Who saw this in cinemas back in '89?
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Hendry_William_French — 9 years ago(July 18, 2016 06:13 AM)
In America, you can get into a PG-13 movie at any age as long as you're with a parent. My Dad took me and my older siblings to see it (as well as Ghostbusters II, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade and Turner & Hooch that summer). I actually credit my love of movies to being exposed to many different movies from my earliest memories.
Fwiw, Batman is a comic book action movie. It's fun. Maybe it has heavier themes than your average kids movie, but it's also got heart, charm and a cool edge to it - even as a little kid I'd tell you to give me that over some saccharine Disney assfest. When I was old enough to truly take this film in, I never found it disturbing at all. It was cool.
You wanna know a movie that traumatized me at a young age? Go check out The Witches (1990). And that's a lower rating than this movie.
Imdb message boards - kick someone's ass on the first day, or become someone's bitch. -
Picnic10 — 9 years ago(July 18, 2016 07:39 AM)
Really good point Lonestarr- The main witch scene was 18 certificate worthy in the makeup department. The whole film had a creepy adult tone that I personally think went over the top for a children's movie, even for one by Dahl, but there's no doubt it was memorable. But burning someone to death with the handbuzzer- that's not something for a 4 year old to willingly be exposed to unless you were perhaps very precociously raised as always destined to be in the arts or something.
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Hendry_William_French — 9 years ago(July 18, 2016 07:57 AM)
The main witch scene was 18 certificate worthy in the makeup department
It's mainly the part where the kid gets kidnapped and shows up frozen in a painting - that's scarier than any horror film I've seen.
But burning someone to death with the handbuzzer- that's not something for a 4 year old to willingly be exposed to unless you were perhaps very precociously raised as always destined to be in the arts or something.
The tone and context is important. For example, is there such thing as a handbuzzer than can fry you alive? No. It's cartoonish, like looney tunes. The joker even uses a one liner afterwards like a sketch or something. The guy gets fried instantly (nothing prolonged - no screaming, begging etc) and he's a bad guy anyway. It's funny in a dark humor type way. All these things add up to offset it. That's my take on it.
Violence and disturbing themes should measured in their context. Some things seem worse on paper, but when you see them on film it's not as bad. The policeman being tortured in Reservoir Dogs - that's disturbing. Batman? Nah, that is comfortably a movie kids can watch and not get harmed.
Imdb message boards - kick someone's ass on the first day, or become someone's bitch. -
oscar1122 — 9 years ago(September 17, 2016 11:51 AM)
I was 7 in 1989, I got to see Indiana Jones and Ghostbusters 2 in the theaters that summer, but with how big Batman was in the summer of 1989, I was dying to see it. My parents wouldn't let me at first because they followed the reviews in the papers and were afraid it was too violent. By the end of the summer I kept asking and finally got to see it at one of the local $1 theaters, I was thankful I did and made me a Batman fan for life. It was great to see it again when Cinemark showed it as part of their classic series. I appreciate everything about it as a film when comic book movies oversaturate the market now. I wish we could see a noir type of Batman again.
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spider1970 — 9 years ago(February 01, 2017 05:28 AM)
Boy do I remember this coming out back in 89. I grew up watching the TV series and had just gotten into the comics a couple of years earlier. I was 17 and was stoked that we were getting a big screen Batman of our own.
I wasn't sure how Burton was going to pull it off but it seemed to be exactly the style that was needed. The Keaton casting was perplexing and did not like his performance. But Nicholson blew us away with the laugh and the one liners ("Stop the press who's that?", "If you gotta go, go with a smile", "crap crap crap wait"). Prince's involvement was key as well. He was huge back then and I had a boom system in my car. I remember piling my friends in going to see the movie and driving out front of the theater passing the line and booming the song. Good times. -
ZakkWyldeMyLittlePony — 9 years ago(February 02, 2017 06:44 PM)
I was born a year late and I'm sad. That was the year Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman 89, Ghostbusters 2, The Little Mermaid, and All Dogs Go To Heaven came out. I wish I was alive when all those films came out. It would've been great to see them theatrically.
Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath watch My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic -
justanicknamed — 9 years ago(February 07, 2017 06:12 AM)
Back in 1989 they weren't politically correct so they'd point and laugh at you for being such a retard.
Of course, since you weren't even born back then it doesn't make a difference one way or another. -
Woodyanders — 6 years ago(April 17, 2019 01:46 AM)
I saw this one in the theater when it came out. It's one of the few films I saw in the theater during its original release in which ubiquitous British bit player Fred Wood pops up in an uncredited minor role. Don't blink or you'll completely miss Fred's fleeting appearance as the parade spectator wearing a flat cap and fingerless gloves.
You've seen Guy Standeven in something because the man was in everything.
