Batman (1989) |
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Batman (1989) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Action |
Biographies-Cast & Crew Production Notes |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1989 | ||
| Running Time | 121:10 (Case: 133) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Programme | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Tim Burton |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Warner Home Video |
Starring |
Jack Nicholson Michael Keaton Kim Basinger Robert Wuhl Pat Hingle Billy Dee Williams Michael Gough Jack Palance |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
| RPI | $29.95 | Music | Danny Elfman |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English Arabic English for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Michael Keaton is Bruce Wayne/Batman, initially a choice which was a surprise to some but one which paid off big time. Whilst at the time Michael was proven as a comedic actor, his dramatic talents were less clear. Anyone that has seen his extremely threatening performance in Pacific Heights cannot doubt his dramatic ability.
Jack Nicholson is Jack Napier/The Joker, Batman's fearsome foe in this movie - another excellent casting choice.
The movie moves along at a cracking pace, with lots of action and lots of exquisite cinematography. The use of unusual camera angles is done very well in this movie, with the angles helping to tell the story rather than distracting from it.
The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer was acceptably clear and sharp. Shadow detail was acceptable, and no particular low level noise was apparent.
The colours tended towards undersaturation, though whether or not this was a filmic choice is debatable.
No MPEG artefacts were seen.
Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some severe image wobble which occurred frequently and was very distracting. This occurred particularly during the first 30 minutes of the film. Virtually no scene in the film until this point was free of this most disturbing artefact.
Film artefacts, particularly during the opening credits and the early part of the film were excessive and quite distracting.
Dialogue was usually clearly audible at all times, with only a very few words hard to make out.
Audio sync was a severe problem with this disc, with the majority of the first 30 minutes of the film slightly out of sync. In addition to this, the remainder of the movie appears to have had some very slipshod ADR work applied to it at times.
The musical score is by Danny Elfman and is appropriately dark and dramatic.
The surround channels were used moderately, albeit somewhat unspectacularly.
The .1 channel anchored the special effects nicely.
I note that this disc has a prominent D1 label on the disc. According to a recent post on a UK DVD site, this D1 moniker signifies that we have received the UK censored version of this movie.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 version misses out on;
FullScreen version
Otherwise, the two versions are identically specified, so there is no compelling reason to favour one over the other.
The video quality is poor, even considering the age of the movie.
The audio quality is acceptable except for the audio sync problem.
The extras present are limited.
| Video |  |
| Audio | |
| Extras |  |
| Plot |   |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-505, using S-Video output |
| Display | Loewe Art-95 (95cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL). |
| Audio Decoder | Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital decoder. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | 2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer |
| Speakers | Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer |