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Joel Schumacher's career and critical reputation would never be the same again after he controversially inherited the reins of the Batman franchise.
A huge thank you to Alex for joining us on this one. Follow him on Twitter, and check out the shows Return to Sunnydale, Two Idiots in Love, and Masters of Carpentry.
This episode discusses Batman Forever (1995). IMDb. Wikipedia.
Our opening theme is "Letter", and our closing theme is "Veinblossom". Both songs were created by Jak Locke, and are used with permission.
Some bonus extras!
Music video for "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal, directed by Joel Schumacher
Music video for "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" by U2
Music video for "The Riddler" by Method Man
Charlie Rose interview with Joel Schumacher
McDonalds commercial collection
2 comments:
I remember really liking it at the time, and while I think I've gone through phases where I distanced myself through it, thinking back, I don't think it's that bad.
I was definitely a Jim Carey fan at that time and I suspect that influenced a lot of the fondness I had for it. In retrospect, my favorite Riddler portrayals are the ones that emphasize his intelligence over being maniacal. I love Frank Gorshin, Jim Rash in the recent Harley Quinn cartoon, and even bits of Carey's Riddler, but I want someday to see a big-screen version that is smug and cocky because he's always in control (until he's not, because it's a superhero story). He wants you to know he's smarter than you, which is why he leaves clues. Otherwise, his plans would be too perfect and no one could admire him for his brilliance. But like I said, I think Carey was ok, but he was leaning into the Gorshin style a bit too much. Which, to be fair, was likely why he was cast.
Tommy Lee Jones was a waste of a Two-Face. Nothing against him. I suspect he could have been great with a better script, but I agree that it wasted all themes, the humanity and basically robbed him of everything except the obsession with the number two.
I distinctly remember liking Val Kilmer a lot at the time as Bruce. Not Batman, he wasn't very intimidating, but just only as Bruce Wayne. I honestly don't recall what my thinking was on that, but I suspect it was just because, outside of the blonde hair, he looked so much more like what I think of when I think of Bruce Wayne vs Keaton, West or Clooney. He's just a classically handsome dude. Now I think I'm close to Alex in that he seems a little too distant like he was bored with the role.
O'Donnell was fine, but yeah too old looking for the part. Kidman was fine as "girl" but needed something to do other than be "girl." Though she has more to do than Elle McPhearson does in the next film. So points for that, I guess?
Despite its flaws, I still mostly enjoy the film. It's the type of cheese I can see myself enjoying from time to time. It's probably 80% nostalgia speaking, but that film was highly anticipated by me. Especially since my parents very rarely took me to the movies, so I had to wait for this to come to HBO. It would be a year later when I'd have friends who got their permits and all of a sudden we would go to the movie theater each weekend. But this discussion makes me want to revisit the films. None of which I've seen in over a decade or longer.
Great review/analysis as always. I appreciate you taking the time to look at the movie for its content rather than the surface stuff that everyone else seems to focus on.
Quick extra bit of random trivia. Alex brought up the city's similarities to The Shadow. I was just reading Cinefex and apparently some of the miniature skyscrapers were from The Shadow and The Hudsucker Proxy. They didn't have time to build enough so they bought them.
If you're interested I have my own blog http://www.1995batman.com that is cataloguing everything to do with the movie.
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