Batman Returns

The characters are developed incrdibly well and are realistic. Micheal Keaton is excellent as Batman/Bruce. Pfifer is terrific as Selena/Catwoman, a woman who only after wearing a costume realizes that she's been wearing a mask her entire life. And DeVito is great as the penguin, a character who will forever resent the world for his unfortunate fate. The real villain though is Max, Christopher Walken's character. He represents all powerful people who are completely corrupted by power. There are some great one-liners in this movie, esp. from Pfifer and Walken. Just the right amount of humor here and there fits brilliantly.

The set designs are mesmorizing. It's a dark movie, and the sets go along with that. Not too colorful and they really convey the atmosphere. The sountrack and the theme song are perfect. I can't say enough about this movie. Simply excellent!!!


The "French flipper trick"   March 7, 2001
Blake Kleiner (Troy, Michigan United States)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

Oh, this movie is so sad! It really is! This is a fantastic movie simply because it isn't afraid to be all of the other things that the original "Batman" was, also: Funny, exciting, thrilling, haunting, dark, romantic, and endlessly clever. It also features three terrific performances from the three leads; Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight (Bruce Wayne), Michelle Pfeiffer looking hot as ever as the sleek and smooth Catwoman (Selena Kyle), and Danny Devito as the diabolically demonic Penguin (Oswald Cobblepot). And we can never forget Christopher Walken, playing Max Schreck (yeah, just like the guy who played Nosferatu), who is quite the fiend.

The film opens with a rather heartbreaking scene that sets the tone for the entire movie, which takes the lightheartedness of the Joker character in the original and tosses it right out the window. Instead, we have the emotionally scarred darkness of the Penguin, who was literally sent up the river like Baby Moses in a covered wicker baby basket on Christmas Eve simply because he wasn't a normal child born with five fingers instead of the shiny flippers he has extending from his wrists. Despite his ghastly, unsightly appearence and mangled people skills, we sympathize with the Penguin's plight simply because we would never wish what happened to him on our worst enemy. Sure, being sent up the river worked out fine for Moses, but Penguin is no Moses, and he is not on a mission from God. He's on a mission for a simple reason: Revenge. Revenge of biblical proportions by kidnapping every first born child in Gotham City, in honor of his own castaway status on Christmas Eve, more than 30 years prior. Meanwhile, we have the newly resurrected-from-cat-saliva Selena Kyle, who decides to try on a skintight vinyl suit with a whip draped around her feminine feline torso, desperate to avenge her "death" at the hands of her boss, Schreck. And amongst it all, Bruce Wayne is in love with Selena Kyle and trying to shut down the blatantly illegal operations of Schreck, trying to connect him to the Penguin, who he theorizes runs the Red Triangle Gang that terrorizes the streets. His hands are quite full as Batman, too: He is trying to stop Catwoman, is unaware of Selena's murder at the hands of Schreck, he knows that Penguin is up to something but can't prove it, and he is being framed. It's an amazingly confusing plot to explain, but it all works seamlessly through the carefully constructed pace of the film, for which I credit Tim Burton, whose direction is flawless, as usual. He keeps the characters interesting while making sure the background is just as visually stunning as Pfeiffer in that catsuit.

"Batman Returns" may take a few viewings to totally appreciate it, but you're astounded a little more each time. It's one of the best comic book movies ever made.


The only good Batman sequel   August 15, 2004
The No Evil Killer (Everywhere, Anywhere, Nowhere)
9 out of 15 found this review helpful

And a perfect film to watch during the holiday season as the winter/Xmas atmosphere that Burton creates for Gotham City is way cool. It's weird that Warner decided to release this as a summer film. It doesn't fit.

But what's even weirder, when you consider the content of this film, is that it was aimed at families. An upper-class family throws their mutant baby down the sewer, a sociophobic billionaire dresses up in leather as a flying rodent, a lonely secretary dresses up in leather as a feline and a freak runs for political office. And S&M and bondage are presented in a very perverted way. But Burton got away with it. His visual style in this film is at it's best.

This and Batman: Dead End are the only true live-action incarnations of the comic-book charcter. True, the animated series was the closest to the source material, but compared with Batman Forever and the un-nameable one after that, Batman Returns is the best of the four.

Darker and more violent than the first movie, the sense of gothic pathos reaches a new high. I was quite keen on Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne (don't even get me started on George Clooney!), he displayed the right balance of weirdo loner and cool crimefighter. Michelle Pfieffer is great as Catwoman (much sexier and more 'realisticly' cat-like), she wears that leather outfit better than Halle Berry. And Danny DeVito was so convincing as the Penguin that his scenes became disturbing to watch. And Christopher Walken is brilliant as the spooky Max Shreck (if you think you recognise Chip Shrek it's none other than a very young Leatherface/Butterfinger).

Danny Elfman's score is also even better than it was first time round. His powerful and engaging themes are way better than the dross that followed in the later 2 Schumacher movies. This movie is the Batman phenomenon at its Zenith. Forget the following sequels and stick to the animated series after this. Let's hope that Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale can bring some integrity back to the live action Batman with their movie next year.

This DVD was one of the first ever DVDs released by Warner (almost 7 years ago!!!) and as a result there are NO features and the case is a snapper. Pick it up cheap like I did and hope for an SE in the future.


Much atmosphere (and a rancid one at that). Little substance.   September 7, 2006
J. SHARP (Alabama - United States)
9 out of 26 found this review helpful

Visually stimulating and persistently off-kilter with a few well-acted, stylistically creative scenes (Pfeiffer's return home, the ballroom revelation) but primarily spooky, goofy, and disgusting. Heroism, excitement, and interesting characters are nowhere - and I mean nowhere - to be found.

I frequently had to remind myself that I was supposedly enduring a Batman movie. It's hard to remember that when a third of the picture is spent showing a slimy, fanged and flippered midget eat a raw fish whole as the contents of its bowels stream down his chin. All while he's running for mayor. Whee. I completely checked out when they rolled out the all-terrain rubber ducky and the rocket-launching penguins.

This film is essentially just two hours of Tim Burton pleasuring himself.