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THE RIDDLER'S LAUGHATHON

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BATMAN FOREVER - REVIEW

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When Tim Burton re-invented the Dark Knight back in the 80's he took some aspects which made the original Adam West TV series fun but added a moody-looking Gotham City and treated the DC hero seriously, almost like a detective from an old film noir thriller. The goofy kid-friendly humour was replaced by Burton's trademark darkly comic tone and what we got was one action-packed, stylish, unique, funny, clever blockbuster and one of the best comic book movie adaptations ever. The sequel, Batman Returns , "Burtonised" the concept to the max giving Batman a more gothic setting, a disgusting villain, a sexier, troubled love interest, Pee-Wee Herman, a circus gang, Christopher Walken and a penguin army. It was great: darker, snowier, Christmassier, Burtonier. It remains my favourite to this day. Then came Joel Schumacher's turn in the director's chair... We all know how that turned out in the end but looking at Batman Forever today: it's honestly not bad.

TOP 10 UNLIKELY THE SAINT MOMENTS

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THE SAINT - REVIEW

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It's tough to beat a Bond movie at the box office, especially if your film is a B movie about cold fusion and goofy disguises. Tomorrow Never Dies was released the same year as The Saint and it's easy to see why the Val Kilmer-starring vehicle faded away into nothing. For crying out loud, Never Dies had a remote controlled BMW! The Saint had Elisabeth Shue with a heart condition. That the latter was turned down by a plethora of actors from Mel Gibson to Arnold Schwarzenegger is no surprise. All the ingredients for a fun light-hearted thriller are there and yet The Saint suffers from having one of the least inspired scripts I've seen in a long time. Who thought this was interesting? Some stock Russian gangsters want to steal the formula for cold fusion in order to fix some unlikely election. Meanwhile, some guy called Simon Templar helps them but then doesn't. THE END.  For aaaaages.  116 minutes on THAT boring-ass story? Surely you jest. The opening titles of T

THE SAINT - VAL'S DISGUISES

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So I'm watching 1997 flop thriller The Saint starring Val Kilmer and Elisabeth Shue when I decide to check out Wikipedia for more info about the film. A film which involves Russian gangsters, cold fusion and... Ok, it only involves these things. But lets see what Wiki has to say all the same: Sophisticated ones? Lets see... U-huh... I see... Fair enough. Seems accurate enough. WAIT...

KISS KISS BANG BANG - REVIEW

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Robert Downey Jr should be in every movie. Even as an extra or something: just there. His impressive comeback is no huge surprise in that he is one of the best actors working today but it is very welcome. A film like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, without him, would no doubt had been forgotten and left for dead...especially with THAT title! Thankfully though, there's life in this old dog yet. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang stars Downey Jr as a petty thief turned actor turned detective who gets entangled in a twisted Raymond Chandler-style story that's actually kind of hard to follow...but then again so was The Big Sleep . We're introduced to this world by a terrific self-conscious voiceover courtesy of Downey Jr himself and although the film's unique tongue-in-cheek style is a tad jarring at first you soon get into it and join the gang on their wacky adventure. The film itself is stylish, fun, clever, entertaining and very funny. Downey Jr and Val Kilmer make a good double act as they