Pop Culture Nonsense: Five Superhero Movies So Stupid (They Must Be Seen Part 1)

Five Superhero Films So Bad They Must Be Seen

Being a comuc book fanboy, and a weirdo completist, I tend to watch EVERYTHING that's ever been committed to film that has a comic book source material basis.....and for every THE DARK KNIGHT and CAPTAIN AMERICA : CIVIL WAR,  there's two dozen terrible fucking superhero movies.  And, even amongst the bad, there's a few "gems" that shine despite their ineptitude....the pure unintentional humor value outweighs anything they lack in talent or budget...

CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990, 21ST CENTURY PICTURES)

One the casualties of the collapse of 1980s schlock merchants Cannon Films, CAPTAIN AMERICA is a victim of limited budget and a butchered hatchet job of an edit.

At one point in time, Cannon was looking to cast Dolph Lundgren in the role, but finally settled on Matt Salinger as Steve Rogers aka Captain America (most interesting thing about Salinger: his father was J.D. Salinger, infamously reclusive author of CATCHER IN THE RYE).

  Portraying his arch nemesis is Scott Paulin as an Italian (?!?) Red Skull, who has reconstructive surgery after the war and decides to kidnap the President of the United States (played by Ronnie Cox) 45 years later and has the most unimpressive nuclear bomb in film history as part of his arsenal.

 Also, look for Bill Mumy (Will Robinson of LOST IN SPACE fame, all growed up) and Darren McGavin portraying the same role 45 years apart and Ned Beatty as the President's goofy childhood friend turned reporter.

 Going directly to home video in 1992, the video cassette release of this film went out if print as soon as it hit rental store shelves, and everyone involved pretty much wanted to disown it,  It's scarce nature, as well as the stories of it's complete and utter terribleness garnered CAPTAIN AMERICA a small cult following amongst comic book fanboys.  In 2012, director Albert Pyun offered a director's cut of the film via Sony's burn on demand specialty DV-R service, but the verdict is still out as to whether the nearly hour and a half of cut footage reinserted into the film improves it.

BARB WIRE (1995 Universal Pictures)

Hey, kids!  Titties!

 I don't know whose brilliant idea  it was to take one of Dark Horse Comics'  early 1990s attempts at creating a shared superhero universe (as well as an attempt to cash in on the then current "Bad Girl" character craze....Lady Death, anyone?) and decided to do a dystopian sci fi remake of CASABLANCA (no....really.  I can't make this shit up), cast Pamela Anderson in the Bogart role (and the dude who played Jango Fett in ATTACK OF THE CLONES in the "Ilsa" role)....and then decided to sell the whole mess on the merits of T&A provided by Anderson,......but....I'd like the chance to shake their hand.  It's a spectacular trainwreck of a movie.

Ms. Wire's first comuc book appearance from 1993, and below a more current incarnatiin of the comic

I can't tell if I enjoy Anderson's inability to act (which is epic, trust me) or a genuinely talented ensemble cast of veteran genre picture actors slumming it up in character roles that I enjoy more about this film.  I'd watch Udo Kier read from the phone book, but he does a stellar job of  chewing scenery here.

Jesus Christ.....there's more gaffer's tape holding up her tits than rigging up the lighting in this flick.

SUICIDE SQUAD (Extended Cut Bluray, Warner Bros. 2016)

 SUICIDE SQUAD (Extended Cut Bluray, Warner Bros. 2016)

One of my favorite comics of the late 1980s,  at least of the DC Comics variety,  was the John Ostrander written SUICIDE SQUAD.  I enjoyed it because I've always thought that it was one of the more original concepts brought to superhero comics at the time it was being published.

The first issue of the original 1987 series

SUICIDE SQUAD answered the question of what happens when  the bad guy got carted off to jail.

You  know the typical comic book superhero cliches and conventions:

1.)  super hero and super villain fight
2.).   super hero saves the day the bad guy goes to jail

The reason why this scenario always seemed to be lacking is that in a world where masked criminals  possessed Herculean strength, could shoot laser bolts from their eyes or possessed technology and weaponry that is far advanced beyond comprehension for normal law enforcement officials to combat,  ordinary correctional facilities and detention centers would be completely useless.

The 80s team line up

SUICIDE SQUAD presents the tale of a shadowy intelligence community operative named Amanda Waller who comes up with a witty solution for this problem.    Commission the construction of a specialized facility for super powered bad guys called Belle Reve in Louisiana,  house the criminals there,  and treat them as a commodity ( that commodity being enhanced human beings with godlike powers  and abilities),  and do what the government usually does whenever it discovers a new commodity:  weaponize it.  She offers these masked hooligans a deal: agree to become a member of a covert strike team that carries out secret missions in the interest of American national security, and in exchange for services rendered,  they have a chance of getting  lighter sentences or  of being paroled earlier.

Viola Davis as Amanda Waller

  There are a few catches,  though....no one can know of the existence of the covert team, and if caught performing a mission, the government will disavow any information about them.   This is basically a witty PR move made by Waller. ..it would generally look bad if the President asked the Justice League of America to assassinate some third world dictator or take out some drug cartel in the bloodiest fashion possible, but if it's the bad guys....well, they're just doing the same thing they always do: murder and mayhem. 

The current incarnation of the comic, which began publication in 2016

Oh, there's also the fact that 90% of the missions that they get sent on are no win situations and there's a pretty good chance that not everyone is making it back alive. And,  they totally pull an Escape from New York on you  and equip you with an explosive bracelet that will take your arm off if you step out line.  Hence, the title SUICIDE SQUAD.

It's basically THE DIRTY DOZEN set in a world full of superheroes....and it was pretty brilliant.  So,  needless to say I was very interested to see how the film adaptation turned out.  

The gang's all here....

The film?    It's good.  It's a decent action film.  It contains more DC Comics nerd fan service than I was expecting. ...I especially dug the Capt. Boomerang flashback with The Flash.  More Affleck as Batman, which was teased in the trailers...

Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn

My only problem with the film is there's no real standout performances.  Oh, everyone is cast well and all the cast carries their load, but....I love a couple of these characters on the comics page (Captain Boomerang, Katana, and Enchanteress come to mind), but their screen counterparts seem to be lacking.  Even Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn doesn't deviate from a somewhat cookie cutter cardboard standee- level performance, IMO...Which is sad, because it seems the majority of the promotion and marketing behind this film is directed towards her character.  This may be due to the script, though, or the efforts made to shoehorn the backstories of the entire cast into a finite timeslot.  I don't know...

 Even Jared Leto's take on the Joker is subdued and less manic than one would typically prefer, and there are moments in his delivery where it sounds like he's trying to channel Mark Hammill's vocal performances of the character in several animated Batman venues over the years.

It's entertaining and worth a watch....having said that, I recommend investing the time to check out the Extended Cut of this film, because much like the earlier BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE,  the theatrical cut's pacing and structure is haphazard and wonky,  and the reinstated cut scenes do flesh out the plot and the characters' motivations somewhat.  Side note:  I highly recommend the film's soundtrack
, which is top notch with great tracks by Rick Ross and and others....

 Quite a few slightly informative featurettes, but nothing truly spectacular

SUICIDE SQUAD is a decent time killer with some fun action sequences and moments of fanboy bliss, but lacks just a small percentage of substance that could gave turned it into something truly special.  All said and done, though, it is a nice addition to the fledgling Warner Brothers DC COMICS Cinematic Multiverse and I'd look forward to any future adventures these characters find themselves in.

Wonder Woman - The Complete First Season (1976)

Wonder Woman - The Complete First Season (1976)

Running Time: 725 minutes

MPAA Rating: NR
Format: Standard 4:3
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Languages: English
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Region: 1
MSRP: $39.98

Gloria Steinem's favorite fictional feminist finally makes it to the digital age, and while I let my subscription to Ms. magazine run out years ago, I couldn't resist picking this 3 disc set up for simple nostalgia value. Being a long-standing comic book fanboy, as well as being a child of the late 1970s/early 1980s, it's needless to say that I had a boyhood crush on Lynda Carter as the leggy Amazon princess...

And, I'm not ashamed to admit that I still do.

Lynda Carter as Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman

Making its debut in late 1975, ABC's The New Original Wonder Woman pilot film blended camp sensibilities with good old fashioned Saturday matinee action (with a healthy dose of "subtle" sex appeal), and led to one of the most fondly remembered television shows of the disco era. This set collects what many fans, myself included, consider to be the best of the show's three seasons (ABC airred it during it's inaugrial 14 episodes, and CBS later picked it up for the latter two seasons), which firmly plants Princess Diana in a wartime 1940s setting, reflecting the character's time of conception in her parent medium, comic books.

The quality of the scripts vary during this run of shows, from good clean fun: The pilot and "Formula 407" (episode 11, 1/22/77) to wild, cliffhanger serial-esque hijinx: "Wonder Woman vs. Gargantua" (ep.6, 12/18/76), to downright goofy: "Judgement From Outer Space" (eps. 9 & 10), but likeable, deadpan performances by Carter and Lyle Waggoner as Steve Trevor (a character I used to jokingly refer to as the "male Lois Lane") and several of the celebrity guest-stars (Roy Rogers, Red Buttons, and Cloris Leachman being amongst the best of them) make up for anything lacking in the plot department. Plus, there's the pre-fame Debra Winger as Wonder Girl, a sight that has to be seen to be believed, unintentional humor included.

The show still looks fairly well, even after nearly 30 years and several syndication packages later. I'm sure Warner Bros. probably did some digital clean-up for the transfers, and the Dolby mono mix is surprisingly clean, free of the usual reverb that makes one feel that they're listening the track from a distance while at the bottom of a well.... heh.

Pilot Film Audio Commentary by Lynda Carter and Executive Producer Douglas S. Cramer - Too self complimentary and "cutesy" to be taken as a serious insight into the creation of the show, but it's fun to hear Carter's thoughts on her performance.

Beauty, Brawn and Bulletproof Bracelets: A Wonder Woman Retrospective - Nice documentary featuring interviews with Carter and several of the production team behind the conception of the show, as well as insights from comic book illustrator extraordinaire Alex Ross (the painter behind such works as Marvels, Kingdom Come, and the 2003 Oscars poster, to name a few) and author Les Daniels (who has penned several in-depth books on the history of various comic book publishing entities and their characters) about the history of the amazing Amazon herself in various media venues.

From the incredibly bad faux funk theme song (for some laughs, track down and read a copy of the lyrics to it) to Lynda Carter's patriotic adventures utilizing the "feminist mystique" and a good right hook, all the while dressed in what is essentially a bathing suit, "Wonder Woman- The Complete First Season" is more fun that you could wrangle with a Magic Lasso.

Did I mention the whole "boyhood crush" thing? Lynda Carter could tie me up anytime...hee hee!

Blood Freak: Special Edition (1972) Something Weird Special Edition

Blood Freak: Special Edition (1972)

Running Time: 80 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Format: Standard 4:3
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Region: 1
MSRP: $19.99

Blood Freak: Special Edition (1972)'

Praise the Lord and Pass the Turkey! Testify! 

Possibly the only film that can not only claim to be a "turkey", but star one as well - and certainly the ONLY Pro-Jesus, Anti-Pot, Turkey Monster Splatter flick in existence. 

After an intro like that, how does one follow up with a simple and concise plot synopsis? I'm placing my talents in the hands of the Lord on this one....(heh) Steve Hawkes (a former low-rent Tarzan movie star) is "Herschell", a tall, dark, and clueless type who can't decide whether he's an Elvis impersonator or a motorcycle riding tough guy. Seriously, this flick's opening looks like they took some discarded, out-of-focus footage from an AIP biker flick and hastily cut it together....with a cleaver! 

Anyway, during his Easy Rider experience, Hersch meets up with two sisters: Pure and God-fearing Angel and her "naughty" younger sister, Anne...who turns Hersch onto the devil weed.....Marijuana! Hersch also gets a job with an old research scientist. Who does turkey research... 

Oh, wait.....it gets better. It seems that the pot grown in this particular goofy-ass alternate universe is the most addictive stuff on Earth. It makes crack cocaine look like marshmallow s'mores. Hersch is sent into crazy-mad withdrawal sickness, and the loco-weed kick combines with chemically treated turkey meat (which he has to consume at his job) to cause a genetic mutation in Herschell of the wacky kind. No kidding....he becomes GOBB-LOR! The TURKEY of DEATH!  

Okay, I made that last part up, but it makes this crap seem a heck of a lot cooler than it actually is. And Hersch does become a blood-thirsty turkey-headed monster who goes on a kill-crazy murder spree to feed his hunger. Best bit: Turkey monster pleading with God to forgive him and end his existence. 

Intercut into all of this is footage of director Brad Grinter (former nudie movie star) giving pseudo-philosophical moral warnings, looking as if he just came off a three day bender. His ending speech on the dangers of drugs just has to be seen.

 Sadly, if you're expecting high definition in picture and sound, yer in the wrong place, brother. Time has not been kind to the original elements of this flick, and that's understandable, seeing as how I don't think Blood Freak is on the AFI list, or sat around in any major studio vaults since its 1972 debut. Seeing as how this is a Something Weird release, Mike Vraney probably stumbled across it in somebody's basement behind the hot water heater or buried in a lock box somewhere in the Louisiana bayou. It's watchable, but "the curse of 1970s cheap film stock" lingers around it to the worst possible degree. The original mono track has degraded severely and Hawkes' crazy (and vaguely European.... y'know...like Fabio's) accent doesn't help matters much. Kudos to Something Weird, though, for rescuing this little oddity and pushing it, squawking and gobbling, into the digital age.

This is where the disc excels.....packed to the brim with over 2 hours worth of supplementary material, as if to make up for the really bad movie and it's deteriorated condition. 

Original Theatrical Trailer- yep....see all the hype that made this film a "classic" 
Bonus "Blood Drenched Horror Trailers- Teasers for the following: Blood Feast, The Blood-Spattered Bride, Bloody Pit of Horror, Color Me Blood Red, The Dorm That Dripped Blood, I Drink Your Blood/ I Eat Your Skin, Night of the Bloody Apes, and Flesh Feast 
The Walls Have Eyes- Steve Hawkes in soft core nudie 28 minute 1968 sex flick 
Brad Grinter: Nudist- Pro-naturalist short subject starring the Blood Freak co-director/co-star 
Narcotics: Pit of Despair- 1960s anti-drug scare film 
Beggar At The Gates- late 1960s short subject which deals with weird tangents of the Christian denomination
Turkeys in the Wild- Everything you wanted to know about woodland fowl (but were afraid to ask) 1960s nature short subject 
A Day of Thanksgiving- 1950s proganda short subject on Thanksgiving that reveals the origins of the November holiday and how great it is to be an American....and not a dirty pinko commie!
Ghastly Gallery of Ghoulish Comic Book Art- Several still shots of various cheapo Stanley and Eerie publications of the late 1960s and 1970s, with several horror rockabilly punk cues by the Dead Elvi played as atmosphere music. Great band, too.   
Incredibly stupid film, poorly made....yet, fun nonetheless and the unintentional humor is hilarious. Something Weird's disc is a definite must-have for "bad" movie enthusiasts.

AMERICAN SCARY

American Scary (2007)

Running Time: 92 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Format: Widescreen 1.78:1
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0
Languages: English
Subtitles: None
Region: All
MSRP: $19.95

It's funny the things you remember from your childhood.  Like, for instance, I put four years of high school "college prep" English classes under my belt, and few Lit. and Writing courses were attended during my college years....yet if you asked me how to deconstruct a sentence, or what a adjective was...you find me stuttering and stammering a response.  But, if a complete stranger were to walk up to me on the street and asked me to recite Green Lantern's oath or what the origin of the Flash was (Jay Garrick?  Barry Allen?  Wally West?  Pick yer poison...), I'd kick that stuff off the top of my head.

Examples: Q: What was your first girlfriend's last name?
A: Um....Gollum?  Giggly?  Gaffin?   I think it was Gaffin...it involved a "geee" noise.

Q: What's your favorite Stones song?
A: "Gimme Shelter", "Let It Bleed" album, 1969.

Q:  What's your mother's phone number?
A:  It has a three and there's a zero somewhere in there...besides, it's stored in my cel-phone's address book (which also has an entry for my number, the number to that particular cel-phone, so's if anybody should ask me for it.  C'mon....how many times do I call myself?   Zero.)

Q: Where'd you first see "The Devil Bat" starring Bela Lugosi?
A: Channel 19 WXIX, Cincinati Ohio.  May 11th, 1986, after midnight.  Hosted by the Cool Ghoul.  Sponsored by Hudapohl Beer and Grippo's Potato Chips.

I think one of the things that I miss the most from childhood is the concept of independent television stations.  It seemed every summer there were at least two or three popping up on my UHF dial, in various stages of acceptable reception, from snowy static to crystal clear.  The really fun thing about these broadcasters was the sheer amount of inventiveness that substituted for production budgets and, in most cases, talent.  This is where I learned to love three things:  cheezy local kid shows, crazy syndicated television packages... and the truly oddball: late-night horror movie hosts.

Now, I live (and grew up) in Ohio, which has come to be viewed as the "mecca" of this particular breed of on-air MCs, especially in the Cleveland and Cincinatti markets.  In my neck of the wood, the south central and southwestern areas of the state, the Cincy stations were king, and the big indy here was WXIX, which began it's broadcast history in 1968.   And ask anybody in these parts over the age of 30 who the "Cool Ghoul" is, and you'll be met with a mile-long grin followed by a story that either involves the funniest television viewing experience of their childhood and/or the scariest.

I've heard horror hosts being likened to the Greek Chorus of old, giving commentary on the gruesome proceedings being played out before an audience... but I'd like to think it's something simpler and far more innocent.  The primary audiences of horror hosts during their hey-day were children and teenagers, and these ghoulish lunatics, using their on-air charisma, would talk kids into doing something they shouldn't be doing ("Hey, kid!   Stay up past your bedtime and I've got all this really cool stuff to show you..."), and while doing it...allow them to watch....GASP!...horror movies, which added to the allure.

Yet....while nudging kids headway into a bad experience with one hand (or hook....or claw...or sometimes a tentacle), every once and a while, they'd stop the whole thing and take a kid under their care with the other arm and provide comfort ("Wasn't that silly?  Ain't no reason to be scared... that tentacle is obviously rubber. And that werewolf?  Wasn't it a hoot when he banged his head against the boom-mic?").  Kind of like a mischievous imaginary friend who lived on the airwaves, who you had to sneak downstairs and tune in on the magic picture box.  But you could only do it once a week... after midnight.  When your parents were asleep...

AMERICAN SCARY is a loving tribute to these "imaginary friends" on the airwaves, chronicling it's earliest beginnings, with Vampira (Maila Nurmi,1922-2008) on the west coast, John Zacherle on the east, and near and dear to my heart, Ghoulardi ( disc jockey, voice announcer, and actor the late Ernie Anderson) who later left Cleveland, became the voice of ABC Television for a generation and left his influence on such notable names as former broadcasting partner Tim Conway, Drew Carey (watch for Ghoulardi t-shirts on episodes of his sitcom), rockabilly punk act the Cramps, and his son...director Paul Thomas Anderson, who did a couple little films you may have heard of:  BOOGIE NIGHTS and THERE WILL BE BLOOD. P.T.'s production company isn't named  "The Ghoulardi Film Company" for nothin'.

After an exploration into the beginnings of the phenomena, we're given a look at some of the highlights of the 1960s and 70s era, with long, loving looks at guys like Bob Wilkins of CREATURE FEATURES, Chilly Billy Cardille (probably most infamous for his appearance as a television newsman in Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD), Chicago's Svengoolie (Jerry G. Bishop), and more hometown boys such as Big Chuck and Lil' John, The Ghoul (Ron Sweed), and my beloved Cool Ghoul (the late Dick Von Hoene... "Bleah, bleah, BLEAAAHHH!") before moving on to more recognizable fare such as Cassandra Peterson's Elvira, Mistress of the Dark and an interview with Joel Hodgson of MYSTERY SCINCE THEATER 3000 fame.  All along the way, we're treated to glimpses of folks still in the business via the wonders of the inner-netz and public access television, most notably Count Gore De Vol, portrayed by Dick Dyszel, a favorite of mine.

For a piece of work that looks to have been shot completely on Digi-Cam, it's pretty professional looking.  As far as bells and whistles go, disc-wise, it's a pretty tight package.  Even though it's an indy release, (and as far as I know, the disc publisher is doing their own distribution, as well, with exception to Amazon), expect to see the now-typical built-in marketing material prior to the the disc's root menu (trailers for two other oddball docs, AMERICAN ZOMBIE and AMERICAN SHOPPER, which looks to be fun and reminds this reviewer of Errol Morris' VERNON, FLORIDA).

- Audio Commentary by Directors John E. Hudgens and Sandy Clark- Pretty interesting stuff, almost as good as the film itself.
- Original Pitch Reel
- Theatrical Teaser and Trailer
- Extended Interviews:  Some decent stuff here, with one focusing on the Nashville horror host scene and it's elaborate history, and another doing the same for the great state of Texas...

Batman - The Complete 1943 Movie Serial Collection (1943)

 BATMAN- THE COMPLETE 1943 MOVIE SERIAL COLLECTION

Running Time: 259 minutes (approx)
MPAA Rating: NR
Format: Standard 4:3
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Region: 1
MSRP: $29.95

I'm a long-time fan of the cliffhanger serials, a love stemming from my interests in both superheroes and film. Masked radio, pulp, and comic book heroes circa the time period were perfect fodder for the studio serial department machine for nearly two decades, and I've always loved the 1943 attempt at Batman. An evil "yellow peril" mastermind, zombies in goofy metal helmets, atomic ray pistols....what's not to love?

Well....there is that li'l bit of World War 2 era blatantly racist propoganda dialogue....yes, kids, before we learned to hate the dirty pinko Commies (when we weren't hatin' each other), we dished it out to those nutty "Japs" and "Ratzi Krauts". Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, and all that jazz...

Interesting story about that. Seems that at some point in the mid-1980s, Sony (the Japanese company that currently holds the leash on Columbia Pictures and its repertory) did some serious editting to a video cassette master of said Bat-adventure for use by Goodtimes Home Video, specifically to the voice track, dubbing over several lines of dialogue deemed offensive. This master was then used for the only licensed prerecord VHS release, circa 1990, during the second Batmania merchandising craze that was a result of the 1989 Tim Burton-directed Bat film. For years, the only way folks could see an uncut version of the 1943 serial was if they somehow lucked into seeing a repertory showing.... which, to my knowledge, was never.

Fast-forward to 2005. After hearing about the original unaltered version of the serial for years, I hear about the DVD release. I pick it up at the local Wal-Mart...and then I watch the first disc....

Not five minutes into it....I realize something's different from my prior viewings of the film (via the Goodtimes release)....there's a different voice narrating. And then... there's some hate for the Orientals showing it's ugly head. Isn't this age of DVD mastering wonderful, where those doing the transfers are forced to seek out the original elements to get decent stuff? My only question is: Does Sony (translation: Japanese company who went through the effort nearly two decades ago to try and smooth over the situation) even realize or know about this....or is this a situation akin to the Texas "MGM Swamp Thing DVD" case a few years back, in which an enraged mother discovered that the DVD she bought for her kids at a Toys R Us clearly labelled as PG rated was actually transferred from a more racy international cut print (mmmmm....Adrienne Barbeau nudity)? That situation caused MGM to recall that disc, and "Swamp Thing" wasn't made available again until just a few years ago by the manufacturer. And the Batman disc? Not a disclaimer in sight...which seems to be the thing that Disney (see Leonard Maltin's stuff on the now out of print Disney Treasures sets) and Warner Bros. (see Whoopi Goldberg's contributions to the LOONEY TUNES Golden Collection sets) have resorted to, gladhanding any of the racial stereotyping and ridiculing those respective studios have done in the past.

Below:  an example of the GOODTIMES VHS ADR edit

 And.....the original uncut 1943 audio

A very interesting and ironic situation indeed, if this isn't a case of preserving and/or presenting the original uncut film warts and all.

The plot? Standard serial fare....a lot of fun, very thin holes script-wise when it comes to the "daring escapes" at the beginning of the next chapter. J. Carrol Naish portrays Daka, an evil Japanese mastermind bent on destroying America's war efforts, while doing the worst impression of a Japanese accent I've ever heard. Lewis Wilson as Batman/Bruce Wayne and Douglas Croft as Dick Grayson/ Robin obviously seem to be having a blast with the roles and are genuinely funny at times....and alot of unintentional humor stems from Batman's slightly ill-fiting costume and droopy Bat-earred cowl. Don't think too hard and try not to wince whenever there's any hate-talk goin' on, and you'll find yourself having as much of a good time. Look for Charles Middleton (Ming the Merciless of Buster Crabbe "Flash Gordon" fame) in a small role as a radium mine owner.

Head and shoulders above the Goodtimes release, the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment two disc set looks great. The transfer's crisp and clean, a nice change from Goodtimes' fairly murky and scratched VHS release. The elements show their age, but the revelation that this is the first time since the 1960s that this film is available to a mass audience in an uncut and uncensored form should take the sting from that.

None to speak of, not even a theatrical trailer. Nifty menus, though.

A nice package and a fun film, if you're willing to forgive some of the ignorance of the past that went into demonizing the enemy.