Batman Returns (1992)

Michael Keaton has settled into his role as Batman and is steelier, less neurotic, less Mr Mom and more able to move and flex in his batsuit than he was in the 1989 Tim Burton movie and instead of the uninvolving battle he had with the Joker in the original (a remote battle - were they ever in the same shot together?) he gets to be really up close and personal with his terrifically creepy foes in this sequel - Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman is split, damaged and slinky and Danny DeVito's the Penguin is a hideous, bloated monster.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

The Stepford Wives (2004)

Rich with material for a big screen adaptation, Ira Levin's book is a macabre suspense thriller and a kind of bodysnatching horror with lots of room for black humor and feminist commentary, but at the cost of this potential, Frank Oz's big, glossy and not very remarkable Hollywood adaptation treats the material primarily as a goofball comedy and has Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick and Nicole Kidman hamming it up as the new residents of the all-too-perfect surburban paradise, Stepford, where residents live picture-perfect 1950s lifestyles thanks to an army of worryingly subservient, docile female homekeepers.

★★★☆☆

#onesentencereviews