christopherwalken – Mark Larson

Batman Returns. It had been a long time since I’d seen it. This Christmas tale also begins with a birth, but it’s so much more desperate and twisted than the traditional one. Too bad Catwoman is the only villain that stresses me out. Penguin is just kinda lame and pitiful. :( I like the staging and framing for many of the scenes. Like during Penguin PR speech, back at the mansion Alfred is decorating the Christmas tree while Bruce watches TV. (Speaking of, kinda funny how Batman learning about about rising threats through television seems so dated now.) And there’s some silly-exhilarating stuff, like when Kyle falls through layers of awnings. That scene at the masquerade (Superfreak!) is a masterpiece. Lovely to look at, and charmingly mental, but the story progression is too herky-jerky for my tastes, and not as fun as the 1989 for me.

Man on Fire. This is the beginning of my Denzel Washington self-education program, as I’ve seen embarrassingly few of his movies, and they were all a long time ago. A guilt-ridden drunk on a revenge mission. Young Dakota Fanning is impossible not to like. And her on-screen friendship with Denzel is fantastic. I really liked the lively, kind of spazzy directing. A rush of colors and cuts, zooms in and out, accelerating and coming to a halt, and how that ties in with characterization and mood. I like the work with the occasional subtitles, too. Interesting that the bullet and the St. Jude medallion come along with sobriety (like AA tokens). Also note the recurring theme of “I’m just a professional” or “I’m just doing my job.” It’s not enough. Cf. Taken, of course.

There is no such thing as tough. There is trained and untrained.