Despite being one of the biggest box-office draws in Asia, Jackie Chan had failed to achieve anything approaching modest success here in America until 1996. His first two U.S. backed movies, The Big Brawl and The Protector, were both relative failures. His third attempt to crack the U.S. market wasContinue Reading

Spawn (1997)

Finally, a comic book movie that gets it right. Now, I’ve never been a big fan of the comic book incarnation of Spawn. Not because I didn’t like the character, he just came along after I’d put aside comics for the most part. So, this movie was really my introductionContinue Reading

Batman & Robin (1997)

I finally got my chance to see the second of Joel Schumacher’s “Batman Lite” movies. Schumacher, after taking control of Warner’s big budget franchise in 1995, pronounced that he would make Batman a less dark character on-screen. Of course, he was referring to the film noir-ish quality that Tim BurtonContinue Reading

1992’s Batman Returns turns up the violence level a bit while turning down the humor a lot. Undoubtedly the darkest film in the Batman series, Batman Returns verges on the point of being unpleasant. Michael Keaton stars, for the last time, as Bruce Wayne and his caped and armored alter-ego,Continue Reading

In the summer of 1989, there was no movie that could hope to live up to the hype that was built up around Batman — including Batman. I was horribly disappointed with the film in 1989. So much so that my screening of it this summer was my first sinceContinue Reading