Michael Keaton didn’t just topple the Joker in 1989’s “Batman.” He established himself as a major movie star, a comedian who could act and transcend his quirky looks.

Then, his slow fade back into the celebrity pack began. His abilities didn’t suddenly disappear, but his dubious choices in projects quickened his descent.

His “Bat” follow-ups included “Multiplicity,” “Speechless,” “Pacific Heights” and “The Paper” - all either partial or complete misfires.

By the time he starred in the dreadful “Jack Frost” (1998), his career had seriously derailed. [click to continue...]

Woody Allen was on some kind of a roll in the 1980s. He had already won a Best Picture Oscar for “Annie Hall” (1977), but his string of uniquely comic ’80s stories would rival any director’s of any era.

“Zelig,” a faux documentary I rewatched recently for the first time in a decade, remains one of his best, most mercurial productions. Allen stars as Leonard Zelig, a lonely man living in the 1920s who had the ability to change his appearance to fit in with his surroundings.

If he’s stuck in an Irish bar, his hair turns red and he develops a brogue. He could become black, Asian, American Indian … even overweight if he finds himself surrounded by beefy pals.

“To the KKK he was a triple threat,” intones the perfectly unctuous narrator. [click to continue...]

Andrew Stanton, the director of Disney/Pixar’s “WALL*E,” contends his film isn’t a message movie.

And Sylvester Stallone shot the latest “Rambo” sequel because there were so many unanswered questions left by “Rambo III.”

We can take Stanton at his word, but I wonder what he thinks about this?

(UPDATE: This link no longer goes to a faux web site called www.buynlarge.com that mocks corporate activities. Disney has changed the link … now it goes directly to its Wall*E site)

Buy N Large is the corporation at the heart of “WALL*E.” The film implies that corporate greed, and the consumerism it breeds, left the earth in the sorry shape it’s in (El Planet Trasho).

But what about this faux Web site? Why create it in the first place? Who is meant to see it? It doesn’t seem to steer people back to anything related to “WALL*E.” It seems some of the minds behind the movie have very real axes to grind.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with that. But it does open the film up to new levels of debate. Stanton’s attempts to cry, “no message here” seems hollow - unless he truly knows nothing about this intriguing web site.

It took just 12 days and $175,000 to launch the career of arguably the most important black director of the last 25 years.

Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It” finally came out on DVD earlier thisyear, and it’s a fine reminder of how maddeningly inconsistent the director can be. You can’t blame his debut, which I broke down for The Washington Times

The sexual dynamics of a woman juggling three men without guilt are as relevant today as they were in the ’80s. I bet “Sex and the City’s” Samantha would kill to add this DVD to her collection. Too bad the disc lacks any extras - not even a trailer.

Billy Crystal may be best known today as the only modern comic capable ot turning the Oscar ceremony into Must See TV.

But his intermittent film career did produce an unqualified gem, “When Harry Met Sally.”

My first take on “Sally” was that director Rob Reiner ripped off “Annie Hall.” But a more recent viewing showed the film is far better than an homage to Allen’s Oscar winner. It stands even taller today than it ever did, especially since quality rom-coms are truly an endangered species.

Check out my take on “When Harry Met Sally … Collector’s Edition” over at Donne Tempo.

(Photo: Billy Crystal ponders the fallout of his actions in “When Harry Met Sally”)

To paraphrase David Spade, I liked Woody Allen’s “Cassandra’s Dream” the first time I saw it, when it was called “Crimes and Misdemeanors” … or “Match Point.”

There’s plenty different about “Dream,” “Crimes” and “Match,” but the similarities are striking. And I think Allen nailed the moral quagmire issue best with “Crimes.”

That said, watching Allen’s eighth neurotic comedy, now out on DVD, can be nearly as enjoyable as his first. The same mostly holds true with “Cassandra’s Dream.” Sure, the themes aren’t exactly novel, but two appealing leads and some seriously amoral behavior can be diverting. [click to continue...]

Peter Bart is editor in chief of Variety. Met him for an interview a few years back, and he couldn’t have been nicer - or more well versed in all things Hollywood.

But his initial foray into blogging has been … less than a triumph. His recent assault on Rush Limbaugh was truly uninspired. Surely, the radio titan is ripe for some critiques, but Bart’s comments were content-free smears.

Check out his most recent entry … and my response - it’s the first comment on his site.

Here’s Wikipedia’s take on “scare quotes” -it’s pretty informative:

Scare quotes is a general term for quotation marks used for purposes other than to identify a direct quotation. For example, authors might use quotation marks to highlight special terminology, to distance the writer from the material being reported, to indicate that it is someone else’s terminology, or to bring attention to a word or phrase as questionable or at least atypical in some way.

I think it’s great that right and left-leaning critics can argue online over movies. Debate is healthy, and it can teach both sides a thing or two. I wouldn’t want to read solely conservative content on today’s movies. But Bart doesn’t seem very interested in hearing the other side.

Rainy Saturdays were meant for movies. And for my money the best rainy afternoon features are “The Graduate” and “The Sure Thing.” Hard to describe. Harder to defend. They just feel right on dreary afternoons. Everyone knows about “The Graduate,” but I bet a few folks still haven’t caught up with one of the best comedies of the ’80s.

Rob Reiner’s “The Sure Thing” bears the title of a teen comedy, the plot of a sex comedy and the heart of a romantic comedy.

Walter “Gib” Gibson (John Cusack) is stuck at a Northeastern college where snow reigns supreme and the coeds all dress like librarians.He gets a call from a pal named Lance (Anthony Edwards, pre-”ER,” pre-follicle retreat) who invites him to visit sunny California school. Lance even sweetens the deal with a promise no young man can resist. [click to continue...]

in 2003, Hollywood created a pin-point recreation of those early 1060s Doris Day features called “Down with Love.” Few people paid to see it. Maybe they figured they could rent the real deal at the video shop. Or, they saw through the charade.

Now, we’re treated to a valentine to those screwball comedies of the 1940s with “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day,” and I expect it’ll enjoy a similar fate. The immaculately groomed film, out on DVD Aug. 19, tries so hard to turn back time you half expect a digitized Jimmy Stewart to make a cameo.

“Pettigrew” stars the great Frances McDormand as a mousy governess named Guinevere Pettigrew unjustly fired from her job. Broke and homeless, she’s loitering in a train station when she learns of a woman seeking a social secretary. So Miss Pettigrew poses as the secretary applicant herself. [click to continue...]