1995 in movies: Batman nets a three-peat and Braveheart is kind of a big deal

 

Well, that was worse than I remember.

I never cared for Batman Forever, top-grossing movie for 95 at the end of that run of success for this era of Dark Knight movies. I remember feeling deflated just minutes into the movie by the whiny security guard trapped in the safe with Batman, realizing immediately that this was not the tone I signed up for. Actually, I suppose it was the "drive-thru" joke and it was all downhill from there.

For context: I love the Adam West Batman show, but if you're going to go camp then you have to go all the way, and Batman Forever was stuck trying to bridge West and Keaton and ends up in the middle - which is death for a movie.

On this viewing, I was surprised by the bad CGI cityscapes of Gotham because I didn't remember them, though I do remember the goofy effects of Nigma's contraption (and the general goofiness of Riddler in general) and that still doesn't click for me.

I miss Billy Dee Williams. I miss the very notion of Robin Williams as Riddler. And Chris O'Donnell is ... bad.

You may wonder why, after all this, do I own the laserdisc? Oh, something about a fool and his money...

Braveheart, which would win Best Picture at the Oscars, is a whole other story. Here's my poster from some Cineplex or Famous Players theatre that I scored after simply asking if I could have it when the movie finally left the cinema, accompanied by the blu-ray which has replaced the DVD which had replaced the VHS copy. 

I don't have notes but I must have seen this 10-12 times in the theatre, through its first run to showings in second-run theatres, and then at least one IMAX re-release at Ontario Place. It remains, after this viewing, a marvel of a movie and, affectionately, probably the most poorly edited and continuity error-laden Best Picture winner of all time.

And there's a whole sentimental side to it, as well, because it was a first date movie for my wife and I. Looking back on the bold choices of youth, it was kind of a crazy choice for that.

Naturally, then, we've watched it many, many times in the years that have followed (even going back to the theatre where we'd had our first date and renting one of the screens for an anniversary viewing off our DVD). 

All told then, it's got to be amongst Transformers '86 and Star Trek/Wars for most-viewed movies of my life, and I'm happy to say that it hasn't lost its grip on me.