Change Your Image
LikeAParasite
Reviews
Batman: Death in Slow Motion (1966)
Let's Race!
I was really disappointed to see that the only other IMDb review of this episode called it inaccessible to people not interested in or knowledgeable about silent films. In my humble opinion, that is hogwash. I loved this episode as a child, long before I even knew silent movies existed. As an adult who has seen a few of them, I now understand some of the episode's early references, but I'm sure I would still like it even if I hadn't seen those movies. There's so much more going on here besides silent movie homages.
First and foremost, this is an excellent showcase for The Riddler, demonstrating why to this day Frank Gorshin's Riddler remains the most beloved interpretation of the character by an actor. Next to Catwoman, I think he's the best written and acted villain on the series. In this episode, Gorshin is infectiously giddy and charismatic, as The Riddler blossoms before our eyes into one of the most brilliant scientists and explosives experts the world has ever known. How else could you describe a man who can do the following?:
1) Create pies topped with a special cream that can put a person to sleep upon making contact with the skin.
2) Create some kind of liquid that, when dissolved into a drink, enrages the drinker at the slightest prodding and drives them to violence.
3) Rig a chocolate Éclair to explode and blow open a safe.
The episode also wonderfully demonstrates how amusingly square the Batman and Robin characters of this series are. At one point, they're rushing to the Bat Poles and Bruce quietly apologizes after almost bumping into Dick. Later, he lectures Robin about parking laws, and tries to calm rioting citizens down by simply asking them to stop, unwilling to physically interfere. His commitment to good manners and observing/understanding rules of decorum under any circumstances is endearingly consistent. While The Riddler is constantly inventive with both his schemes and words, Batman and Robin's personalities are so boring, bland, tedious, and cornball that it's funny. Throughout the episode, every time they are about to get into their car or enter/exit a building, Batman exclaims, "let's race (to whatever destination)!". So lame, but so good.
The scenes of Batman and Robin solving The Riddler's impossibly convoluted clues without much difficulty are one of the show's most reliable running gags. We get some of the most memorable ones in this episode. For example, they figure out that The Riddler is going to the library because a "dishonest shortcake" is a "lie berry cake". And of course the library is on "Baker Street".
If you ever need a perfect example of how this series elevates ridiculously unlikely logic and coincidence to an art form, there you have it. At least the 'dead pan' riddle is a little more natural. Most of the riddles are completely absurd, but once in awhile the writers come up with one that's actually somewhat plausible and clever.
Another common feature of the series that gets a superior example in this episode is the special guest villain's gorgeous and ambitious female assistant. This time, it's a devious young lady who happily plays innocent and wears disguises to trick people that The Riddler wants out of the way. In her best disguise, she dresses up as a Little Bo Peep-type, tells Robin that The Riddler kidnapped her little brother, and gases him with her big cane. The cutesy music in the background makes that scene especially enjoyable and a little twisted.
The episode ends with a death trap worthy of a 1960s James Bond villain. The Riddler has Robin laying unconscious on a conveyor belt moving towards a giant saw expected to cut his body in half, right down the middle. It seems fitting to end the episode with the promise of a potentially slow and agonizing death for Robin after it started out as a non-stop race with The Riddler always one step ahead of our heroes. I can't think of a better formula for a standout episode of this series. There's hilarious dialog and unusually entertaining major and minor characters on the sides of both good and evil. Chief O'Hara is called an oaf by Commissioner Gordon and sarcastically addresses him as "your royal highness". Batman and Robin are at their lovable corniest. The Riddler has a sexy, spunky villain babe and a magnificent death trap. This isn't just fun for fans of the series who like silent movies. On the contrary, I think it has a little bit of something for everyone.
Batman: The Animated Series: Read My Lips (1993)
Scarred For Life
"Read My Lips" is the "Batman: The Animated Series" debut of Arnold Wesker (a.k.a The Ventriloquist). The Ventriloquist is a soft-spoken and meek old man. He appears harmless on the surface. Deep down inside, he has a second personality - vicious criminal mastermind. Through a puppet called Scarface, this side of him emerges. On paper, that sounds like a ridiculous concept for a villain. As "Batman: The Animated Series" demonstrated many times before (Maxie Zeus and The Clock King are two other strong examples), such concepts can be taken seriously if presented a certain way. With the right animation, writing, acting, direction, and scoring, it works beautifully.
Director Boyd Kirkland was at the top of his game in this episode. From the first scene, everything feels ominous and alluring. The use of space, darkness, and perspective is masterful. Every character is rendered with painstaking attention to detail. The animation of body language and movement is striking. For example, this episode has one of the best instances of Batman sneaking into Commissioner Gordon's office through an open window. His shadowy figure very subtly slips in while Gordon is looking in another direction. When Gordon turns his head to find Batman walking toward him, the Commissioner's startled reaction is hilarious. Later, Scarface's massive henchman Rhino is drawn in angles that make him always tower over everyone else.
Scarface himself is cleverly staged as he's kept in darkness and seen from behind at the beginning of the episode, to create the illusion that he's just a human gangster. This tactic builds to the unforgettable moment when The Ventriloquist brings Scarface in full view of Batman for the first time. Batman's "WHAT THE HELL?" facial expression is so funny, even the producers/director have to laugh on the audio commentary as they watch it. "HE'S A PUPPET???", quips series creator Bruce Timm. Batman is understandably bewildered as he learns that the gang is expected to think of Scarface as their superior and The Ventriloquist as "just hired help". I consider this the episode's funniest sight gag.
The roles that The Ventriloquist and Scarface play in the gang is one of the most delightful ironies in an episode with many to savor not just from appearances, but also from words and meaning. For example, Rhino (who is as dumb as he is strong) takes an insult from his boss as a compliment. When Scarface exclaims, "You're too stupid to be a traitor", he responds, "Thanks, boss!" with only relief and gratitude. When The Ventriloquist tries to offer an opinion or correction, Scarface barks, "Don't put words in my mouth!" and "Shut up! I want your opinion, dummy, I'll pull your string".
The ironies in this episode's dialog are consistently amusing and we have script writer Joe R. Lansdale to thank for them. Like many of the talented actors and actresses this series secured as guest stars during its run, Lansdale should be regarded as one of its greatest coups. Lansdale is a veteran genre writer who also wrote another standout episode called "Perchance to Dream", the superb Western riff "Showdown", and the cult classic film "Bubba Ho-Tep". He has a unique pulpy/twangy writing style that is ideal for a character like Scarface. His dialog is delivered with pitch perfect conviction by George Dzundza, who plays both The Ventriloquist and Scarface as seamlessly as Kevin Conroy playing Batman and Bruce Wayne or Richard Moll playing Harvey Dent and Two-Face.
I don't think any other episode in the series so deftly balances comedy and drama. The episode is all about building suspense towards confrontations and revelations. Most of its surprises are both funny and twisted, but the final one is pure horror. Composer Shirley Walker played a key role in balancing the episode's tones with one of her most catchy, inventive, and memorable scores. It is breezy and wonderfully evocative of early 20th century gangsters for much of the episode, but often transitions from playful to foreboding whenever necessary.
The score helps the tone shift from lighter to darker without ever feeling jarring, especially at the end, when a fun fight scene set to her peppy jazz theme leads to the episode's final surprise. The Ventriloquist's dependence on his condescending second personality suddenly becomes more tragic than funny, and the episode ends on a note of immensely disturbing creepiness. Up to that point, "Read My Lips" has been funny, suspenseful, and action-packed. With the astonishing close-up that concludes it, the episode paints a truly haunting portrait. This is the character study of a deeply scarred individual, but it's told flawlessly, devoid of any scars or imperfections of its own.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Far Beyond the Stars (1998)
The other "Rambo" of Star Trek
I once read a review of the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "The Hunted" (Season 3, episode 11) that compared it to Rambo. It was about a psychologically damaged veteran who is caught by the Enterprise while escaping from a prison planet. He later escapes from the Enterprise brig, then runs, hides, and fights against its crew. He's like Rambo in the forest. In a very different way, this episode is like "First Blood" too. It involves a character who struggles to overcome the threat of his oppressors, but instead of fighting for his life with weapons, he is fighting for his career with words.
Like the countless time travel episodes seen in many Star Trek series, this one has some fun with the characters and conventions of its show, placing them in unusual roles and environments. It re-imagines the crew of Deep Space Nine as writers for a pulp science fiction magazine.
The costumes and production design of the city are impeccable and the main cast clearly has fun playing characters very different from their usual roles. It's a pleasure to watch Bashir and O'Brien trying to pull off American accents, Dax talking like a stereotypical airhead secretary, and Michael Dorn (who plays the almost always deadly serious Worf) as a dashing, Sidney Poitier-type ladies' man ballplayer.
The idea that DS9 was invented by a socially progressive-thinking writer during a racist period in American history is a nice nod to Gene Roddenberry's vision of a future in which earth's 20th century problems like racism are nonexistent. Seeing this vision realized and the cast so enjoyably deviating from their regular personalities is very cool. My favorite moment was a very funny visual gag of Michael Dorn speaking in his cheerful ballplayer voice while '50s Sisko (called Benny) sees him as Worf for a split second.
Some of the episode's biggest flaws are how melodramatic it is at times, and the cliché villainy of the mean white cops (played by alien baddies Weyoun and Dukat) who terrorize Benny. The episode's worst offense, however, is its climax, which is what reminds me of Rambo (in a bad way) more than anything. Those who have seen the first Rambo movie will recall that it ends with Rambo giving a passionate speech about how badly the war has traumatized him. It's a good idea for a scene, but it's ruined by bad acting from Stallone (who was so great and natural in "Rocky") as he weeps his way through unintelligible dialog. Stallone reduces what should be a poignant and powerful scene into a painful farce of a dramatic climax.
There is a similar scene in "Far Beyond the Stars". It comes towards the end when Benny has a nervous breakdown in his magazine's office. He is told once and for all that he cannot tell the story he wants to tell, and it crushes him emotionally. With all of his heart and soul, he insists that the characters he invented for his story are real and no one can take that away from him, no matter how much society tries to suppress his freedom of expression.
This is a lovely and inspirational message, robbed of any power it may have had by how poorly Avery Brooks delivers it. In this scene, he exposes just how limited he is as an actor. There is a theatricality in the cadence and enunciation of his speaking that evokes Patrick Stewart's work as Captain Picard, but where he fails to measure up to Stewart is in trying to play that theatricality for serious effect.
When Stewart uses his booming, authoritative voice to give weight and gravity to the seriousness of a situation and his feelings towards it, you believe him. You can take him seriously. With Brooks here, that is not the case. He just looks like he's trying too hard. I respect his attempt, but unfortunately the dramatic notes he's trying to hit are simply beyond his range as an actor. The cast and crew of the show thought this performance was worthy of awards, but I think they were giving it way too much credit.
Much like Adam West and William Shatner, Brooks is an actor who tends to speak with a very odd rhythm, which makes it difficult for him to be convincing in serious scenes sometimes. This is evident in the final scene, when he delivers a monologue that is very unnaturally paced and rife with awkward dramatic pauses and breaths. Ultimately, it comes across as laughably stilted as Shatner at his hammiest. The words are supposed to give the episode resonance, but the way they're spoken just ends things on a corny and forced note.
With its heavy-handed moralizing, one-dimensional villains, and the disastrous acting in its climax, "Far Beyond the Stars" is a very flawed episode. Nonetheless, it manages to be fitfully absorbing because of its surface charms. There's a lot of appeal in the novelty of beautiful period detail and the crew overacting wonderfully as old time-y characters (and out of alien make-up!).
If, like me, you have fairly high standards and expectations when it comes to acting, you may find the episode very frustrating and the climatic nervous breakdown scene a little hard to watch without cringing. I don't completely hate the episode, but I'm disappointed because it could have been so much more. I was supposed to feel sorry for the main character because of how cheated he was by his society's racism. Instead, I felt sorry for him because of how badly he'd been let down by the performance of the actor playing him.
Slacker (1990)
I hated this movie, hated hated hated it. Hated it.
This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I rented this movie with very high hopes, being a huge fan of another Richard Linklater film called "Before Sunrise", and I don't remember ever being as disappointed with a movie as I was with this one. I knew before watching the movie that it would be heavy on dialog and have more conversations between people than action, but I didn't think that meant it would be so boring.
After all, "Before Sunrise" is just one conversation spanning from the start to finish of the movie, and yet it was enjoyable the whole way through. This movie, however, was excruciating to watch. The movie focuses on one character speaking to another (or several others) and then finds a new character and repeats the process. I wouldn't mind this pattern if the ideas of the characters interested me at all, but they did not. The people in this movie are the kinds of people I try to avoid being stuck in a conversation with. They are obsessed with their ideas, to the point where they're rude, inconsiderate, and oppressively force their thoughts on others, instead of engaging them in two-way conversation.
I thought it was irritatingly unrealistic how this film suggested that a person walking down the street would be willing to listen to a complete stranger rambling on and on about some subject he is fascinated with (i.e. conspiracy theories) without just cutting them off mid-sentence and telling them to go away. Some of the characters do eventually say, "I have to go" politely, but I always hoped it would have happened much sooner that it did.
Richard Linklater's appearance in this film was the most disappointing scene for me. After admiring "Before Sunrise" so much and knowing that he wrote much of it, I was interested in learning about what he might be like as a person. I figured he must be a very likable and eloquent man. Maybe he is, but he certainly didn't seem that way in this film. As he gave a cab driver a lecture on some very hackneyed philosophical ideas with the conviction of someone who believes he's really on to something, my heart sank a little.
He came across the same way many characters in this film did - like a pretentious student who thinks he's a genius with brilliant and intriguing thoughts when what he's saying really isn't very deep or meaningful at all. He is undoubtedly a talented and intelligent director, but as an on screen performer in this movie, he comes across as a tool. I don't know how close this "character" he played is to his real personality, but I don't really care. You don't have to like a director's personality to enjoy their work. If his screen presence has to be as annoying as it was here, he should stay behind the camera instead of getting in front of it. Fortunately, that's what he seems intent on doing, as he hasn't appeared in his other movies.
One of the only scenes I liked was one in which a girl bluntly and amusingly criticized one of the rambling characters by telling him that he's an idiot because all he does is regurgitate ideas he reads in books and other sources. She puts him down him for thinking that doing so makes him seem cultured and intelligent, when all it really does is make him look like a know-it-all who has no original ideas of his own. What was so funny and ironic about this exchange was that it perfectly conveyed my feelings about almost every character in the movie.
With its endless parade of shallow, deluded, and grating characters, this movie is a really torturous experience. The constant barrage of philosophy is exhausting and it doesn't pay off by providing viewers with any memorable or thought-provoking insights or information. It's a bit like "Waking Life", except without monologues that are actually interesting sometimes or remarkable animation to keep your eyes intrigued even when your ears are not.