Imagine you're a Disney executive and you want a piece of that sweet Burton Batman money so you give Warren Beatty a truckload of money and Danny Elfman and you say, "give us a comic book movie" and then every day you check the dailies and you wonder what the fuck Beatty is doing.

Warren Beatty's effective and original envisioning of a classic comic book story is today a very underrated film with a rich colorful palette of action-oriented thrills, some proper noir tribute stunts, and a very complex and visually impressive design, featuring Beatty himself as the scrupulous detective that finds himself in the middle of both professional and emotional conflicts. The universe the film creates precedes future projects like Sin City and countless others like a true boss, and throughout, the movie combines an unstoppable quick pace with a good score and a hilariously awesome villainous Al Pacino in a role that is just too campy to be true. The story is not something out of the ordinary, but boy, does this deliver the goods with some unique style!

I also find the hate against Madonna as funny as Pacino's inflated evil face quoting presidents and philosophers while screaming at his zombie-like mob thugs.

76/100

97

"You're one in a million."

one of the pulpiest and best looking films i’ve ever seen. storaro’s case for the best cinematographer ever is so strong.

Truly 1000% bonkers

First time I've ever seen a print of this gorgeous film. First time theatrical as well.

Jess Franco said he prefered this to Tim Burton's BATMAN films. I wouldn't go so far but I can see his view. My VHS copy of this film made me fall in love with movies as a kid. The rich Technicolor visual detail and throwback filmmaking techniques are incredible. Its not as thrilling or funny as Burton's BATMAN but its way more family friendly and ambitious in scope. No question it inspired BATMAN RETURNS and Schumacher's films. Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman has little in common with Burton's females characters and seems a direct response to Madonna's role. I always thought BATMAN RETURNS was a bit too overboard while DICK TRACY is more balanced and classy.

What happens when Batman 89 makes all the money, you take a popular comic strip character from the 30s and give it to Warren Beatty. Then get Madonna, Dustin Hoffman, James Caan and Al fucking Pacino. Get Vittorio Storaro to shoot it and Danny Elfman to compose the score. With all that talent put together, go and come back with this weird pulpy tonal confusion that's an array of primary colors, secondary colors with a storm of production design and make-up enough to put a Tim Burton movie to shame.

The colors, the sets (hopefully a mix between miniatures and matte paintings in those long shots), the costumes, the makeup, Al Pacino the GOAT, what’s not to love?? Also that score and soundtrack, wow, fuggedaboutit

This was pretty much the exact same movie as Tim Burton's original Batman, but it was enjoyable enough that I could look past it. All the colors were good and the set design was great. So overall it was just a good time.

Has more style than the entire MCU.