Batman/Honey, I Shrunk the Kids/Tummy Trouble/Ghostbusters II/Kung-Fu Master!
- Episode aired Jun 24, 1989
- TV-PG
Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert review Batman (1989), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), Tummy Trouble (1989), Ghostbusters II (1989) and Kung-Fu Master! (1988).Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert review Batman (1989), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), Tummy Trouble (1989), Ghostbusters II (1989) and Kung-Fu Master! (1988).Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert review Batman (1989), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), Tummy Trouble (1989), Ghostbusters II (1989) and Kung-Fu Master! (1988).
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Gene Siskel - Host: [reviewing "Batman"] Director Tim Burton obviously wants to recall the original comic book look, as well as tell a more adult kind of story. And that adult approach is what I found so refreshing about this "Batman" movie. We have so many films these days that are being made for the teenage audience, films that look like overblown TV shows. Here's a picture with adult stars, troubled characters, and a dark look. It's a shame that approach has to be considered a risk these days, but I'm certainly glad the approach was taken. I enjoyed this Batman.
Roger Ebert - Host: You say you enjoyed it more than any of the other entertainment pictures this summer. I certainly didn't think it was as much fun as the Indiana Jones film.
Gene Siskel - Host: More- more for me.
Roger Ebert - Host: And, uh...
Gene Siskel - Host: I felt like I had been through that one before.
Roger Ebert - Host: As I looked at it, the thing that struck me most of all was the art direction.
Gene Siskel - Host: Absolutely.
Roger Ebert - Host: Gotham City, in this movie, is one of the original places in the movies. I thought it was very well done. It reminded me of places like Metropolis...
Gene Siskel - Host: Right.
Roger Ebert - Host: ...In the movie by Fritz Lang. Or, the futuristic Los Angeles like in the movie "Blade Runner" by Ridley Scott. So I thought that the art direction was sensational. I thought the special effects were good. I thought those buildings went up a mile and a half into the sky. I thought that the dark, film noir look of the film was very nice, but I DIDN'T CARE about anything that happened in the film. I never found that these characters became people that I could get involved with. I felt that Jack Nicholson...
Gene Siskel - Host: What about...
Roger Ebert - Host: ...As the Joker, went on way too long. He was on too often, he was doing the same thing over and over. I found the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale didn't work at all, Kim Basinger and Michael Keaton. In fact, when she is in the Bat Cave and she sees for the first time that Bruce Wayne is, in fact, Batman, do you remember what her reaction was?
Gene Siskel - Host: Uh...
Roger Ebert - Host: She HAD no reaction.
Gene Siskel - Host: I think she...
Roger Ebert - Host: They left the reaction out of the film! They didn't even care that she was surprised.
Gene Siskel - Host: No, she knew. I think there are indications throughout the picture, these people know who they are in other lives, in other... alter egos, kind of situations.
Roger Ebert - Host: Well, I don't...
Gene Siskel - Host: It's very true between Batman and Jack Napier at the beginning of the film, when they give each other knowing looks, they're setting up a battle for the future.
Roger Ebert - Host: Well, Gene, the thing, whether she knew who he was or not, is part of the suspen- and these movies, uh, all of these movies, the superhero wears a mask...
Gene Siskel - Host: Right.
Roger Ebert - Host: ...That covers the top half of his face, it's like "RoboCop".
Gene Siskel - Host: Right.
Roger Ebert - Host: Well ANYONE can see that it's Michael Keaton! But the whole deal in the movie is that you're not supposed to notice that until the person takes off the mask...
Gene Siskel - Host: But I thought...
Roger Ebert - Host: "Oh my God, it's Bruce Wayne!" So she DIDN'T know.
Gene Siskel - Host: But that isn't the whole, that isn't the whole business of the picture.
Roger Ebert - Host: No.
Gene Siskel - Host: I thought that the Bruce Wayne character was a fascinating guy. Rather than playing this as a, uh, strong man, I thought it was interesting to show this guy as sort of... conflicted and nervous about it, and that's why he goes into this big...
Roger Ebert - Host: Well that's a modern, uh, uh, touch that I wasn't surprised, but I'll tell you this much about the film: It's a very, not only a dark film, which you were right about, a film noir, but also there's a great deal of hostility and anger in this film, a great deal of bad feeling in it. And it's not a film for children.
Gene Siskel - Host: No.
Roger Ebert - Host: And you called it an adult film...
Gene Siskel - Host: Yes.
Roger Ebert - Host: ...Another way to put it is: It's NOT for kids.
Gene Siskel - Host: Oh, I don't think so.
Roger Ebert - Host: It's an extremely...
Gene Siskel - Host: But don't you find that- well, wait a minute. Aren't you glad to be disturbed? And you know how I mean that.
Roger Ebert - Host: I would've been glad to be disturbed by a film that made me care, that was able to, to, not only use its special effects, but to encompass and surpass special effects with a story, because the one thing Spielberg knows in his special effects pictures is, you've got to have strong characters and a strong story, or the special effects simply become something nice to look at.
Gene Siskel - Host: Well, I felt I had entered a complete world, a psychological world, and a visual world, I bought it. The ending runs on too long, that I agree with you in story structure, it's that problem with the third act that a lot of action pictures have.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Batman: The Birth of the Modern Blockbuster (2014)