Batman Returns

Friday, July 10 - Saturday, July 11, 2015

35mm print

“Tim Burton’s sequel to his phenomenally successful 1989 BATMAN doesn’t try to top the first picture, either with splashier special effects or with loftier pretensions to significance; nor does it simply go through the motions, repeating the surefire stuff with a self-satisfied air of professionalism. It’s a blend of playful novelty and reassuring familiarity—a difficult mixture to get right. This time, the hero (again Michael Keaton) does battle with a greedy businessman named Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) and the roly-poly arch-criminal known as the Penguin (Danny DeVito). And whenever Batman ventures out on one of his nocturnal crime-fighting missions, he runs into a mysterious woman who dresses like a cat and carries a whip. The hilariously twisted relationship between the hero and the Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) plays like an apache dance in animal costumes, and it’s the glory of the movie. The cat clothes seem to release something strange and wild in Pfeiffer: her performance is ferociously sexy and uninhibitedly, over-the-top funny. As in the first movie, Burton gives the material a luxurious masked-ball quality and a sly contemporary wit without violating the myth’s low, cheesy comic-book origins. He’s an artist who’s comfortable with both the higher aspirations and the lower instincts of his nature as an entertainer: he and Batman are an ideal match. Also with Michael Gough, Michael Murphy, Pat Hingle, and, in a cameo, Paul Reubens (better known as Pee-wee Herman). Screenplay by Daniel Waters; cinematography by Stefan Czapsky; score by Danny Elfman; production design by Bo Welch.” – The New Yorker

  • Country USA
  • Rating PG-13
  • Year 1992
  • Running Time 126 minutes
  • Director Tim Burton

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