The Cable Guy

HYSTERICAL AM I RIGHT?!

"There's No Such Thing as Free Cable"

A point I feel Comcast is constantly trying to establish by alternatively letting my cable go out and then increasing rates. I feel like I should pay them for 2/3rds of the month, which is the percentage of the time that I actually have functioning service. BUT THAT IS A STORY FOR SOME OTHER TIME. Welcome back to the Tagline, where I am the submissive and you are all my dominant. Or something. I assume there will be a point in the future where I stop ridiculing 50 Shades for being the worst piece of garbage ever, but that time friends is not now. In the meantime let's talk about something else. Have you folks ever seen the Cable Guy? You know, that movie about the guy and the cables? Well we're talking about that today, so tune in and listen up. The Cable Guy is weird from beginning to end, and goes to a dark place... a place many of us have been really. For starters, this movie was directed by Ben Stiller (who also appears in the movie... twice technically) and produced by Judd Apatow, which probably explains why Leslie Mann is here. Also Jack Black but back to the movie. The Cable Guy stars everyone's... favorite guy Matthew Broderick as Steve Kovacs, who following a failed proposal is on the outs with his girlfriend Robin (Mann) and so moving into his own apartment. He gets some questionable advice from Jack Black about convincing his cable guy to let him steal some movie channels on the cheap, but his cable guy Chip (Jim Carey) hooks him up, making him a "preferred customer". He also convinces Steve to hang out with him the next day. Shit pretty much goes all downhill from there.

Batman Returns

Those poor penguins.

"The Bat, the Cat, the Penguin"

Hello everyone, welcome back to The Tagline! Tonight I thought I would warm up for the big day by doing a Christmasy movie, and what says 'tis the season more than an army of subterranean penguins rising to the surface to murder all the firstborn children? Nothing, that's what, so I'm going to be following up on my earlier post covering Batman and talking tonight about Batman Returns (which for all you folks wondering, IS also on Netflix, for your viewing pleasure). This movie was the tumultuously produced sequel to the 1989 film, and was very nearly nothing at all like it ended up being, for a variety of reasons. For starters, Tim Burton, cinematic genious and master of the new and inventive (I'm being sarcastic!) was very hesitant to make another Batman, having been dissatisfied with the results of his first outing. He said he would only return if the movie offered something "new and exciting", though that didn't seem to be an issue when he made the Corpse Bride. OTHERWISE he said it was "a most dumbfounded idea." which is funny because that's not what that word means. There's a Princess Bride joke in there but I can't be bothered to make it, I'm sure you can all do it for yourselves. Anyway, despite his lukewarm feelings on the matter, after directing Edward Scissorhands, Burton came around, once he was given more creative control, which allowed him to make this movie feel a lot like Edward Scissorhands. As much as I think Tim Burton is a tool who basically hasn't made a movie OTHER than Edward Scissorhands since like 1993 (when he made The Nightmare Before Christmas) Batman Returns is probably one of the most original and excellent things he has ever done. Maybe not as profound as he might like to think (wow really the real villains are corporations?) but still great. It almost wasn't great though. It was almost about Penguin and Catwoman searching for a buried treasure or some bullshit like that. That sounds like some Adam West-era garbage. Also they considered the Penguin trying to make Gotham colder (a thing they actually DID in Batman & Robin god help us) but Tim Burton correctly demanded a rewrite with a plot that was less stupid, so I am at least grateful for that.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Turtle power!

"Heroes in a half shell!"

Hello friends, welcome back, to the Thursday edition of The Tagline, where movies are things that dominate most of your waking hours. Today I once again peer into the maelstrom of streaming media, and pluck out a gem from 1990, which if anyone was wondering is now about 25 years ago. I'm talking about those totally radical dudes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In particular I am talking about the first live action outing, not the one with that totally fresh Vanilla Ice song (haha I made a funny). This film was an interesting attempt to capitalize on the success of the TMNT in the mid to late 80s, first as a comic book and then later as a tv cartoon/merchandise and toys fuckstorm. This film acts as an origin story for the turtles, and also chronicles their first battle with the Foot and Shredder. An interesting thing to think about before I talk about the movie in greater detail, is that you are in somewhat perilous waters when you are trying to market a series that is about ninjas to children, because ninjas as a rule are assassins, in other words their job is murdering people. The original comic wasn't really intended for the kiddie audience, and so as it became mainstream concessions were made. At the end of the day though, they are still "ninjas" and that can cause problems. For instance censorship is apparently pretty wacky in the UK, and they changed the name to Teenage Mutant Hero turtles for the 1987 cartoon, and also in all of the original movie releases (the original trilogy) they censored out in particular Michelangelo's nunchaku, because I don't know. Maybe in the past the UK had a serious issue with ninjas that we just didn't hear about in the US. The point is, the movies were stuck toeing a fine line between boring and too violent, with varying degrees of success depending on the movie.

Addams Family Values

Kooky spooky etc etc.

"The Family Just Got A Little Stranger."

Hello and Happy Post-Thanksgiving Friday Consumer Nightmare! Maybe you've been out shopping, or maybe you're not mental and you stayed home, but either way, there's always good flicks on at the Tagline. As you all may or may not be aware, it's kind of tough to find Thanksgiving themed movies, because there frankly aren't that many of them (as opposed to say Christmas movies). For 2012's offering, check out this link, but I have a really good one this year. I guess you could debate whether or not it's actually a Thanksgiving movie, but I feel like there are some really great related moments, and also that there's a lot of thanks-giving going on. So without further ado, let's talk a bit about Addams Family Values, the 1993 sequel to the 1991 film based around the Addams Family characters created by Charles Addams in 1938. This movie sees the return of the original's cast (mostly, I think that the actress who portrayed Grandmama changed between movies). Raul Julia in what is perhaps his most remembered popular role, portrays Gomez Addams (okay maybe his most remembered role was as M. Bison, but I'm trying to draw attention away from that disaster), alongside Anjelica Huston as Morticia. Christopher Lloyd features as Uncle Fester, and a twelve year old Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams. The family is rounded out by Wednesday's brother Pugsley, the Frankenstein's monster-esque caretaker of the house Lurch, the disembodied hand Thing, and in this movie we don't see too much of Cousin Itt, but he does show up briefly (and of course Morticia's weird witch-like mother Grandmama). This film opens with the family welcoming a new member, the recently born and grossly named Pubert. In typical child fashion, Wednesday and Pugsley are none too pleased with the new arrival, and set about trying to murder the kid, but fail because this isn't a movie about murdered babies (Not primarily at least).

The Rocketeer

Come on look at how sweet this poster is.

"Three years before the United States declares war, Cliff Secord leads America's first battle against the Nazis."

Hello all and welcome back to a new week at the Tagline, with Thanksgiving right around the corner! Starting this week I am implementing the first wave of changes to the way I conduct this blog, though this part at least probably won't result in a noticeable front-end change. Just thought I would share! Anyway, let's start off the week right, with a story about Nazis and airships and rocket packs. Also as promised, this will be an excursion into another Disney movie! Today I will be talking about the 1991 movie The Rocketeer, This movie was based on the comic of the same name, featuring a airplane stunt pilot named Cliff Secord who after a series of chance occurrences comes into possession of a experimental rocket pack that was being developed by Howard Hughes. During the misadventure that led to him acquiring the rocket pack Cliff's airplane was shot to pieces and then blown up, leaving him with a sore need for a new source of income. This causes him and his partner Peevy to keep the thing, but this has consequences they maybe didn't anticipate, such as the rocket pack being missed by certain individuals. For starters a bunch of mob types with machine guns trying to get it back, and intending to give it to the guy who paid to have it stolen in the first place. Howard Hughes meanwhile believes the pack was destroyed, and is glad because the government wanted to use it as a weapon. The movie is set in 1938, so we're talking about a country just coming out of the depression and nearing war against the Nazis. Don't worry though, just because the U.S. hadn't entered the war yet doesn't mean there won't be plenty of fascists.

Anaconda

Is this The Nightman Cometh?

"When You Can't Breathe You Can't Scream"

Hello everyone, it is that time again! Welcome back to more from The Tagline, where terrible movies I saw that one time are king! Recently (last Thursday actually) there was a live Rifftrax presentation of the fantastically not good snake movie Anaconda. This reminded me that Anaconda was a movie that happened, for better or worse. So today I figured I'd share that recollection with you, and review ANACONDA, the least scary movie involving snakes ever made. Starring Jennifer Lopez as a documentary maker named Terri Florez who is attempting to locate the elusive Shirishamas tribe in the Amazon. This is also a region of the world where enormous, 70 mile long snakes who are all powerfule burst through boats and try to kill Danny Trejo (not before he shoots himself though!). For those wondering, the longest verified Anacondas range around the 25 ft marker, but firsthand reports have reached such outlandish numbers as 145 ft. This movie capitalizes on that absurdity, and so JLo ventures out into the jungle, along with Ice Cube, Owen Wilson, Kari Wuhrer (the queen of B-horror T&A) and that foppish british guy from The Mummy. Oh also there's some other guy but he gets stung by a deadly wasp and is basically not in most of the movie. This crew of mostly incompetents ventures into the Amazon aboard a ship captain by the second most obviously untrustworthy person in this film. After a short trip down the amazon into a massive rainstorm, the group meets the FIRST most untrustworthy person in the movie, Jon Voight's character Paul Serone, a man who is perpetually saying vaguely threatening things and leering at everyone. He may as well be wearing a high collared cape and be cackling while he ties maidens to train tracks. I assume the movie taking place in the jungle is the only reason he was NOT tying people to train tracks.

So I Married an Axe Murderer

I love axe murdering.

"The Honeymoon Was Killer."

Hello folks, welcome back to the Tagline, where it's all Mike Myers movies from the early 90s as far as the eye can see. After going on my Wayne's World bender earlier in the week, and while doing research for my post on the matter, I came across a movie so thoroughly forgotten that it had even slipped MY mind for a moment. This was 1993's So I Married an Axe Murderer, a movie that properly speaking had no right to be good OR entertaining, because it was dopey and simplistic at its core. Despite that, I actually really like it and think it's a really funny movie, in no small part thanks to Myers and also the general enthusiasm of the cast. So let's talk about it! So I Married an Axe Murderer was the first movie Mike Myers made after Waynes World 2, and it cuts a similar tone despite a very different premise. In this film Myers plays a beat poet named Charlie who lives in San Francisco. He seems really terrible, but people like him, so maybe I just don't know what a GOOD beat poet is like. Charlie has lousy luck with the ladies, mostly because he is paranoid and a commitophobe, constantly finding reasons or forming theories about reasons why his girlfriends aren't right for him. Around this time he meets Harriet, a local butcher who he immediately takes a liking to. The only catch is that he begins to suspect that she might be a black widow, as some of her strange behavior, along with a tabloid story about "Mrs. X" gets his imagination really running. Charlie has his friend Tony, who is a cop, looking into it. Tony himself has his own problems, centered around how disenchanted he is with actual police work, and how boring it is. Basic premise established, kind of a mixed bag of rom-com cliches along with some other thoroughly random bits, but really the random bits are what makes the movie entertaining.

Wayne's World Double Post

Party time, Excellent!! WOOWOOWOO

"You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll hurl."

Good morning boys and girls. Today I'm going to do something a little different, but that is really not and is actually the same. Because that's what the game is all about, promising something new while delivering the same old bullshit as always! I decided over the weekend that I really wanted to watch Wayne's World, and then I realized afterwards that I also REALLY wanted to watch Wayne's World 2, so I did that also. I mostly wanted to write a review about Wayne's World 2, but I felt like that would be wrong, just focusing on the bizarre sequel and leaving out the movie that made it all possible. So I'm going to compromise and do a little bit about each film, and the ways that I liked them both. So let's start at the beginning! In the before times, long long ago, people watched Saturday Night Live, and Mike Myers was on it instead of being sentenced to play Shrek for literally the rest of his life (presumably this was some condition of the devil's bargain he made to become rich and famous). So Wayne's World was a recurring segment on SNL where Myers would play Wayne Campbell. a rocker guy who, along with his friend Garth Algar (Dana Carvey in maybe his all-time least hate-able roll) host a public access show where they basically do dumb stuff that is amusing in a public access kind of way, mostly talking about how much they like metal and hot babes, and tricking their local guests into saying gross and/or profane things. As a sketch featuring TWO SNL cast members who were going to hit the big screen (though obviously one a LOT harder than the other) it is not really surprising in retrospect that Wayne's World became a feature film. The basic premise of the movie is expanded on the sketch: Wayne and Garth do their show in Wayne's parents' basement, and attract the attention of a TV executive, Benjamin Kane (Rob Lowe, who decides he can make some money off of it and so sends one of his producers to try and figure out where the show is taped, so they do some sleazy contract signing, because 90s movies love to be about sleazy Hollywood guys. Wayne is on board, but Garth has doubts, but being the mumbly weirdo he is, he doesn't say anything about it. The two spend their new-found wealth the way you might expect, by going to rock concerts and buying expensive guitars and stuff.  It is at one such concert that Wayne meets Cassandra Wong (Tia Carrere) and starts spending a lot of time with her which causes DRAMA.

Cool as Ice

Okay, this situation is starting to really get grisly. I mean what am I supposed to do, go see THE NINJA TURTLE MOVIE? That doesn't seem like an awesome life choice, and I just hope it doesn't come to that. Not that their weird little Shrek ears aren't endearing or anything I just... if Vanilla Ice isn't in the movie then really what's the point. Hmm... okay, fuck it, since I'm grasping around for ideas about a movie to talk about, and now I'm thinking about Vanilla Ice, let's just commit and do this thing...

...oh good god this is the worst tagline ever.

"When a girl has a heart of stone, there's only one way to melt it. Just add Ice."

COOL AS ICE

Hackers

CAN YOU FEEL THE EXCITEMENT.

"Hack The Planet!"

Hello everyone, welcome to a fresh week of excitement here at The Tagline! Last night, in a moment of weakness I asked my Facebook for movie suggestions, and I don't know why I was surprised at the outcome. While there were a fair number of varied suggestions (many of which you will most likely see over the coming weeks) there was also a public outcry for me to review Hackers, a thing that I desperately did not want to do (as you may remember, earlier this year I reviewed another 90s cyberthriller, Sandra Bullock's The Net). Still, as reluctant as I might have been, the people spoke, loudly, and some of them said cusswords at me to emphasize their point, which I returned in high volume (which is to say I swore loudly, at my computer screen). The end result was that I decided I had to watch Hackers, in all its mysterious computers of the early 90s glory, only not actually because I question whether the people who made this movie had ever seen a computer. If you were not around in the 90s, or just suppressed this part of them feverishly when trying to craft an idyllic picture of your past, cyberthrillers pretty much had their day at the early to mid section of the 90s, when computers and the internet were just common enough that people knew they were a thing, but had no idea how they functioned or what mad wizards operated them. People mostly STILL don't have any idea, but they know at least what computers look like and that you can browse Facebook on them. Hackers stars Jonny Lee Miller (who mostly went on to a career in TV, but remember him in Aeon Flux?) as Dade Murphy AKA CRASH OVERRIDE, a high senior with a past as a hacker (when he was like 10) that gave him both a record and a reputation. Despite his bad history with the law and the net, he can't stay away from those tasty, crispy cyberwaves, or what the fuck ever they decide is thematically appropriate slang in this movie. Dade immediately falls in with a group of hackers upon moving to NYC and arriving at his new school, and that's when things start to get complicated. He finds himself quickly caught up in a complex web of plots and futuristic looking 3D animations, as his friends become the targets of a set-up that will allow inveterate asshole Plague (Fischer Stevens who was most notably also in The Super Mario Bros movie ouch) to steal 25 million dollars from the company he works as security for. Everyone needs a scapegoat I guess!

Blast From the Past

Look at this just... awful cover.

"She'd never met anyone like him. He's never met anyone... Period."

Hi everyone, we're rounding out into the back end of the week, and I couldn't be more full of hate. Naturally when I feel this way I feel the need to lash out at those around me, and that includes you, my fine readers. To that end, I thought I'd do something really hateful, which is to expose you to a Brendan Fraser movie, because that's just the worst I can come up with on short notice. I considered George of the Jungle, but in the end I settled on Blast from the Past, because George of the Jungle had that super cool gorilla and Leslie Mann, and that's not nearly as bad as being trapped in a film with ALICIA FUCKING SILVERSTONE. Yeah you heard me right, as in Clueless, or worse yet BATMAN AND ROBIN. Yeah, I'm going there. If you're hoping that the movie's premise will soften the blow well... maybe temper your expectations. Blast from the Past was a film released right on the bleeding edge of the millennium, but still steeped in the mysticism of the 90s. It stars Mr. Fraser as Adam, a 35 year old man who, thanks to his paranoid father (who was convinced like so many that communists would end the world by starting WWIII) has lived his whole life in a self-sustaining fallout shelter. As such, he is incredibly naive, despite being a sort of 1950s style renaissance man. After 35 years on lockdown, Adam's father Calvin (Christopher Walken) ventures into the outside world. He believes he has emerged into a post-apocalyptic warscape, filled with a degenerate brand of barbaric humanity, but actually he is just in a shitty part of Los Angeles, which does admittedly seem like it's trying to get ahead of the apocalyptic curve. Deciding they should stay underground forever, Calvin tries to venture out for supplies, but after suffering chest pains decides that Adam will need to brave the fearsome nightmare that is LA.

The Net

SPECIAL DVDITION.

"Her driver's license. Her credit cards. Her bank accounts. Her identity. DELETED."

Hello Tagliners, welcome back, this week I decided that I'd greet this fine new year by taking a look back. But then I couldn't STOP looking back, and I just looked further and further and eventually I was all the way back in 1995 and I had no way of getting back to the present and instead had to watch old cyber thrillers. That's right, today we're going to take a look back at the internet as imagined by the brain trusts of Hollywood in 1995. This crack team of geniuses produced The Net, a film where Sandra Bullock stars as Angela Bennett, a computer programmer who works remotely, and has no friends in the real world. I think that covers most people in the world now, but in 1995 I guess it was a pretty novel concept, anyway Angela stumbles into some kind of conspiracy, because this is the 90s, and then her entire identity is erased and she can't prove who she is and everyone thinks she is a hooker and they want to kill her. I'll explain more but I mean the real great thing here is that Angela Bennett is such a recluse, that there are literally TWO people in the world who even recognize her by her face. Now that is some pretty epic hermit action. I mean granted they didn't have Facebook for her to post selfies to all day long but still, I think most people probably have at least THREE others who would recognize them and be able to vouch for them not being a prostitute who was in Mexico.

Can't Hardly Wait

I like this dumb movie so much it's embarrassing.

"Yesterday's history. Tomorrow's the future. Tonight's the party."

Hey everyone! It's Thursday, you've almost survived the whole week! I was going to wait until late in the Spring to post about this movie, but my friend sent me some choice video clips, and that got me to thinking about it. So today I will be talking about my favorite party teen movie of the 90s: Can't Hardly Wait. Starring (primarily) Ethan Embry as awkward high school grad Preston Meyers, on the night of a big post-graduation party. His long-distance, all high school crush Amanda Beckett (Jennifer Love-Hewitt) has just been dumped by her high school boyfriend Mike Dexter (Peter Facinelli). Preston sees this as his big chance to finally confess his feelings, before he misses it, and so heads off to the part, dragging along his reluctant friend Denise (Lauren Ambrose) along with him. At the same party, bullied super nerd William Lichter (Charlie Korsmo) plans to exact his ultimate revenge on Mike, for a lifetime worth of abuse, and awful gangsta' wannabe Kenny (Seth Green) is planning... perhaps somewhat fancifully, to score before the night is out. What follows is a post high school cluster fuck of a party, that leaves everything forever changed... or not changed.

The Crow

Looks serious right? it is.

"In a world without justice, one man was chosen to protect the innocent."

Hello everyone, welcome back to The Tagline after my short weekend away! I did NOT give away a copy of The Crow to anyone, but now I will review it for all of you. It seems appropriate with the approach of Halloween! You see, there was a time once called the 1990s. During this time, now lost to history and left only in fable and myth, everything was super deadly serious, no matter how ridiculous it might have seemed. Paradoxically no one cared about anything, because that was super uncool. Out of this fertile bed of alternativeness sprang The Crow, a film direct by Alex Proyas, who also later directed Dark City, the first movie I reviewed on The Tagline in its current incarnation. The Crow was loosely based on a comic series of the same name, about a musician named Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) who is murdered, along with his fiance on October 30th, in a urban gothic hellscape version of Detroit (slightly worse than real Detroit).

Almost Heroes

Like Tommy Boy, if it were
about Manifest Destiny

"Almost History... Almost Legends... Mostly Ridiculous."

Hey gang, welcome to Thursday at The Tagline! Today I thought I'd pick from a genre I more seldom address, and review a movie that most audiences that saw it enjoyed, and that virtually every critic who reviewed it hated: Almost Heroes. For those who were about 10 in 1998 when it came out (and I was 11) Almost Heroes starred Matthew Perry as the foppish explorer Lesley Edwards, and Chris Farley as his boorish partner Bartholomew Hunt. Together, the two set out in search of the western edge of North America, following in the wake of Lewis & Clark, in the hopes of beating them to planting a flag on the beaches of the Pacific. This endeavor is hindered by the fact that Edwards is a dandy, and Hunt is a drunken imbecile. Also the crew accompanying them includes some of the most incompetent simpletons one could hope to find. Among them is a crazed Frenchman and his indian woman (their group's version of Sacajawea), a priest, a dumb guy who loses several limbs, and Edwards' man servant (played by Bokeem Woodbine, you saw him in Total Recall) who is essentially the only person in the group who isn't braindead, except maybe the indian woman. Along their way, Edwards and Hunt are waylayed by their own stupidity, the French guy being really jealous of anyone looking at his Indian lady, and also an insane conquistador named Hidalgo, and his henchmen. Yadda yadda hilarity ensues.

Blank Man

Damon Wayans really jumped off a building
for this picture. He died after.

"Coming to save your butt!"

Happy Tuesday everyone! As promised, this week I resume reviewing my regular fare, and will start off with a movie which I watched almost enough to make up for the fact that basically no one else did. Starring Damon Wayans as Darryl Walker, a power nerd appliance repairman who's obsessed with being a superhero, because he watched way too many episodes of the 60s Batman tv show when he was little. Daryl invents a variety of really budget gadgets essentially made out of garbage, along with a special solution that makes clothing impervious to attacks. Special tools and a bullet proof costume don't change the fact that Darryl is a maladjusted, spastic dork, and so his initial attempts at fighting crime in a beleaguered city are... middling at best. However with the help of his washing machine robot J5 (I assume this is a Short Circuit reference?) and his brother Kevin (David Alan Grier) Darryl squares off against mob boss Michael Manelli in an attempt to bring him to justice.

The Craft

Prepare to travel back in time.

"Welcome to the witching hour."

The witching hour to be more specific, was early May, 1996. I promised to spend the whole week reviewing movies without explosions, and technically this follows that. Mostly. Shut up.

When I think about the '90s, no movie to me more embodies the very middle of the era than The Craft. The craft centers around the new girl coming to a catholic high school, where she falls in with three weirdos who practice witchcraft, they all start practicing witchcraft, and then they use it to do really petty, nasty things to all the people who they feel have wronged them in some way. They each represent their own archetype of 'disenfranchised high-schooler who wants to get even. Robin Tunney, following her performance the previous year in Empire Records (though you may better know her today as Special Agent Lisbon on TNT's The Mentalist) portrays Sarah Bailey, a 16 year old girl with suicidal tendencies in her past, along with a history of hallucinations. Neve Campbell, probably best remembered as Julia Salinger on Party of Five or Sidney from the Scream franchise, portrays Bonnie, a girl with severe burns that make her the subject of bullying. Rachel True, who honestly never went to do much of anything (she has since had a handful of bit parts on tv shows and tv movies) plays Rochelle, a girl picked on mercilessly by the popular crowd because they are great big racists, and Rochelle is the only African-American student in the whole school.

Mercury Rising

Yeah, so it's another Bruce Willis movie.

"Someone knows too much."

Look at the boastful poster! It claims this was Bruce Willis' best film yet. That's ridiculous because it came out after all 3 Die Hards, The Fifth Element, The Jackal, 12 Monkeys and Hudson Hawk! (hahaha just kidding Hudson Hawk totally sucks ass, but those other ones I meant.) I wanted to prove to everyone, and maybe also myself, that I could provide a negative review to a Bruce Willis movie, while not having to watch or talk about Hudson Hawk in depth. This is that movie.

True Lies

Classic.

"When he said I do, he never said what he did."

Today I'm going to talk about one of my favorite Shwarzenegger movies, True Lies. This movie proves the rule that I will always be convinced of:; James Cameron makes good action movies. The instant he tries to stretch beyond that scope in any way, trying to make something 'significant' or dramatic, you end up with Titanic, or Avatar, two movies which I cannot express sufficient dislike for. When he isn't trying to be super deep man, He has pretty consistently produces good action flicks (Terminator 1 and 2, Aliens, and of course this movie). The best part of this movie, and the part that so many reviewers seemed to miss, is that it never stops to take itself very seriously. A lot of the complaints reviewers seemed to have at the time this movie came out dealt with the improbability of various scenes, and those people are really missing the point. The movie is action, but it's also comedy. Let's get right to it!

Batman & Robin

"Strength. Courage. Honor. And loyalty. On June 20, it ALL comes together..."

I can't forget, so you don't get to either.

With two well composed, dramatic and suspenseful Christopher Nolan Batman movies behind us, and another hitting theaters later this month, it can be easy to forget that there was a time when the Batman franchise almost died, under the irresponsible care of Joel Schumacher. The sordid history of Batman as a movie franchise began in 1992, when Warner Bros decided that Batman Returns had under-grossed in theaters. For the record, Batman Returns gross 266 million dollars, which admittedly makes it the second lowest grossing batman movie to date after Batman & Robin. Also to be considered however is that Batman & Robin was made in 1998 with a budget of 125 million, whereas Batman Returns was made on a budget of only 80 million. In short, while it didn't gross nearly as well as the first Batman, it was still undeniably a financial success. (If you're wondering, The Dark Knight is estimated to have grossed in excess of a billion dollars worldwide, almost 200 million dollars more than the first 4 movies combined). Warner Bros. decided that the reason Batman Returns did so 'badly' was because it was too dark and violent. They decided that they needed a more 'family friendly' approach to Batman, resulting in the sharp turn the franchise took into Batman Forever, and the fiery crash that is Batman & Robin.