Touches You

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Yes, I gave it one star while everybody are jumping and cheering this "timeless classic". Here is why we in Eastern Europe utterly hate this movie.It was 1989. Communism was crippling. We already saw its end ahead. The red stars were still up, the Soviet Union was still there, but there were talks of their troops leaving Hungary after 40 years, and that free elections are ahead. It was an ecstatic moment of history. Optimism was everywhere and the once feared old commies were nothing but toothless lions any more. We knew that freedom is just around the corner and we'll soon live like Austrians or West Germans. I was 13 at the time, and felt like opening a big gift which contains my future.In these days this movie has arrived. It was the first one to have an American style marketing campaign. We've never experienced such a thing. Movies were played in the cinema, there were posters, maybe trailers on TV, and that's all. But this was something different now. It was more than just a movie. Batman was suddenly everywhere. They were talking about Batman on TV, there were Batman quiz shows on every radio, there were long educational sessions about who is Batman, how important he is to American culture. T-shirts, bags, stickers and everything else with the Batman logo appeared everywhere. You suddenly weren't cool if you didn't have at least one Batman item, at least a keychain. It was all like: OMG go and see this thing, BATMAN, you get it, BATMAN, your life isn't complete until you've seen BATMAN, how come you haven't seen BATMAN yet?! Remember. B-A-T-M-A-N. Got it?Needless to say, after such a campaign the Hungarians flocked into the cinemas to see this unmatched wonder. Gee, it must really be something big! After all, we are experiencing big things these days. Lenin's statues are falling, János Kádár, the Commie dictator has just bitten the dust, the Russkies are leaving, a McDonald's has just opened downtown, all right, so now we get another awesome thing, Batman, right?And then we left the cinema in eerie silence and utter disappointment. What the hell was this pointless clusterfuck?! A retarded show of banal tropes laced with wanton graphic violence. Who was the idiot who told us that this is a good movie? It was literally the worst thing we've ever seen!Suddenly Batman disappeared from Hungary as if it hasn't ever been there, and only a few Batman school bags indicated that it was ever there. But it wasn't a good idea to use it to school any more, unless you wanted to embarrass yourself for the rest of your studies.Batman turned out to be quite symbolic to us. The whole freedom thing was a similar scam. When we got it, we wished the Russians were back. And McDonald's turned out to be overpriced utter shit too, compared to the good old street burgers which were already sold everywhere by simple Hungarian businesses. Ironically, while their burgers were the symbol of change in the 1980s, now it's sold as "retro burgers" as a symbol of wishing those times back.

"Batman" is a franchise with a gigantic mythos that has spanned across various mediums with hundreds upon hundreds of contributors over the years, so naturally with each iteration there are going to be new ideas and variations. Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman" film is no exception, and this is not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of this is done very right- the scene design is very classic Gotham, and very intriguing, maintaining that signature gritty and gray smoggy city image while still architecturally interesting. The costume and prop designs are very comic book, Joker and Batman really pop out and look how they would in a comic, instead of having their colors muted to be more "realistic". There are some choices made here and there that are just kind of brilliant to me- when the news anchors have to not wear makeup and hairspray, I thought it was such a nice and darkly funny touch. As far as the acting goes, the performances here range from okay to phenomenal, with Jack Nicholson being the standout. His performance here is absolutely fantastic, and the range he maintains as Joker is amazing. Kim Bassinger's performance as Vikki Vale is also very good, and she makes good use of her plentiful screen time, with Robert Wuhl, Michael Gough, and Pat Hingle deliver solid performances as Alexander Knox, Alfred Pennyworth, and Commissioner Gordon, respectively. Michael Keaton as Batman/Bruce Wayne, however, doesn't do much for me. Keaton is by no means a bad actor, but he fails to deliver a lot of the personality traits that make Wayne and Batman so interesting as individual parts of the man's personality, and the way that these roles are portrayed are both very level with very little variation between the two. Keaton barely talks throughout the whole film, which doesn't help as he's on screen almost the entire time, and when he does speak, he doesn't really say anything that's very interesting or helpful. This becomes a problem as the film mostly just cycles between focusing on Wayne/Batman, Joker and his gang, Vikki Vale, or Knox, and because Joker is the most fun to watch, I found myself just waiting for him to be on screen again. My whole impression of this film is that it's just strange. It makes a lot of variations to the Batman mythos (no spoilers here, don't worry), that aren't necessarily bad choices, but they don't add a whole lot, particularly the changes made to Bruce's origin story. I do like some the changes that they made to the Joker, although the whole "secret identity" piece for him doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I actually didn't realize until AFTER I watched it that it was intended that people except for Bruce didn't know who he was- that really makes no sense. Come to think of it, the way that Bruce Wayne's identity is handled really makes no sense to- especially from the people in his inner circle (Alfred, seriously?) The biggest thing I had with this film is that I couldn't figure out the tone it wanted to have. Nicholson's Joker is great, but he's not extremely menacing per say, as he's just a big goof with a gun. And chemicals. And a bunch of goons. We can tell he's dangerous, but he's still kind of predictable. He mugs at somebody, makes some jokes, and then kills them, rinse repeat. The film has a gloomy tone, but it's shot a lot like a mainstream film, not doing a whole lot particularly new in the cinematography department, and the tone is kind of all over the place, so the emotion that's trying to be instilled is never really achieved, but this kind of seemed on purpose? This is what really confuses me. There's a lot of quiet talking, and then all of sudden Joker just kind of pops up with a bunch of dudes playing some Prince music and dances around, and you can tell Nicholson's really putting in his all here, but it just doesn't hit the mark I think that they should have been going for. He's not scary, really, he's just fun. There's also a handful of plot inconsistencies, as well as full on plot holes, that don't necessarily bring the film down, but they are certainly there. With the addition of a few hammy lines, a runtime that feels a little bloated, as well as some under utilized supporting cast (it feels like Harvey Dent and Commissioner Gordon are just here because you're supposed to have them for a Batman story, and I really think Dent could've been dropped altogether, although I did want to see more of Gordon), the movie gets dragged to just being a strange, yet fun time. Really what this comes down to, for me, is style over substance- the design is great, and fits the intent well, but the acting is just overall good, not great, and the plot really couldn't get me to care a whole lot at all. I would recommend this film for any Batman fan, and any film fan, really, if not just to see Nicholson's performance, because as I keep saying, he is SO fun to watch. 7.2/10

This movie of Batman is properly one of my top 5 movies at the moment. Jack Nicolson was very funny as the Joker in this movie especially when his goons were painting everything in the art gallery. Micheal Keaton was very good as Batman in this movie even though I prefer Christian Bale and Ben Affleck. But overall this movie was good and I would recommend it to a Batman fan.

Keaton and Nicholson are making the movie worth watching, but just barely. Basing's character behaves oddly, one moment she is the strong woman taking initiative, the other she is the victim.The fundamental issue with the movie is the screenplay; it's just poor, with things occurring that doesn't make any sense. Comparing it to the Nolan trilogy (that has excellent writing) this movie is almost laughably bad, although super hero movies did not take themselves seriously back in the day, the writing could have been so much better.I rate it 6/10, worth watching if you like Batman, but it's actually a rather dull movie. Don't expect it to be anywhere near the quality of the new Batman films.