David Vining's Blog, page 142

The Informer

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John Ford was very busy through the 30s, releasing twenty-five films from 1930 through 1939. In that bevy of output, I think that The Informer stands above the rest. The best movie of this period in his career, a deeply melancholic character study of a man on a path of self-destruction after he does something he himself finds unconscionable. Getting a marvelous performance out of his star, John Ford also made one of the most visually sophisticated films of his career at the same time, creati...

The Whole Town’s Talking

This might be the earliest example of one actor playing two roles against each other. It’s definitely one of the earliest with Edward G. Robinson playing the dual roles of a mild mannered reporter and a vicious gangster, often in the same room and even the same shot. Long before Robert Zemeckis was using motion control to get Michael J. Fox in the same shot more than once for the Back to the Future sequels, John Ford did it with old fashioned filmmaking techniques like split screens and rear...

Judge Priest

An adaptation of Irvin S. Cobb’s comic character of the same name, Judge Priest is a thoroughly Southern and nostalgic look at post-Civil War Kentucky centered around Will Rogers’ titular character, based, assumedly, on a man Cobb knew in his youth. Much like Doctor Bull, this movie is largely carried by Rogers’ performance, an aw-shucks authority figure who holds his power lightly, happier to find an easy way through life than strictly applying the law at all costs. He’s a fun rock to build...

The Batman Franchise (Theatrically Released Feature Films): The Definitive Ranking

Well, that’s certainly the least cohesive set of movies that could be bundled together as a franchise I’ve gone through. Starting in the 60s as an offshoot of the popular, goofy, primetime television series and so far getting through Zack Snyder’s mythic approach to comic books including his extended cut of his team up film, Batman’s seen a lot of variations over the years. Heck, even the four movies from the late 80s to the late 90s are considered one “series”, and they go from Tim Burt...

The LEGO Batman Movie

It’s interesting that it feels like modern movies can’t just adhere to silliness. There has to be some level of emotional catharsis, and just as I felt like it clashed in Batman & Robin I feel like it clashes here in The LEGO Batman Movie. The bulk of this film is a gag-a-second survey of the history of the Batman franchise, but it has to have a lesson. The main character has to grow, and the growth has to be genuine. And I think it clashes horribly with the comedy.

The Batman created in ...

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

There are really two ways to go when adapting a television show, much like with sequels: you go bigger, or you go deeper. The live action adaptation of the 60s comedy show went bigger, bringing in all of the main villains together for one large plot. This feature film continuation of the animated series from the early 90s goes deeper, much deeper, possibly gaining and retaining the crown for the film version of the Caped Crusader that gets him best. And, in addition, the film is shockingly t...

Batman: The Movie

Made following the successful first season of the television series starring Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as the Boy Wonder, Batman: The Movie is the perfect distillation of what made the show so much fun to watch. Taking the dark, brooding character and giving him the fun, goofy take that the comics of the era had embraced, show director Leslie H. Martinson and writer Lorenzo Semple brought together as much of the cast as possible (with the only notable exception being Juli...

Batman & Robin

I’m going to come very slightly to Joel Schumacher’s defense here. No, I’m not going to go out on a limb and say that Batman & Robin is some kind of masterpiece in need of reappraisal. Instead, I’m going to say that the reason a lot of people say they don’t like this movie isn’t actually what’s wrong with this movie. Schumacher essentially made out to direct a big-budget episode of the Batman television series from the 60s. It’s obvious from the get go, and I think he would have been more su...

Batman Forever

And so the franchise machines goes on. The studio didn’t want Tim Burton back to continue infecting their movies about an orphaned child who grew up to beat up criminals in costume with gothic darkness, so they brought in Joel Schumacher to lighten up the affair. The leaving of Burton caused the departure of Michael Keaton as well, and Val Kilmer was cast in his place. So, what did Warner Brothers manage to get produced here? Essentially a confused toy commercial because the merchandizing sc...

Batman Returns

Much like the film that preceded it, Batman Returns is obviously built from several different scripts smooshed together. The difference is that it feels like either Daniel Waters, the final screenwriter, did his best to integrate the scripts into something surprisingly cohesive, or he got really lucky. I lean towards the former. The three main characters are all dealing with issues of duality, and that can’t be by accident.

Much like Burton’s first outing, Batman Returns nails the aesthet...