Let me start out by saying that I am not and have never been an X-Men fan. I have seen a few episodes of the animated series and am familiar with the comic books, but I’ve never been that impressed with either one. I understood that they were considered farContinue Reading

Comic book adaptations are one of my love/hate relationships when it comes to movie genres. Last year brought the rather good Spawn and the rather bad Batman & Robin. I had said in my review of Spawn that it was a good comic book movie because it gave more screenContinue Reading

The Phantom (1996)

When this movie was originally released in theaters, I could only wonder what was going through the minds of those in charge at Paramount Pictures. The Phantom, as a comic book character, is relatively obscure. He doesn’t have the immediate recognition of, say, Superman, Batman or even, for that matter,Continue 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