By The Numbers, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69028880
The Batman - (2022)
I have to confess right off the bat (no pun intended) - I'm not really a Batman fan. I am a fan of Tim Burton's initial
Batman film, and Christopher Nolan's second entry in his trilogy -
The Dark Knight - but I never read comics as a kid. Most comic book superhero movies do nothing for me, but there are notable exceptions.
Joker was one of the best films of 2019 for me, if not
the best. The first two Superman films to feature Christopher Reeve were fantastic.
X-Men First Class and
Logan are up there.
Dredd made up for the crime that was Danny Cannon's
Judge Dredd, which Stallone and Armand Assante made laughable. These are the exceptions - but they are great exceptions. Whenever a new comic book character-inspired film is coming out, I'm not one of those people champing at the bit to see it. Once one has rave reviews and great box office returns however, I decide to check it out - so of course I had to see
The Batman.
We were going to get here eventually - Batman films were getting darker and darker, so after Nolan took things a step further than Burton we seem to be getting one now that has been inspired by Fincher's
Se7en. The Riddler - far from a prancing Jim Carrey, has now been directly correlated with real-life serial killer The Zodiac. I don't mind these two aspects to
The Batman at all. What did throw me a little though was our semi-goth Bruce Wayne - alone, depressed and with an emo look that he has down pat. I found that bizarre - and the 3-hour long movie a little bloated and grindingly dispiriting. Gotham is so corrupt and crime-ridden it now resembles the New York of
Escape From New York. The finale was grand however, and brilliantly put together. John Turturro was
wonderful as Carmine Falcone - perfect casting. For fans, this seems like an interesting take on the character that some might love. For me though, the great and good balances with the bad to get me into middling territory. Perhaps in time I'll love it more, or hate it more - but it's also possible this will end up my only viewing of
The Batman. If the sequel pans out and is great though, I'll watch this again.
6.5/10
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Clueless - (1995)
I don't know what to say here because
everyone loves this film so much and I didn't like it. So never mind this review and rating.
5/10
For whatever reason, the film didn't tickle my funny bone, and the silly, dumb teenage stuff grated on me. I liked that it was a modernized version of
Emma, and the performances were okay - but where others see quotable quote after quotable quote all I saw was a movie that differed too much from my usual taste.