I didn't get what Joel Schumacher was doing with Batman Forever when it came out, and I was wrong. With Batman & Robin, I don't get what went wrong.
This should be a camp classic, the full transition from Burton's German Expressionist Gotham through the Adam West Batman and out the other side into pure spectacle. Instead, we got a film that's not only not horny (an unforgivable Batman sin,) but lacks any chemistry of any kind. For all the colors…
I've watched this twice within the last year and goddamn it, I'd watch it again.
This is my favorite American John Woo film. It's absolute garbage elevated to heaven by a Hong Kong action master.
Here's some things I appreciate about Hard Target in no particular order:
- actual Lance Henriksen on fire.
- they squibbed a guy in a motorcycle jacket. Didn't have to.
- carnival graveyard warehouse in the bayou
- Wilfred Brimley hero shot
- Lance's silly…
How does one write a review of a film that is: structurally perfect, with astonishingly layered acting, that absolutely understands the themes of the Victorian ghost story?
The sound design is so carefully considered, with omens of the ghostly presences burrowing into your subconscious. That gloriously wide Cinemascope, trapping us into a huge, yet claustrophobic space. Deborah Kerr's acting carries us along her path of revelation (unraveling?) The childrens' performances are amazing, especially Miles.
This is mentioned in the same breath as The Haunting, which I love, but The Innocents will stick with me for a long time.
