Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5852 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-10-21
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Box set, Dubbed, PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 121 minutes

Special Features
Disc One: • Commentary by Tim Burton • Theatrical Trailer, RT 2:33

Disc Two: • The Bat, the Cat and the Peguin- Cast and crew members recall the making of this equally spectacular sequel, RT 21:50 • Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight o Part 4: The Dark Side of the Knight, RT 30:13 • Batman: The Heroes o Batman, RT 3:03 o Alfred, RT 3:57 • Batman: The Villains o The Penguin, RT 4:25 o Catwoman, RT 4:28 o Max Shreck, RT 2:16 • Beyond Batman Documentary Gallery o Gotham City Revisited: The Production Design of Batman Returns, RT 11:23 o Assembling the Arctic Army, RT 9:30 o Bats, Mattes and Dark Nights: The Visual Effects of Batman, RT 11:33 o Making-up the Penguin, RT 8:11 o Sleek, Sexy and Sinister: The Costumes of Batman Returns, RT 13:27 o Inside the Elfman Studio: The Music of Batman Returns, RT 11:21 • Music Video by Souixsie and the Banshees o Face to Face, RT 4:41

Synopsis
In director Tim Burton's sequel to his successful BATMAN (1989), the Caped Crusader (Michael Keaton) is pitted against the demented, ravenous Penguin (Danny DeVito), a pitiful, orphaned psychopathic freak who once went on a baby-killing spree, and a 'power' hungry capitalist villain Max Shreck (Christopher Walken). As the two criminals plot to gain domination over Gotham City, BATMAN must plot to stop them. In the highly stylized BATMAN RETURNS--complete with dark, Gothic architecture and moody lighting--Batman (and his alter-ego Bruce Wayne) is thrown a third enemy, a terrible distraction: Cat Woman (fearlessly and fabulously played by Michelle Pfeiffer). She is the slinky, sharp-clawed alter-ego of Shreck's secretary Selina. Batman must overcome his own dark past, and his present love entanglements, to rid Gotham of its evil enemies, this time with even more intricately designed sets and tongue-in-cheek humour, making BATMAN RETURNS an action-packed, darkly fun adventure.

Customer Reviews

Really good cathartic fun, with a hitch
Batman Returns was, before Batman Begins came out, my favourite of the movies. This remastered release is fantastic with a new transfer and DTS sound.

The extras are good and thorough, with an hour of behind the scenes material, and a half hour retrospective, plus trailers and music videos etc.

The only hitch is the lack of a director's commentary, as was promised on the box. A shame - apparently it had something to do with them cutting a shot for the R2 release and the Burton commentary then being out of sync. Either that or they forgot.

If you're really desperate for a commentary then hold back, but if, like me, you're a fan of the film regardless, there's plenty of extra stuff to justify the purchase.

Batman Returns is one of the best comic book movies ever.
I got all of the new 2 disc Special Editions of the Batman movies on DVD,The bonus features are brilliant especially "The Shadow Of The Bat: Cinematic Saga Of The Dark Knight" Documentary which is spread across all 4 DVD's.
But the one bit of criticism I have is the fact that there was no commentary at all,yet this was promised on the box and the other 3 movies had one.
Still a great improvement on the original DVD release though.

Just relax-I'll take care of the wretched pinhead puppets of Gotham!
Nobody does Gothic better than Tim Burton, and his return to the Batman franchise is superior in almost every way to his first effort as well as being a hair's breadth behind the newest entry.
What makes the Batman films stand out (discounting Forever and Robin) is their dark nature which is as much about the inner conflict of both hero and villain. Keaton's Batman is different to Bale's; like him he is split, troubled and somewhat empty inside-the old wounds of his parents' death have not healed, and he finds it almost impossible to reconcile the two sides of his life. Unlike Bale's spoilt, tempremental, tantrum-figure, however, Keaton brings a more mature, calmer character, albeit with a deal of wit. The effect is to gain our sympathy and empathy for his dilemma in a tribute to Keaton's talent. Likewise, DeVito is quite excellent as the sadistic, destructive but again remarkably witty Penguin, and is suitably frightening and disgusting to boot. He's not quite as good as Jack Nicholson's Joker, but it's a very impressive effort. Perhaps the real gem is the brilliantly electric Pfeiffer, who totally brings Catwoman's duality to life and again gains our empathy. In particular at moments in Bruce Wayne and Selina's (her true name) interplay where Keaton flags, Pfeiffer shows a depth of ability that sustains her for the entire film and is vastly superior to Kim Basinger's lacklustre performance in Batman. Walken provides a further nemesis for Wayne that is understandably priceless.
One must not forget the many other elements that make this film; Burton's superb direction features a whole array of wonderfully dark shots of the city lit by twinkling lights which keeps the sinister atmosphere intact. The moody tone is of course interspersed with some great fight scenes that show a significant improvement of special effects from the original as well as giving the characters a good deal of more gadgets and weapons.
It's not really close to the comics, but the script is cutting-edge, the acting almost perfect and the result is an exciting, often moving, film with the sentimentality of other superhero efforts kept down and an ending that is most satisfying.