Jon Chattman's thecheappop.com

By Molly Cameron

With The Dark Knight still going strong in movie theaters, I recently felt the urge to revisit Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman. I know I saw pieces of it when I was little and it first came out on VHS, but all I remember is Michael Keaton in tuxedos and Jack Nicholson scaring the crap out of me as The Joker.

Surprisingly, my impressions are still roughly the same. Michael Keaton fills out the troubled rich man role of Bruce Wayne well enough, but I have more trouble believing that he fills out the molded muscles of his bat suit. All I could focus on was his surly little pout puckering out of the bottom part of the mask, as if he would much rather be back in the kitchen drinking wine with Alfred than sweating under 50 lbs of rubber.

Yes, Heath Ledger’s new Joker takes creepy to a whole new level, but I still have to give Jack Nicholson some credit for making me squirm a little. I think it’s because that’s how I imagine Nicholson to be in real life – a painted up, crazy-faced man who gets what he wants by making the whole room really, really uncomfortable. Add the fact that the character’s name is also Jack and it makes for some authentic-sounding dialogue. Can’t you just hear an old acting coach from Nicholson’s past yelling “You ain’t got no future, Jack! You’re an A-1 nut boy!”?

Of course Nicholson does have a future, even if it is just to consistently provide sunglassed reaction shots during the Golden Globes and Oscars.

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