Batman Forever The Official Batman Forever Thread - Part 2

[The Caped Knight]

I love the cowl it was elegant yet full of iconic imagery worthy of Batman. Especially in the prefect lighting.

 

[Dark Raven]

A funny scene from Top Secret where Val's character goes up to sing, thinking he's being honoured instead of the actual Nazi performer. The anachronistic rock 'n' roll songs in this movie are hilarious.

 

[Frodo]

 

[donuts]

Jim Carrey mourns 'Batman Forever' costar Val Kilmer: 'A generational talent'

Jim Carrey is paying tribute to his 'Batman Forever' costar Val Kilmer after his death at 65: 'A generational talent who left us an enviable legacy of indelible acting performances.'

ew.com

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

Those two Schumacher films are imperfect but they’re probably my two favorite films of all time and the reason why I’m here. Thank you Val. RIP

 

[BatLobster]

RIP Val. This one really stings.

 

[Frodo]

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

I think the two Schumacher Batmen were the most handsome actors to play Batman. Schumacher had good taste in men

Watched Batman Forever again last night, and Kilmer just works so well in the role, it always felt like a seamless transition from Keaton because I was born after Returns and was so young when Forever and Batman & Robin came out. Kilmer didn’t get a chance to really make his mark, and as a result he’s overshadowed by the other Bat actors who played the role more than once. But he really is so solid as Batman and he looks awesome in the suits. He portrays the intensity and depth of the character very well, with some of my favorite Bruce Wayne scenes in any of the movies. The revelations from his childhood showed us a closer look at Batman’s psyche for the first time.

Release the Schumacher cut already!

 

[Dark Raven]

A funny scene from Top Secret where Val's character goes up to sing, thinking he's being honoured instead of the actual Nazi performer. The anachronistic rock 'n' roll songs in this movie are hilarious.

I've just realised this is in the wrong thread. I thought it was in the RIP celebrities thread.

 

[chintai80]

when batman forever came out, kilmer was closest we had to the neal adam's version of batman in live action at the time.
i remember leaving the theater, having a lot of fun with the movie and enjoying his performance immensely.
it's like he took what keaton did and sort of combined it with adam west's portrayal, but then mixed it enough to make it his own.

so many top-shelf performances from him over the years.

the first time i saw him was in willow as madmartigan. kilmer was big part of what made that movie memorable.

RIP.

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

Madmartigan was the closest thing I had to live action Aragorn as a kid. Great character

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

 

[The Caped Knight]

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

It's always the Sonar suit...

 

[blueharvest]

‘Batman Forever: Schumacher Cut’ to Screen on May 29 in L.A. — World of Reel

Here’s a quick update on the somewhat renewed interest surrounding 1995’s “Batman Forever,” which next month, will be celebrating its 30th anniversary.

www.worldofreel.com

 

[DocLathropBrown]

Got really excited for a second, since some places are sharing a banner image that includes the DC Studios logo above it, making me think this was some sort of official release--but it isn't. Another niche theater is showing the bootlegged cut that Smith did.

To be honest, having read extensive breakdowns of this particular cut, it isn't quite the very special new version of the movie that we've all been waiting for--most of the material that's in it is already available on the DVD special features and only has like two more minutes of little extra bits that aren't found there. Its runtime isn't any longer than the fan edits that are floating around. This one is temp-tracked with a lot of Elfman's Batman music though, which does make it a curiosity. There's a lot of misinformation around about what's in this particular version--aside from some more subdued line-readings from Jones and Carrey, this doesn't have a hugely different tone than the theatrical. It just has all the deleted scenes put back in, really.

There's still probably a good fifteen minutes of material we know was shot that still haven't been seen, some of which helps tie into the film's greater themes (mostly focusing on Bruce's past history of killing and his guilt about it), and unless an earlier cut somehow surfaces, I don't know that we'll ever see them. At this point, while I think WB could someday be persuaded to put this cut out, going into the vaults to find the other pieces are probably more effort than they'd be willing to put in.

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

Thank you for sharing, I didn’t know that!

I think this is my favorite Batman movie and possibly my favorite movie ever. And yes I know it’s purely due to nostalgia, but it’s also because this is the only time we’ve gotten a Robin origin on film!

I didn’t know that the cut was basically just stuff that is already available. There is definitely a lot of material in the vault that could make this movie so much better. The dark parts of this movie are actually very psychologically complex and frightening. As a kid, the Bruce Wayne flashbacks really scared me.

There’s a really good Batman movie in there somewhere. I love it as is, but I get why people don’t love it. With some tweaks (mainly a more subdued performance by Jones and Carrey) it could’ve been so much better received by fans.

 

[donuts]

Got really excited for a second, since some places are sharing a banner image that includes the DC Studios logo above it, making me think this was some sort of official release--but it isn't. Another niche theater is showing the bootlegged cut that Smith did.

To be honest, having read extensive breakdowns of this particular cut, it isn't quite the very special new version of the movie that we've all been waiting for--most of the material that's in it is already available on the DVD special features and only has like two more minutes of little extra bits that aren't found there. Its runtime isn't any longer than the fan edits that are floating around. This one is temp-tracked with a lot of Elfman's Batman music though, which does make it a curiosity. There's a lot of misinformation around about what's in this particular version--aside from some more subdued line-readings from Jones and Carrey, this doesn't have a hugely different tone than the theatrical. It just has all the deleted scenes put back in, really.

There's still probably a good fifteen minutes of material we know was shot that still haven't been seen, some of which helps tie into the film's greater themes (mostly focusing on Bruce's past history of killing and his guilt about it), and unless an earlier cut somehow surfaces, I don't know that we'll ever see them. At this point, while I think WB could someday be persuaded to put this cut out, going into the vaults to find the other pieces are probably more effort than they'd be willing to put in.

I honestly think that reports about the initial Batman Forever cut have always been overblown. Of course seeing the deleted scenes (and some additional and alternate shots) properly edited into the movie could move the needle a little bit and give it a little grounding, but in an old article from back when the movie was released, Schumacher confirms that they shaved about 15 minutes off his original cut for the theatrical release. That's it. You should find it on 1995batman.com. It's one of the scanned magazine articles.

 

[DocLathropBrown]

I honestly think that reports about the initial Batman Forever cut have always been overblown. Of course seeing the deleted scenes (and some additional and alternate shots) properly edited into the movie could move the needle a little bit and give it a little grounding, but in an old article from back when the movie was released, Schumacher confirms that they shaved about 15 minutes off his original cut for the theatrical release. That's it. You should find it on 1995batman.com. It's one of the scanned magazine articles.

Well, the overblown bits are more from people misinterpreting the facts--yes, there was a lot of narrative meat that was trimmed from the theatrical cut, but people conflate that with the idea that the initial cuts were tonally darker, when that's never been proven. I get the impression that people think Two-Face and Riddler act completely differently in this mythical cut, but they don't. The best you'll get is maybe they delivered their lines a little less bombastically on-set as opposed to when they did ADR. While one can argue that with the deleted material, the film is darker thematically, it isn't any less campy--which isn't a bad thing to me as camp is part-and-parcel of Batman.

To be perfectly honest, the fan edits floating around are already nearly the best edition of the film that exist. At this point the only bits I need to see that haven't surfaced are the aforementioned elements showing Bruce grappling with his killer past--in addition to Two-Face's deleted lines in the helicopter fight ("You're a killer too, and you know it!"), there were bits where Bruce was supposed to hallucinate Two-Face repeating these sentiments into an Arkham security camera when Wayne is checking them to see how Harvey escaped (there's production photos of TLJ suggesting they filmed this). In the script, a TV newscaster makes reference to how Batman killed The Joker and the Penguin, and how his methods are questionable. This scene exists in the deleted scenes but it doesn't touch on Batman's past, so perhaps that was dropped by the time they filmed.

Add those in, along with a few ADR snippets to enhance the existing scenes (as they probably would have had in a finished cut), and the film is complete, as far as I'm concerned.

For the curious, here's a breakdown from 1995Batman.com detailing all the deleted scenes that exist (already available and not), based on a leaked shooting script, giving a good understanding of what was actually shot:

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

 

[The Caped Knight]

Happy 30th anniversary to Batman Forever!

 

[The Caped Knight]

http://kane52630.tumblr.com/post/83369276982/batman-forever

Jim Carrey knew the assignment for this film. Go out there and have fun, that's exactly what he does. In some form he channels a bit of frank gorshin Riddler, mixed with his own brand of flare to create this over the top version of The Riddler that totally steals the show and you love him for it.

 

[Herofan]

Rewatched it and for as much of a mixed bag as it is one of the most interesting part is how much it feels as in line with, pretty plausible continuation of the first two films, not sure if Schumacher and the writers deliberately wanted to make it feel like pretty in line sequel (that that would be kind of expected, though after BR it kind of was and wasn't) and/or he and Burton just had pretty similar takes of who/what/how Batman was, should be. Although Schumacher also had had some very different takes and largely abandoned the brooding elements later.

It is pretty hard to believe that the Bruce Wayne of BR and especially B89 then became a playboy/corporate executive but especially with BR as transition also still believable enough, it also works as loose sequel, he may have had that exact past or just similar events but not exactly like them.