Batman Returns (1992)

HomeFilmBatman Returns

Written by Bo Kane, Daniel Waters

Directed by Tim Burton

Running Time: 145 minutes (approx)

Production Year: 1992

Rating: 15 Certificate

Filmed in Colour

After the success of the first film, Tim Burton returned to direct this 1992 sequel, with Michael Keaton reprising his role as the eponymous hero, Danny DeVito as the villainous Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman.

The Penguin plots to become Mayor of Gotham City by playing on his disabilities. Catwoman has different plans. She was dowdy secretary Slene Kyle, who found out that her boss Max Schreck (Christopher Walken) was planning to defraud the city with his new power plant. Thrown out of a window, she survives thanks to the attentions of the city's stray moggies and, taking on their powers as well as making herself a very tight suit, she swears revenge of Schreck.

Burton weaves the two plotlines together well: Catwoman and the Penguin form an alliance; but she is similtaneously fascinated by Batman (as he is by her). Also to the fore is Batman's continued insecurity: is he a superhero or a violent vigilante? And there is also some sympathy for the Penguin, who was abandoned at birth because of his deformities and is desperate to know why his parents treated him so cruelly.

But the real star is Pfeiffer, who throws herself into the role of Catwoman with a performance that Halle Berry could have learnt a lot from, stealing the film from Keaton with both her look and the erotic wordplay she shares with an adversary who could become her partner. Walken, as the evil Max Schreck (a nice nod from Burton to one of his cinematic heroes), is suitably villainous, while another star is Gotham City, a dark Art-Deco nightmare so typical of Burton's vision.

Cast

Image for Michael KeatonMichael KeatonBatman/Bruce Wayne
Danny DeVitoThe Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot
Image for Michelle PfeifferMichelle PfeifferCatwoman/Selina Kyle
Image for Christopher WalkenChristopher WalkenMax Shreck
Michael GoughAlfred Pennyworth
Michael MurphyMayor
Cristi ConawayIce Princess
Andrew BryniarskiChip Shreck
Pat HingleCommissioner Gordon
Vincent SchiavelliOrgan Grinder
Steve WittingJosh
Jan HooksJen
John StrongSword Swallower
Rick ZumwaltTattooed Strongman
Anna KatarinaPoodle Lady

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