MOV103: “They Be Climbin In Yo Windows Slicin’ Yo People Up”

In this reel of COL Movies, the boys head back in time to revive the original “Batman” movie from 1966. After that serving of cheese for starters, they head to the theater for a little murder mystery dinner as John Cusack plays Edgar Allen Poe in “The Raven”. Then, dessert is straight up beefcake as they review the trailer for Channing Tatum’s stripper movie, “Magic Mike”. In movie news, we’ve got some Avengers news, new pics of Spiderman’s Lizard, and some upcoming movie projects in discussion. It’s reel 103 of COL Movies.“They Be Climbin In Yo Windows Slicin’ Yo People Up”

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News:

The Past: Batman: The Movie (1966)
Rotten Tomatoes: 83% Fresh, 51% Audience

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Director: Leslie H. Martinson

Starring: Adam West, Burt Ward, Lee Meriwether, Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin, Alan Napier, Neil Hamilton, Stafford Repp

Trivia:

  • ​Originally planned as the pilot film for the Batman TV series, the movie was instead produced between the show’s first and second seasons. The producers took advantage of the larger budget to have a number of new Bat-gadgets constructed, such as the BatBoat.
  • The BatBoat was built especially for the film by the Glastron boat company. In exchange for their cooperation, the producers agreed to hold the film’s world premiere in Austin, Texas, Glastron’s headquarters.
  • The original trailer includes specially-shot footage of the 4 supervillains outlining their plans for the Dynamic Duo. Still frames from these sequences are visible when Batman and Commissioner Gordon watch a closed-circuit TV update on villains at large. The trailer also includes specially-shot footage of Batman and Robin addressing the audience about their first motion picture.
  • Julie Newmar (Catwoman in the TV series) does not appear in this film because she did not know about it and had signed to do another project. By the time she was informed, she could not get out of the other commitment in time to do this movie.
  • The entire second season had already been shot before the movie was, even though it actually came out before the second season.
  • Reginald Denny’s last movie.
  • “Plaisir D’Amour” by Johann Martini, is sung by a chanteuse in the cabaret scene, but neither the song nor the singer are listed in the credits.
  • The supporting character Aunt Harriet (Madge Blake) does not have a single line in the picture.
  • First movie project of Burt Ward.
  • Inside joke: Burgess Meredith’s line, “Run Silent, Run Deep” is the title of a 1958 submarine movie in which Frank Gorshin might have played a role had he been able to make it to the screen test.
  • In the final fight scene, a stuntman playing one of the villains’ henchmen dove into the water and hit his head on a metal stud at the bottom of the pond. He was knocked unconscious and had to be rushed to the hospital.
  • At the end of the film one of the delegates is seen banging his shoe on the table while yelling. This is a parody of Nikita Khrushchev’s famous behavior during a debate in the United Nations General Assembly in 1960.
  • The Penguin’s line “We shall hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately” was a humorous phrase spoken by Benjamin Franklin when he was in danger of being accused of high treason by his fellow delegates.
  • Lee Meriwether was Miss America in 1955.
  • During his date with Miss Kitka, Bruce quotes Edgar Allan Poe, the first stanza of “To One in Paradise”.
  • The faking of sea outside a phony yacht window was a clever ruse inspiring a Hogan’s Heroes scene in which a kidnapped general is tricked into thinking he is aboard a plane flying at night to England.
  • Scenes shot in the arch-criminals’ headquarters lair were filmed at an angle. Rumors at the time were that this was intentional and was meant to show that the four (Catwoman, Penguin, Joker, and Riddler) were crooked.
  • As of 2010, this is the only live-action feature-length Batman film in which Alfred is not played by an actor named Michael. Michael Gough played the part in Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin. Michael Caine took over for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
  • Bruce Wayne drives a Chrysler Imperial convertible, while the Batmobile is a 1955 Lincoln Futura prototype car customized by George Barris Inc.
  • The opening criminal lair, “Ye Olde Benbow Tavern” is an allusion to name of the tavern in which the the Robert Louis Stevenson novel “Treasure Island” begins, “Admiral Benbow Inn”. Commodore Schmidlapp is abducted by the fiendish foursome. The next novel by R. L. Stevenson is “Kidnapped”.
  • Filming of the movie began before Lee Meriwether was cast for the movie. As a result, Catwoman does not appear with the other villains in the first scene aboard the Penguin’s submarine.
  • The movie was originally intended to be an introduction to the TV series. When the series wound up being produced and aired months ahead of schedule, the movie was made to cash in on the show’s popularity.
  • A follow up film was at one point considered. The film would have been released between seasons two and three, and would have been used to introduce Barbara Gordon/Bat Girl, and make use of a Batplane. Due to waning interest in the series during season two, which resulted in budget cuts, plans for a second film were scratched.
  • Penguin’s line “Everyone of them has a Mother” (said as he and Catwoman swept up and collected the dehydrated pirates) was ad-libbed by Burgess Meredith.
  • Adam West agreed to do the film partly with a stipulation to have more screen time as Bruce Wayne.
  • Dick Grayson appears outside of his Robin persona only twice and very briefly in the film. First, at the very beginning, and later when Bruce returns to Wayne Manor after being kidnapped. Dick’s only spoken lines are in the latter scene.
  • Frank Gorshin’s last appearance as The Riddler for well over a year. Gorshin sat out of the TV series during the show’s entire second season, which preceded the film’s release.
  • Reginald Denny had previously played a separate character on an episode of the TV series. Lee Meriwether, Milton Frome and Maurice Dallimore would later play guest roles on the series.
  • First broadcast on Television in 1971 on the Fourth of July.

Talking Points:

  • ​Originally made to introduce the series…but wound up not being released until the 2nd season
  • Cheesiness…do you think it’s intentional?
  • This, Burton, or Nolan?
  • Critic Notes: Positives: Classic ,clever, campy, colorful, fun Negatives: too campy, unappealing to today’s youth

What We Learned:

  • ​In the 60’s everything was labeled.
  • Don’t get your shark repellent bat spray and your whale repellent bat spray confused.
  • Robin was packin’ some heat!
  • Salt and Corrosion are the enemies of crime fighting.
  • Some days, there’s just nowhere to get rid of a bomb.

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: I love this movie. Not because it’s good, but because it’s the super cheesy 60s Batman. He’s not my Batman but love this classic.
Ray: Pure cheese.. I know some people love it, but I have a real hard time watching this now. I used to love watching the TV show when I was a kid.. Perhaps if we turned this into some sort of drinking game.
Steve: I have never really cared for much than an episode of Batman at a time – so watching this was like forcing me to watch several episodes in a row, which hurt a little. Cute and campy, but just not how I want to see my superheros.

Add Batman To Flickchart

The Present: The Raven
Rotten Tomatoes: 21% Rotten ; 60% Audience

Director: James McTeigue

Starring: John Cusack, Alice Eve, Luke Evans

Trivia:

  • ​Ewan McGregor (as Edgar Allan Poe) and Jeremy Renner (as Inspector Emmet Fields) were originally attached to star, but dropped out.
  • Joaquin Phoenix was at one point in negotiations to star in the project together with Jeremy Renner. Phoenix would have played Poe to Renner’s police inspector Fields, but the deal fell through when Renner decided to do Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol instead. The Poe role later went to John Cusack, while Luke Evans was cast as Fields .
  • Noomi Rapace was offered the role of Emily.

Talking Points:

  • ​Was Poe really necessary for the story
  • Was his character like-able?
  • Critic Notes: Positive: Not much…well researched? Negatives: Not compelling enough, gory, formulaic, John Cusack

What We Learned:

  • ​The ways of God in Nature, as in Providence, are not as our ways
  • What Brandy cannot cure, has no cure
  • People love the gory ones
  • God gave Poe the spark of genius and quenched it in misery.
  • Life is so much less satisfying than fiction.

Trailer:

Recommendations :
Jeff: I was a little disappointed in the movie, didn’t feel as murder mysteryish as I would have like. However, it wasn’t half bad. Probably not worth seeing in the theaters though.
Ray: I liked this much more than the Sherlock Holmes movies, however I felt Cusack was the weakest link in the whole thing, and perhaps it would have been more entertaining without his character even in it. I’d drop $5 on it to see it in a matinee.
Steve: Very beginning and 2nd half of the movie were ok. But for a good 30 mins in the middle, I completely checked out. It wasn’t a total disappointment, but not as exciting as I thought it would be. Beginning felt very 1800’s SAW, then turned into a wannabe Sherlock Holmes (complete with some bullet time). Just didn’t get me.

The Future: Magic Mike

Release: June 29, 2012

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Starring: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Olivia Munn

Summary:

Mike, an experienced stripper, takes a younger performer called The Kid under his wing and schools him in the arts of partying, picking up women, and making easy money. Mike also learns about life outside the world of stripping with the help of his protege’s sister. They work at the club Xquisite, which is owned by the former stripper, Dallas.

Talking Points

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: It’s a Channing Tatum movie where he does what he does best, looks like a hunk. . . . . That’s it. I’ll pass.
Ray: McConaughey looks amusing. Thats about it as far as excitement goes.
Steve: Looks cute. I’ll probably see it just because it was filmed in Tampa and so I can see all the places they went. It’s not going to win any awards from what I can tell…but might be a good mental escape. The gays will flock simply because it’s a male stripper movie (and knowing Tampa people…just to see if they’re in it since some parts were filmed in Ybor – one of the gayborhoods here).

The Past:

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The Present:

The Future:

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