Being bumped from an awards friendly September release date to the month where films go to die, ostensibly on account of post-Aurora reshoots, should have been warning enough that all was not well with Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad. Yet, despite a stellar cast, a blistering, old fashioned ‘true’ story of gangsters, tommy guns, glamorous molls and dapper brogues, no amount of reshoots could have salvaged this muddled romp through crime ridden post war LA.
“Riddle me this, riddle me that, who’s afraid of the big, black bat?”
The year is 1995 and thus spake The Riddler (a maniacal Jim Carrey) in Joel Schumacher’s utterly bonkers take on the Batman universe, Batman Forever. Well, the answer was of course absolutely nobody. Taking over directorial duties from he of the inky heart Tim Burton (who moved into the Producer’s chair), Schumacher, presumably in thrall of nervy Warner Bros execs, instead applied a neon polish to Burton’s grimy Gotham and discarded the brooding tone of Bat instalments one and two in favour of camp, vampish comedia. Continue reading
crash/burn 