Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageBatman (1989)
Director: Tim Burton
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
In everything but its commercial success, Batman most resembles Lynch's Dune: plotless, unfocused, barely held together by mind-blowing sets, gadgets and costumes, and by director Burton's visual flair. It begins with promising angles - is Batman crazed vigilante or hero? Will journos Vicki Vale (Basinger) and Alex Knox (Wuhl) win the Pulitzer for discovering him? Why does Bruce Wayne spend millions dressing up as a bat? - but all are abandoned half-way through for a straight slugging match between Good and Evil. Cackling, dancing, killing for sheer humour value and hogging the best one-liners, Nicholson's Joker makes The Witches of Eastwick seem restrained and pulls off the greatest criminal coup of the decade: stealing a whole movie. Though Keaton is a perfect Bruce Wayne, at the heart of the film, where a noir-ish, psychologically disturbed Batman should be, there are only a small actor and a couple of stunt doubles in an inflexible rubber suit. Basinger's role, on the other hand, is over-inflated, presumably in order to prove by her prescence, as with Aunt Harriet in the '60s series, that there's nothing kinky about a hero who likes to dress up in cape and leathers. In the end, one's reaction to Burton's blockbuster is little more than that of the Joker to Batman: 'Where did he get those wonderful toys?'Author: DW
Cast & crew
Director: Tim Burton
Producer: Jon Peters, Peter Guber
Cast: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough, Jack Palance, Jerry Hall full cast
Genre(s): Fantasy
Duration: 126 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Martin Provost discusses 'Séraphine'
Trevor Johnston talks to the director of 'Séraphine' about bringing a little known French painter back to life
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Stephen Poliakoff discusses 'Glorious 39'
Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Glorious 39’ is his first film for cinema since ‘Food of Love’ in 1997. Dave Calhoun met him
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
Steven Soderbergh on 'The Informant!' and 'The Girlfriend Experience'
We talk to Steven Soderbergh about his two forthcoming films: one featuring a porn star, the other a chubby Matt Damon
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now