In Contention

Tag: Batman Returns

  • “We’re grown men, right?”

    I didn’t realize there was a Michael Keaton retrospective at the American Cinemateque right around the corner — as in, this weekend — until I read about it in this Geoff Boucher profile of the actor at the LA Times.

    Reading the unique look back at Keaton’s career, in his own words, I was reminded how much I genuinely love every performance he’s given and wish we could see more from him than we do these days. Maybe it’s residual admiration from the “Batman” days, as that film is, after all, the first event film that had me (and I’m sure millions of others) obsessing over a release date that couldn’t come soon enough. But Keaton has a spark and a charm that is singular, regardless.

    Anyway, the best part for Bat nuts is his recount of the 1989 blockbuster, which saw the actor in a personal funk that he says may have been good for the character.

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  • CINEJABBER: For Your Consideration, ‘Die Hard,’ Best Picture

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    Jeffrey Wells reminded me last weekend of Movieline’s latest restoration effort, i.e. providing scans of back issues and therefore keeping the magazines of the 1990s available and adding a bit of history to the newly designed outlet.  It also reminded me of an idea I had at Variety three years ago when I was writing the trade’s Oscar blog, Red Carpet District.

    Something people don’t know is that there is a small closet of a room (or at least it was a closet at the old digs across the street from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, not sure about the new tower down the street) full of handsomely bound back issues of Variety.  You’re talking decades of the print publication at your fingertips.

    But while it’s fun to go back and read old industry stories and news items, the best part is to grab a latter year volume, say something from December-January or February, and get a load of the for your consideration ads.

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  • Celebrating 25 years of Burton/Elfman collaborations

    In the “sign me up now, please” category today is a recently announced boxed set of Danny Elfman’s music collaborations with filmmaker Tim Burton.  I first heard about the limited edition set via the New York Times in a piece that went up on the Arts Beat blog yesterday.  It featured a video with Burton and Elfman discussing the monumental “Batman” score — talk about grabbing my attention.

    Anyone who knows me knows what role that 1989 superhero extravaganza played in my film-going youth.  But the idea that there might be some extra, never-before-heard material waiting in a vault somewhere?  Giddiness.  Pure giddiness.

    But it’s not just “Batman” stuff.  The set celebrates “the 25th anniversary of the ingenious collaboration” between the two singular artists, reads a press release that went out today.   “[The] numbered box set of 1000…collects expansions of the 13 original scores that Elfman has composed for Burton’s iconic films” and is “a newly produced library of 16 CDs each packaged with artwork by Burton, adding up to more than 19 hours of music.”  Wow.

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  • THE LISTS: My top 10 perennial must-watch Christmas movies

    Bill Murray in ScroogedTis the season, no?

    I found it rather perplexing that, with In Contention being on the scene for three Christmas seasons already, we’ve never set about putting together the obligatory “best Christmas films” list.  Well, I’m setting out to amend that oversight this holiday week with such a collective, but I don’t have the heart to call it a “best” list per se, so I’m giving it a different angle.

    Every year I have a few staples of the season that make their way into my DVD player or, in some instances — gasp! — my VCR, like new friends come home to visit before going back on the shelf for another 12 months stretch.

    Typically, I just can’t feel right about the holiday season without taking in the films on this list at least once.  They’ve slowly gelled into my “must-watch” Christmas movie list for various reasons: reminiscence, unavoidable television programming, uniqueness in the face of the typical seasonal film glut, etc.

    While there are a handful of classic, well-made staples that would be agreeable to the masses as far as quality is concerned, I think everyone’s list would be different when it comes to this kind of thing.  With that in my, my list of the top 10 perennial must-watch Christmas movies should give you some insight into who I am.

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  • Batman vs. Batman vs. Batman vs. Batman

    A…W…E…S…O…M…E: