starring Anthony Newley, just two years after his appearance in Dr. Dolittle.
Also: People tend to forget this, but the first Emmanuelle movie was released in the US by, no kidding, Columbia Pictures. Those were the days, my friend…
Minority opinion time:
1) Movieman is right; K-Holmes over Maggie.
2) Considering the buzz has been between 170 minutes and THREE FULL HOURS for months now, 152 sounds positively efficient.
3) Despite its rancid rep, Batman and Robin’s layer of kinkiness and extremely gaudy visual design make it a slightly more interesting film than Batman Forever; I like Schumacher but wouldn’t go out on a limb to particularly defend either of his Batmans, but his second one seems less generic and has more of the curiously reactionary, bleak bent of so many of his movies. (I say curious because Schumacher seems like such a nice, generous, witty, liberal guy… and somehow inadvertantly has made a great number of right-leaning, ass-kicking, moralistic movies.)
I forgot all about Tony Newley’s “Humppe,” Joe. That’s an, uh, experiment you’d have to put into the “…and sometimes it didn’t (work)” category, lol.
I remember seeing it at a drive-in when I was ten years old (double-featured with Oskar Werner and Barbara Ferris in “Interlude”). Couldn’t make heads or tails out of it, but the damn thing was sure….interesting. Especially the underwater cunnilingus scene between Newley and Playmate Connie Kreskin (before she hooked up with Jimmy Caan).
I’d love to take a look at it again, but it’s been out of circulation for seemingly ever. Of course, if Universal won’t release “The Loves of Isadora” on DVD (!?!?!), the chances of “Mercy Humppe” ever seeing the light of DVD day are probably slim to none.
Too bad.
There are quite a few films from the ’60s that, near as I can tell, have never made it to DVD. Indeed, there are least three — Michael Sarne’s Joanna, Albert Finney’s Charlie Bubbles and Stanley Donen’s Staircase — that have never been released in the US in any homevid format. I have very fond memories of Joanna — I think I still have a vinyl copy of the Rod McKuen soundtrack in my closet somewhere — and it features one of Donald Sutherland’s best early performances. But, hell, Charlie Bubbles features an early, pre-Sterile Cuckoo Liza Minnelli, and even that hasn’t been enough for it to get a DVD release. Go figure.
Speaking of cunnilingus: Both Charlie Bubbles and Michael Winner’s I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname, films of the mid-’60s, have scenes in which oral sex is, if not actually show, very heavily implied. Which is part of the reason why Universal released both through a subsidiary — neither could get a Production Code seal of approval back in the pre-MPAA Ratings era.
I don’t understand the question, Poland. What will a 152 minute running time MEAN to The Dark Knight? I guess it means Knight is 12 minutes longer than Begins. Should one expect a sequel to be less?
Of course Batman Returns is the best Batman movie. Evertyhing about this movie from Danny Elfman’s incredibly fun opera-like score to production design, sexy Michelle Pfeiffer and great Danny DeVito. And Michael Keaton!
Infinitely superior to “Bored me to Tears”.
Heck, I consider “Batman Forever” to be a better movie. If nothing else it was a lot more fun to watch.
1. What’s a THO?
2. I’m assuming Lex prefers Katie Holmes to Maggie Gyllenhaal because Holmes is more conventionally attractive and not as tall; regardless, Holmes is horrible in that movie and it comes to a shrieking halt every time she appears.
3. They’re not showing it ‘non-stop’. They have to respool the print at least.
ok, not sure if this made it before, so i’m re-posting.
advance apologies if it shows up twice.
I’m also a big fan of “Joanna,” Joe.
I didn’t see it until the late ’90s when it somehow managed to show up on Cinemax. Besides the nostalgic time capsule aspect, I was enchanted by the film’s Eurocentric style/sensibility. (Great soundtrack as well.)
I’ve always been something of a Sarne defender, though. I still insist that “Myra” is an unfairly maligned masterpiece that was completely misunderstood at the time of its release (probably because it was decades ahead of its time). I’m delighted to see that the film has picked up a major cult following–and is now championed by industry heavyweights like Mike Nichols.
It really is shocking that Sarne was blackballed (apparently for life) in H’wood, especially since “Myra” actually made money for Fox which was still reeling from the catastrophe of “Dr. Dolittle.”
“What will a 152 minute running time mean to The Dark Knight”
I don’t know but I know what that means for Kristopher Tapley’s penis. Zing.
Jeff, I’m totally down with tall (and isn’t Holmes fairly towering herself?)
Maggie G. has been excellent in many good movies, so nothing against her at all. And I’m sure she’ll be fine… based on BB, it hardly seems like a taxing part for someone who did “Secretary.” Just a personal preference for Holmes, whose aw-shucks wholesomeness seemed the proper breath of fresh air in a narrative filled with psychos and freaks; edgy quirkmistress Gyllenhaal seems more closely aligned with the Method tendencies of everyone else on screen.
THO is titty hard-on. Juvenile, I know, but it was so noticeable on the screen that it’s hard to forget. I can’t they left it in there.
How exactly did she bring the movie to a shrieking halt? Her character came off as pretty smart and insightful.
She was supposed to be a top District Attorney, but she looked like an intern and she sounded like a piece of wood.
According to The Internet, Holmes and Gyllenhaal are indeed the same height, so there’s that.
Maggie G over Holmes any day of the week. Seriously… this… http://cm1.dotspotter.com/media/0/30/21/m5thumb.m.jpg is good. Very good.
Did everyone seem to forget the truly lame premise in BATMAN RETURNS of “let’s make Batman look like a villain”? The sight of the Penguin rocking on a kiddie Batmobile was awful beyond belief.
That’s not the premise, it’s just a subplot.
Tomato, tomatoe, suckage still sux.
“I say curious because Schumacher seems like such a nice, generous, witty, liberal guy… and somehow inadvertantly has made a great number of right-leaning, ass-kicking, moralistic movies.”
Something I’ve noticed too. In fact, especially if you exclude his Batman pictures, his movies get more and more puritanical as they go along.
Falling Down – The put-upon white guy going crazy at all of the space-sucking minorities being annoying maybe doesn’t justify assault, battery, and murder, but we sure sympathize with him and understand where he’s coming from.
A Time To Kill – vigilante murder, before there can even be an arraignment, let alone a trial and verdict, is ok if the alleged victim of a sex crime is a child and the alleged assailants are sleazy bastards (to say nothing of the justification involving reverse-racism).
8MM – People who enjoy sex in a way different than societal norms are EVIL and must be destroyed. If you like peep shows, pornography, consensual S&M, or just a little kinky-ness, well then you’re just one degree away from monsters who murder young girls in snuff films.
Phone Booth – At this point, Colin Farrell deserves to die, or at least be publicly humiliated and framed for murder because he fantasized about having an affair with Katie Holmes. He didn’t actually do it, but he thought about it and that’s enough for punishment.
You haven’t seen “Falling Down” until you’ve seen Mamet’s brilliant “Edmond”.
It’s called ‘being a hack’.
RudyV, the real guts of Batman Returns is the Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle relationship. Sure it would have been a better movie without the stuff you’re mentioning but 70% good is better than 40%.
No need to be defensive, jeff. RudyV has a sucky taste in movies. What he said about the Bond movies sealed it.
IMO, of course.
You guys have a better chance of getting your bloated super freak hero movies if you send the Regal Entertainment middlemen down the toilet.
Yeah, and we have a good chance of walking on Mars if we move it forty million miles closer. How do you propose we do either?
In Falling Down, the two people who are actually killed by Michael Douglas are white.
In Batman Returns, the Selina/Bruce relationship WAS the good part of the movie. Unfortunately, I’d estimate that was 15% of the movie, tops. The rest was mostly lame puns.
The love of Batman Returns around here. Reveals so so much about the other posters, that I find it to be a rather cool development.
RudyV and D.Z. are the same person. I think.
I love Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. I’ve only seen it once, and on the big screen, but it’s the weirdest and most unpredictable movie since…the dawn of time, maybe?
And something like Zabriskie Point wasn’t developed in house. At least I imagine so. The trailer for it is hysterical. I’ve never seen it.
I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to love Batman Returns. I thought everyone did. The only people that were really pissed about it were parents that didn’t know what they were getting into.
Batman Returns is not even a comic book movie. It’s more of a fetish fantasy on screen that involves prostetics, latex, whips, and all other stuff that makes it more kinky than comic booky. I also find it a horrible movie, with a horrible narrative, and easily one of the more drab palettes any production designer has ever come up with in any film. It’s just a dreadful movie.
I am not trying to be dicky, but there’s a reason I love Batman Begins. Nolan finally gave the world a Batman movie that walked and talked like a Batman movie should. If Batman Returns floats your boats. Good on you for finding something in it, that I never found.
That’s such a weird take on the movie. I hate Underworld and all that shit. You’re like an autistic person.
I’m sorry, IO. That was a little mean. Maybe the movie just wasn’t your thing. I think I was just a little defensive because I would never want to be lumped in with people that dig that sort of aesthetic just for aesthetic’s sake. I can’t stand Crow, Underworld etc. But The Matrix works because they’re creating a world and they’re giving the 1999 version of “the rebellion” it’s own look and feel. The hacker subculture in that movie existed in something that resembled our real world. Neo went to work in a regular office building. Regular people dressed like regular people.
Actually, I hate UNDERWORLD, too, mostly for giving us the weakest vampires ever–“eternal life” is kind of a joke if you can be done in by a single gunshot. Never have gotten past the first few minutes of the sequel to make any sort of judgment on that one; the opening prologue is a great cure for insomnia.
Oh, and there weren’t two villains in BATMAN RETURNS, but three–let’s not forget Max Shreck. Just keep tossin’ ’em in and sooner or later one of those pesky villains will do something interesting. JOHNNY MNEMONIC pushed that one to the ridiculous extreme, resulting in four villains? Five? And we saw how well that turned out for them.
BEGINS is a veritable Rotate-a-Villain…
Watanabe, Wilkinson, Murphy, and finally Neeson.
I want to add on to something IO said about RETURNS’ production design. I don’t think it’s as weak as he contends, but it DEFINITELY has that Burton issue where 2/3 of the movie is Goth and stylish and grim and single-minded… and then there are elements of production design and cinematography admidst the splendor that are so totally mundane and generic. (I’m thinking specifically of a lot of the DeVito scenes.)
“The rest was mostly lame puns.”
Perhaps so, but when you have someone as talented as Michelle Pfieffer reading them and spinning them into gold, I don’t mind. “Life’s a bitch, now so am I”, “I don’t know about you Miss Kitty, but I feel so much yummier” etc. And my favourite moment when she recoils after being hit by Batman only to then attack when he leans in to help.
I also think Burton did really great choreography with that movie. When the jester appears from the right of screen and does his backflips before grabbing the baby. Catwoman escaping from the explosion right past Batman. Selina and Bruce’s dance where they each realise who each other is. And so forth.
I’d also put forth that I LOVE the production design of that movie. Sure it’s turned up to 11 – particularly Selina Kyle’s pink palace – but it totally fits into the movie Burton was trying to make. Alas, IO – who’s opinion I’m not arguing – is that the world Burton was trying to make wasn’t the true “Batman” world. I’ve never read the comics so I don’t know what Gothom City was meant to look like so I went in blind in that respect.
I saw the last hour of the Underworld sequel as the boyfriend had started watching it before i arrived. It was just as bad as the first one except perhaps even more uncoordinated.
Batman Begins had more villains than the other movies, but it never felt like it was overwhelming in the way that three did in BR. That’s ebcause Burton is a genius at visuals but has no story sense, which even he admits.
In BB one villain is from the past to set upBatman’s first victory, one is in only one scene, another is a henchman, and then the big surprise GUEST VILLAIN. None of them have tons of screentime. The movie stays focused on Bruce Wayne.
Take BR though, which each villain has their own long winded, nonsensical storyline (Peguin is the Mayor, no, now he’s going to capture the children! Catwoman wants revenge on Shrek, no now she wants to kill Batman, here’s a long scene where she teams up with Penguin and he double crosses her the next time we see them together!). It’s a surprise in that movie when Michael Keaton pops up because you forget he’s even in it.
I think I dislike BR more because I loved the first Batman, and if they cut out all of the Vicki Vale stuff, it would have been even better. I still lke BR in terms of the visuals, the music and the great actors, but man is it a chore.
The nice thing about the villains in Batman Begins is that, more or less, each villain is defeated right before the next villain shows up, so there is never more than one antagonist for Batman to deal with at one time.
Joe Chill is murdered by Falcone’s henchwoman right before we meet Falcone.
Fake Ra’s Al Ghul is introduced as a villain and dispatched in the very same scene.
Batman becomes Batman and takes out Falcone. Then Falcone is completely removed by a seemingly minor supporting character, who reveals himself as the next villain – The Scarecrow.
The Scarecrow helps set the evil plot into motion, then he is defeated by Batman. Then Batman returns home to find the next and final villain – real Ra’s Al Ghul.
And of course, if you want to be super-anal, Ra’s Al Ghul is defeated, but Batman is then confronted by this random baddie who has murdered two people and left a playing card at the scene. To be continued, of course…
The Catwoman plot in Batman Returns was handled pitch perfect. The Penguin plot was horrible from beginning to ridiculous end. Batman killed (again), so there goes that plot altogether.
The idea of having this duality, with each villain representing Batman (the businessman, the orphan, the vigilante) was a fantastic jumping off point that was underplayed for Penguin oddities.
Returns & Robin have something similar outside of their respective director’s going three steps too far; they both have the best set designs of the series.
Bring on Dark Knight. Has “film of the summer” written all over it.
a wee bit of stan winston trivia to throw into the mix here (i’ve been brushing up on stan’s amazing creations since he left this earthly realm, the alien queen still perhaps the most impressive of all, damn she’s one gnarly puppet), stan did the brilliant penguin make-up/effects on devito for ‘batman returns’, just fantastically grotesque