Thursday – 25 July 2019
The Lady SaraRules! has made it her current mission to watch all four of the 80s/90s Batman movies:

We watched Batman a few nights ago. While a bit dated, I still enjoy it. Although, I admit that Burton’s concept of a Batman who kills misses the mark a bit. I actually enjoy both Keaton’s Bruce Wayne and his Batman.

We watched Batman Returns last night. I seemed to recall that I thought the movie was “okay,” when I originally saw it, but that it felt a little… “off.” Watching it again, I found that it was not only “not good,” but that it was steeped in sexual… I can’t really call it “innuendo,” because there was absolutely no subtlety to it.

Tonight, we’re watching Batman Forever. I remember enjoying this movie years ago. Even going so far as to defend it against naysayers. I watched it again a few years ago and discovered that nostalgia (and lack of age/sophistication) when I originally saw it colored my opinion. That is to say: “It ain’t a great movie.” I’d daresay that the best part of this movie is its soundtrack. This movie was also the beginning of the end of the Batman franchise for nearly twenty years. Joel Schumaker, who directed both this and its follow-up, has gone on the record as saying that he thought that audiences wanted a campy film, more in the vein of the 60s televsion show. (a Not the case.) And I never really paid attention to some of the musical cues before; there seem to be some call-backs to the way they used music in the 60s show. Holy crap. I forgot that Drew Barrymore was in this!

At some point, Sara wants to watch Batman and Robin (or “Robin II,” as my friend Nizlee calls it). She is on her own for that one. I haven’t watched that movie since seeing in the theatre over 20 years ago… and I don’t really see a reason to break that streak. And the best part of this movie really is its soundtrack.

Maybe I’ll be able to convince Sara to watch Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. I mean for the sake of completion, of course.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) – Kevin Conroy

We shall see…