Word: film
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...envisioned in the Time- Warner deal. Time's magazine and book publishing operations, which include TIME, PEOPLE, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and TIME-LIFE Books, might dovetail effectively with Paramount's book division. Time's cable television programming units, including Home Box Office and Cinemax, could mesh with Paramount's film-studio and television ventures. Time's cable-television systems would provide distribution vehicles for that product. Warner, meanwhile, has film, cable-TV and publishing units and differs from Paramount in owning the largest domestic record company. "Time would make a good fit with either Warner or Paramount," says Peter Appert...
Ambitious goals, most of which are not realized. The film stints on narrative surprise. It prowls -- slowly, so slowly -- in search of grandeur, but it often finds murk. It permits a few inside jokes (a cartoon of a bat in a suit, drawn by Kane), but mines its main humor from the Joker's ribald misanthropy ("This town needs an enema"). Batman's style is both daunting and lurching; it has trouble deciding which of its antagonists should set the tone. It can be as manic as the Joker, straining to hear the applause of outrage...
Inconsistencies abound. The Joker falls into a vat of toxic slime that eats the skin off his body but doesn't damage his signature deck of cards; when he gaily vandalizes some classic paintings, the film spells the museum's name two different ways; and when he starts tossing $20 million in cash onto the street, the good people of Gotham don't go into a looting frenzy and attack his perch. More important, the picture's first hour poses one big question: How will ace photographer Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) react when she learns that Bruce is Batman...
...worth saving, and yet, "It's just something I have to do," he says, "because nobody else can." Same with Nicholson. Who else could play the Joker? He has a patent on satanic majesty. His performance is high, soaring, gamy. He is as good, and as evil, as the film allows him to be. Which, finally, is not enough...
...series. And the younger generation, still devouring Batman comics in a new, hipper format. And, next week, moviegoers attending the opening of Batman, with Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne (alias the Caped Crusader) and Jack Nicholson as his nemesis the Joker. In a season when the other big-budget films are sequels, Batman should seem familiar yet fresh. At least Warner Bros., with $35 million riding on the film, hopes...