Transcript of 70mm’s Batman Begins (2005) Episode.
SLIM Hey, it’s your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers. Every Monday I sit down to talk about recently watched movies with my dear friend and artist Danny Haas.
DANNY What is with these billionaires and these giant, baggy khaki pants in these movies?
SLIM And our spiritual advisor, Protolexus.
PROTO Why can’t they find some way to allow Batman to move his neck?
SLIM This is the first episode in our The Road to the Batman, leading up to the brand new movie after its release. Does Batman Begins reinvent the Caped Crusader as we knew him? Or are Nolan’s action scenes too claustrophobic for us to care? Let’s find out… now.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
PROTO Big night. Should I start the show? Is now the time?
SLIM We’re just getting right into it. Okay, this is like Dune Pod right now.
DANNY Let’s do it.
SLIM We’re live to tape. Proto’s got something to say!
PROTO I have something to say. Okay? [pulls out paper]
DANNY Oh gosh.
PROTO I prepared a written statement.
DANNY Oh my gosh.
SLIM He’s got paper in his hands.
DANNY It’s a scroll!
*PROTO It’s not as long — it’s in 42 font, don’t worry. You know, I have said a few things the past few weeks that upon reflection I feel like maybe wasn’t the greatest thing. So I just wanted to make an apology. The past few weeks, I said, you know some less favorable things about Jon Favreau. [Slim laughs] Jon Favreau, you know, he’s a director, a writer, an actor. He’s done a lot in his career. And I stand by what I said about Boba Fett. But I understand that it might have felt like an attack against Jon. Now, Jon, if you’re listening, which I’m sure he is. I apologize. I did not mean to hurt you. I was angry. It was a righteous anger. That anger is felt by millions like me for this show, and it’s completely justified. But I don’t want to cast an image of Jon based on his failures. Instead, I should be casting an image on his successes because there are many that we all love, right? Remember his movie Chef?
DANNY No.
SLIM I have not seen it but I heard about it.
PROTO Fantastic movie.
DANNY Okay.
PROTO Loved it! I mean, his work on the first Iron Man, its iconic, iconic. It changed the game. So Jon, I want to say we we should put aside our differences now. And we should just seek to forget that The Book of Boba Fett ever happened. And just remember the good times before these dark days. So Jon, I am sorry. Thank you.
DANNY What an apology.
SLIM Very bold of Proto to come out to start the show with an apology after asking if Jon Favreau needed to be put out to pasture. I think that might have been an exact quote in our book of Boba Fett discussion.
PROTO Slim, would you like to apologize for saying he should be in jail? [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Was that on the show? Or was that off air? That sounds like a DM. I don’t know if I said that on the show. Someone check the tapes. Someone let me edit the tapes. And then you can check the tapes. [Danny & Proto laugh] Listen, anyone that has watched the majority of The Book of Boba Fett, they might agree with me. Okay? Maybe a night in jail wake some people up. Throw Robert Rodriguez in there while we’re at it. We all saw that spin move video on Twitter. What is happening on that set? Inmates run the asylum. Batman Begins is our main feature this week. We’ve gotten the Proto apology out of the way. We’re moving on together, stronger than the storm. But there is another storm that I think we need to parse through.
DANNY Oh gosh.
SLIM That happened this past week. Not involving Proto, don’t worry.
DANNY Oh, what did I do? [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM There’s a hot movie that came out. Everyone’s talking about it. One of the best movies of the year. Best screenplays, best actors. Worst Person in the World. A lot of internet buzz. And one of the hosts went on a date night to see that movie. Their partner? Three and a half stars.
DANNY Oh she gave it stars?
SLIM She gave it three and a half stars.
PROTO Her bravery,
SLIM Very brave. The host, Danny, no stars.
DANNY There was a hear.
SLIM No rating but a heart.
DANNY Juice heart.
SLIM Let’s walk through this journey please.
DANNY So we went to our local independent theater, the Enzion, here in Orlando, we’re members there. We got into our couch seats to sit and watch a movie that was incredibly loved by our community. Lots of stars out for this. And beaming. And I liked it, I had a great time watching it. I think it’s a really beautiful film. I’ve been to Oslo twice. I love to see places I’ve been in film like that. And I think the main actress — I don’t want to butcher her name. I think it’s probably not Renate. But she’s amazing and I think she’s amazing actress and so is the man that she is dating in it — Anders? I think he’s incredible. And especially in the third act of the film, the final act, I think he’s quite brilliant. I think my problem with giving it stars is it felt a little bit irrelevant because I just didn’t connect with the story the way people, other people have. I know it’s it’s a lot of reviews came in about it, you know, like millennials dating etc, etc. But I told Casey, I was like trying to figure out why. It just wasn’t a five banger for me. But we got married incredibly young.
SLIM Sixth grade.
DANNY So we didn’t have this mid 20s dating scene. So it’s kind of foreign for us to watch this. portrayed. So it was fine. It’s like we didn’t really connect with the story, but it’s a beautiful movie. Great acting. And so that’s why I gave it a heart. I liked it. It’s not worth the discourse.
SLIM Imagine the state of the Discord if Danny dropped a three star Worst Person in the World review?
DANNY I wouldn’t have given three stars. I think if feet to the fire, it’s probably, it’s for me it’s four stars. It’s a very good movie.
PROTO Gabb, capture that in the spreadsheet please. [Slim laughs]
DANNY I want to see these actors in a movie that didn’t get widespread and hopefully that they have larger careers after this.
PROTO Nice.
SLIM Proto, when are you going to see this movie? I’m surprised Danny even got to see in Florida. It’s really only like New York and LA.
DANNY Yeah, me too.
PROTO Um, I don’t know. You know, I don’t know anything about this movie other than just I guess what you said that it’s just kind of like a story about people in their 20s trying to figure things out and the dating scene? I don’t know. I’m not in a rush to see it. I guess I’ll see it when it comes to streaming, maybe.
DANNY Disney+. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Disney+ not getting this. Boy, before we move any further, we should say hello to some new patrons that joined us this week. New friends of ours at 70mmpod.com. Zoe, Nicholas and Roberto. Robert or Roberto? I’m not sure if that’s a typo. But they joined this week. And an update. We don’t talk about this. We added a new tier for 10 bucks a month to get access to exclusive watch alongs that we do. The first one was The Phantom Menace. And wouldn’t it be cool if that watch long had a video attached to it? Wouldn’t it be cool?
DANNY It would be really rad.
SLIM Also part is audio dispatches, which were big hits but we now have all 47 interns that joined us on this journey.
PROTO Paid internship.
SLIM And we’re planning the next set right now. As we speak offline, we’re not planning on the show. Proto, what’s your what’s your vibe on the next watch along? It’s coming soon.
PROTO Yeah, I can’t wait. We haven’t picked a movie yet. Right? As soon as soon as we figure that out. It’s gonna be fun. It was so much fun doing the last one. You know, the three of us watching the movie? God, can it get any better than that? Sorry, everybody. But does sit get any better than that? [Slim laughs] Right. So I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait.
SLIM Yeah, I mean, how long was that audio file? Like two and a half hours? Two hours, Phantom Menace. How long is Clone Wars?
DANNY The entire —
SLIM The second one.
DANNY Oh. It’s a probably a two and a half hour. Two plus.
SLIM Can you imagine?
DANNY We’re not. Even thought it’s the 20th anniversary.
SLIM Clone Wars. Is that what Episode II is called?
DANNY Its Attack of the Clones. [Slim & Danny laugh] But you’re close.
SLIM I couldn’t remember the full title of the movie!
DANNY I thought you were talking about the cartoons.
SLIM Hannah in chat says “If it’s Mamma Mia I will pay.” ‘ve never seen Mamma Mia but there was a big moment in our Discord watch party for Mamma Mia, one and two, believe if or not. Proto has not moved — [Slim laughs]
PROTO Yeah, it’s a good movie. Jenna loves that movie.
DANNY Does she?
PROTO If that was the pick —
DANNY She would be a guest on the show?
PROTO Oh, she would be pissed because she couldn’t watch it with me.
SLIM Gabb has a pretty good idea. “Can you imagine a watch along of the last four episodes of the Clone Wars animated series?” That would be really fun.
DANNY Mamma Mia.
SLIM Proto, did you watch any movies this week?
PROTO Yeah, I watched a movie or two. Yeah, I was able to finally get around to starting the first 70mm journey of the year, which we do throughout the year. We usually pick a series of movies that are related in some way, and then we have one per month. So it’s kind of like a movie club. For for the show. So this, we’re doing the Apu Trilogy. And the first movie was Pather Panchali for January, so, I’m running a little behind a few weeks behind. But I finally got around to watching it. I actually started it. But I gave this movie two stars. Unfortunately. I did not love it. A lot of people, you know, they there’s it’s really highly rated. People rave about this movie.
SLIM 4.3 on Letterboxd.
DANNY 4.3 and you gave it two?!
SLIM This is one of those Letterboxd movies.
PROTO Yeah, I’ve never heard of this before seeing it on Letterboxd. So I made it through the whole thing. I yeah, I was just I just it didn’t really, I didn’t connect with it. I felt kind of, like bored while watching it. I don’t know. I don’t know if I was just like in the wrong mood or what. I’m not gonna make excuses. But I do want to continue watching them because it’s what I love about it is it’s set in India. And it’s actually it’s from the 50s. So it’s, you know, I mean, India, to me is kind of like a black box. I know, like very little about it. But anything I see is incredibly fascinating. It looks like it’s like, India seemed just like a magical place. So for that alone, I’m still like, very interested in continuing on and the fact that it’s a trilogy of just like very, very, very much a trilogy, it’s about the same family and characters. So I’m curious as to see what to where it goes. So I do want to continue watching it.
SLIM You’re not going to be led into India after they see this two star review. They probably check that at the border. Get his Letterboxd out, let’s see the reviews for the trilogy.
PROTO Can you imagine if that happened? [Slim laughs]
DANNY Finished.
SLIM 4.3 average on Letterboxd. That is exceptionally high. Streaming on HBO Max and the Criterion right now and Kanopy if anyone’s interested to join. Poster is incredible. Anything else, Proto?
PROTO Oh, I watched a movie. So my dear friend in the real world, my kindred spirit, Dias, he was telling me about this movie, The Lives of Others. And he invited me over the weekend. He said you want to come over and watch this movie?
DANNY You had a date night too!
PROTO Yeah, it was a night date. We actually, so we made the mistake of starting the movie at 10 o’clock. And then afterwards, we both confessed to each other that we may have both nodded off at different parts. [Slim & Danny & Proto laugh]
PROTO It’s set in East Germany during the Cold War, and it’s about a guy who does surveillance. It’s pretty cool, the story. But I think part of it, it’s it’s pretty. It’s a pretty long movie. It’s it’s two and a half hours. And then it’s in German as well. And there is a lot of talking in this movie. So just like that combination, you know, sitting in the dark on a couch. It’s 12 o’clock at night. I made it through, I gave it three stars. I think it’s cool. This surveillance stuff. Like if you’re into surveillance, I think it’s awesome. Like some of the stuff they do like they bug this house and it was amazing. So if you like movies, like The Conversation or you know, yes, espionage stuff. I think it’s a cool movie to check out.
SLIM Image getting that text, it’s 10:30 at night, “You want to come over and watch two and a half hour German love story?” [Slim laughs] And stay awake?
DANNY And you said yes. This is some friendship.
SLIM Did you go to that Italian pizza place? What’s the place you always go to get that pizza?
PROTO Oh, Brooklyn Pizza.
SLIM Brooklin Pizza.
PROTO My boy Felipe over at Brooklyn Pizza. No, I did not.
SLIM That could have kept you awake!
PROTO Yeah, that could have been the key.
SLIM That could have been a four star movie with that pie.
PROTO But that’s it for me.
SLIM Okay. Danny, did you have any other movies you want to talk about?
DANNY No, no, not yet.
SLIM Oh!
DANNY Well, I started the journey with my daughter. She wouldn’t let me stop the journey after you watch Begins, so we went already straight into Dark Knight. So my week’s been full of Batman movies.
PROTO Wuuut?
SLIM You gonna remember anything about these movies in three weeks? You’re gonna be done the journey already.
DANNY I know. It’s crazy. I was like Olive. I gotta wait a week to watch dark night. She’s like, we have to watch it tonight. I’m like, okay.
SLIM Is this their first viewing?
DANNY First viewings, and she’s at five stars for each.
SLIM Ohhhhh.
DANNY My kid. My child. She’s my spawn.
SLIM Wow. Wowowow.
DANNY She’s exactly like me and it’s fun.
SLIM Every week, we give away free year of Letterboxd Pro, gets rid of third party ads, can see where all your movies are streaming easily and stats to end the year. Disclaimer, I’m a Letterboxd employee. But this week’s winner, Danny, first of all we should point out there was a viral tweet circulating this week on Twitter. It was a picture of Kramer, Jerry and George, the tweet was “All podcasts have the same three people hosting it” and Danny put together this Photoshop in the passenger seat of a car in two seconds. We posted it to our Twitter.
DANNY I wasn’t driving.
*SLIM You talk about a haunted image. Is there anything more haunting than the three of us as those characters some Seinfeld, Proto?
PROTO I don’t know. It’s weird to look at. It’s uncanny some would say. And seeing it, you just knew immediately who we were.
DANNY Right, we didn’t need to photoshop it.
PROTO I mean, I’m kind of pissed that I don’t look any different than Kramer. [Slim & Danny laugh]
SLIM It’s the most subtle changes. It’s like Kramer just says some like five o’clock shadow. And he looks identical to Proto. That’s like the only thing that’s different.
PROTO So weird.
SLIM Anyway, recent Discord friend posted a funny reply to it. It was Jerry putting his hands up in the stage show and leaving. It was Alex. Alex, I don’t know if your last name is pronounced Rhino. But if it is, it is the coolest last name ever. Alex Rhino. You just got a free year of Letterboxd Pro. Congratulations.
DANNY Congrats.
PROTO Congrats!
SLIM Before we get into Batman Begins. Maybe I’ll just talk super briefly about a movie that I watched. Oh god, there’s two movies I want to talk about.
DANNY Let’s go.
PROTO We have time.
SLIM Dear friend of ours, artist, close to your friend of ours on the show, Mikey P, was a guest on a tune pot episode. And one host I’m not going to say which one but they said Inglourious Basterds was just okay. And I felt like a crick in my neck after I heard that on the podcast. So I need I was like, You know what, I need to fire this movie up. I need to make sure that that’s not true, because I had this previously at five stars on Letterboxd. I thought it was a masterpiece many years ago, so rewash it in 4K, HDR, no Dolby unfortunately in the digital copy. And it’s still five star movie. Inglorious Basterds is incredible. Proto, do you have any memories of Inglorious Basterds, Quentin?
PROTO I do. Well, I have a memory of seeing it in theaters. I saw it in Pasadena, California with my dear friend and kindred spirit, Dias.
DANNY Oh gosh
PROTO Yeah we saw it, my god, it might have been 10 o’clock! It was a late showing. This is freaky.
DANNY This is scary.
SLIM Bonjourno. Yeah, I remember seeing the theaters and I like stood up and thinking of clapping at the last scene of that movie. Did you remember anything about Inglorious Basterds?
DANNY I’m gonna say I’ve only seen it once, actually. But I mean, I know I loved it. I had a great time. I think that was my introduction, probably a lot of people’s —
PROTO Brad Pitt. [Danny & Slim laugh]
DANNY No, the bad guy. I’m blanking on his name.
PROTO Christoph.
DANNY Yeah. I feel like that was like his for at least in my world, his introduction to everything. He’s amazing in that film. I mean, I think it might be my favorite — no I can’t say that yet.
SLIM Quentin? Will you say it right now on air?
DANNY MY favorite Quentin? No, no, no.
SLIM Is it Inglorious Basterds?
DANNY No, no. It’ll be Kill Bill probably. But it might be my favorite Brad Pitt movie. I really love Brad in that movie.
SLIM Mikey P’s episode on Dune Pod were the Kill Bills, so thankfully to give Mikey credit he did say that that host was wrong in Inglourious Basterds was incredible. The other movie I want to talk about and it’ll lead us into Batman Begins is The Prestige.
DANNY Oh baby.
SLIM From a Christopher Nolan. And I had this at four and a half stars, probably the first time I’ve seen this maybe since theaters. It’s still fantastic. Holds up. And I posited in my review, is this Christopher Nolan’s last great movie? I ask you.
DANNY No one answered.
SLIM Proto, thoughts on The Prestige?
PROTO Prestige was good. Last time I saw it. Yeah, you know, it’s weird that That movie is like, Prestige, when I saw that, at that point. I had no idea who Christopher Nolan even was which is weird to think about.
DANNY I get it mixed up with The Illusionist because I feel like they were very close together.
PROTO They’re twins.
SLIM Those were twins movies, if we want to do a double feature one episode. But I also totally had the plot kind of flipped, one of the big reveals I thought was the opposite with one of the characters.
DANNY That was The Illusionist.
SLIM So I was just getting a little bit of a surprise in The Prestige. But Nolan had it back then. That’s streaming on Prime right now if anyone’s interested in watching. It’s time, I think though. The Road to the Batman is finally kicking off right now. And we’re going to do with Batman Begins. Christopher Nolan. The big one. Proto, hold on Proto.
PROTO What?
[alarm sounds]
SLIM I think that’s the Bat Phone ringing on my desk. I didn’t even know I had a Bat Phone on my desk.
DANNY Answer it!
PROTO Pick it up!
SLIM Hold on. Let me fire up this Bat Phone. I gotta figure this out here.
[voice note from “Batman” aka Proto start playing]
SLIM Hold on, hold on. [Danny & Slim & Proto laugh]
DANNY Could you do that again? Let’s see if he calls back.
SLIM Alright, let me pick up his Bat Phone right now.
BATMAN Hey 70mm, it’s me, Bruce, the Batman. I’m calling from an undisclosed cave under imagine outside of Gotham City. I heard you are covering my origin story. My beginning. Someone once said small things, small starts. And that’s not true. Sorry, I just got back from a run. I’m a little winded. But my story is one of vengeance and justice and revenge and symbolism. I learned from Ra’s al Ghul that I was a man, I can be killed. But as a symbol, I can be a symbol. I forget the rest but it made a lot of sense when he said it. Some people gave up on Gotham. But when a rogue psychologist tries to poison our water supply using a fear inducing hallucinogen, a man must put away the tears about mom and dad and do something that no one else can. Shout out Albert for saving my life. Shout out to Ra’s al Ghul for training me. Even if he ended up being a scumbag. I never kill but I killed him with the moving train loop hole. Anyway, I’m Batman.
SLIM Batman, quote, “Batman” calling in call the synopsis for the movie, Proto. What do you think about that?
DANNY Coming for your job.
PROTO That was great. I don’t know if we really explained what the movie was about that much. But yeah, I mean, thanks, Batman. That was great.
SLIM Batman or Nicolas Cage? You decide. Who can say, really?
PROTO Can you imagine Nick Cage as Batman?
DANNY Batman vs Superman where they’re both played by Nick Cage. [Proto & Danny laugh]
SLIM And Joker was also played by Nicolas Cage. [Proto & Slim laugh]
DANNY My gosh.
SLIM Are we still doing a synopsis after that Proto? Did we decide?
PROTO I wasn’t planning on it. Who hasn’t seen this?
DANNY Everyone’s seen Batman.
SLIM Everyone’s seen Batman Begins. I’ll see how the music sounds under Proto, I mean Batman’s, voice in that voicemail and see how that shakes out.
DANNY Shake it.
SLIM So this is this is kicking off a big journey for us. This was a big moment in 2005. For me, I grew I read comics since I was eight years old. And the Batman franchise was, you know, it was burned to the ground. There was no Batman movie franchise for many years after Batman and Robin, so once there was like, whispers that they’re going to do it again. But they’re going to make it like real and gritty, you know, gritty wasn’t a thing when this movie came out know, what was What’s your state of mind back then Danny, when when this was announced, and maybe teaser trailers and finally came out?
DANNY I don’t really remember actually, I think at that time, I was in the planning stages of actually opening my comic bookstore at some point. Trying to remember the dates. I think we were fully open for Dark Knight. But yeah, I mean, this movie felt I don’t know shocking when you see this trailer and what we’re about to get for Batman when we have what we have in the past with all the other movies so I was very excited for this film.
SLIM Like the idea of an origin story in a superhero movie feels overdone now, but one for Batman was like, revolutionary, like young Bruce.
DANNY To think like, we didn’t get really any origins in all the movies prior. I didn’t even realize that until I watched an interview with Nolan.
PROTO Yeah, I feel like there’s always been just a gag that like, oh, origin stories, can we not do these anymore? But the think that this was the first Batman movie that gave an origin is kind of crazy.
DANNY Right after Phantasm.
SLIM Yeah, I was reading some of the wiki, before we get into our normal segment for this movie, but the wiki called out about how, like historical this movie is for like modern superhero films, cinematography, and like gritty realism in film. And it’s almost like I totally forgot about its impact in modern superhero movies. It’s almost like an afterthought when you think about the Nolan trilogy, kind of. It’s mainly just Dark Knight, Dark Knight, Dark Knight, Dark Knight.
DANNY Yeah. This film was definitely forgotten about when I mean, not really forgotten about but when you talk about this trilogy, is either you’re taking a dump on Rises, or you’re praising for what we had for The Dark Knight. No one really goes back to begins to have like the conversation when we talk about Batman movies.
PROTO The Forgotten Batman. Speaking of which, a funny thing happened with me and Jenna. On Super Bowl Sunday, we were hanging out and she asked me, she said, what movie you guys doing this week? I said, Oh, we’re doing Batman Begins. And she she looks me directly in the eyes. And she goes, “I believe I can fly. I believe I can touch…” [Danny laughs] I said Jenna, why are you singing that? And she goes, oh, you don’t know? Oh, is there something that you don’t know about a movie I can tell you? That’s from Batman Begins. And I said, honey, I Believe I Can Fly is from Batman Begins? And I couldn’t hold it in anymore at that point. So I just like started laughing uncontrollably. She said, wait, wait, wait. I have to look this up. Because now I’m afraid I’m wrong. So unfortunately for her she got Batman Begins confused with Batman Forever which features the song Kiss from a Rose.
SLIM My god, double whammy of being wrong for Jenna. [Danny laughs]
PROTO And of course we all know I Believe I Can Fly is from Space Jam. I mean, those three, it’s very easy to get all this mixed up.
SLIM How does she recover? Does she continue speaking to you at the rest of that Superbowl evening? Or was she just quiet?
PROTO She hasn’t recovered yet. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM You haven’t spoken since that moment. So with these feature presentation films, you know, when we’re watching, we take notes, we write three things down that we really want to bring up during our discussion together. So that’s what we’ll try to stick to for this movie. I’ll kick things off with one another thing that I just kind of forgot about, which was the music. Well, I mean, everyone knows The Dark Knight like music we put it in that episode when we announced it. It’s amazing, but I didn’t know James Newton Howard did like the dramatic music. Yeah, and like not the the action stuff. I had no clue. And that’s like some of the best parts of this entire movie is the Howard stuff.
[music from Batman Begins plays]
DANNY Yeah, when I was digging back through the backmatter on the blu-ray discs, they show Hans and James at the, at the soundboard and I was so confused. Because I just assumed that Hans did everything for all three movies. But I mean, clearly wrong. And this film has some actually some incredible music in it.
PROTO Yeah, I love the music in this. I mean, yeah, it’s iconic, right? This is great Batman music.
SLIM The music when he’s in a cave and the bats are flying around him and the music kicks in.
DANNY My god.
SLIM It’s a five star moment. Absolutely, 100%.
DANNY But has the music ever been wrong for Batman film?
SLIM Yeah, we’ve been pretty blessed with bad music over the years. Very blessed. Danny, what’s number one on your list?
DANNY My number one that I would like to discuss is just to talk about Christopher Nolan for a sec. Because to come into this film with his track record. Memento is all I had seen of his. I didn’t see Insomnia, but to like stroll into Warner Brothers, because you had a call that they might be working on Batman and to pitch this grounded Batman story that we had never seen on top of that, a complete origin story where we don’t even get Batman for. I don’t know, half the film, not half. But a lot of the film, feels insane to me that Warner Brothers would even put that much faith into Chris and his ideas. But it’s insanely impressive to me. Because I had assumed that The Prestige before this, but The Prestige sandwiched in between this and the Dark Knight which is incredible to me as well. I mean, his run of films after this is just mind blowing. And I think at this point in like 2022 We all have our opinions on Chris coming after, you know, the Tenet release debacle and all that kind of stuff. So we our opinions have changed on him. But at that time, it’s like he was still feeling like an independent film director coming into this Batman Begins movie and his push to still use 70 millimeter film, to still film not on digital. All the practical effects. It’s just it. I mean, this film holds up incredibly well. Especially so much of the fight and action scenes.
PROTO Yeah, the thing that I mean, that’s kind of my first note as well is just that regardless of what problems people might have with this movie, it’s just to me, it’s a really well executed and like thought out story. I mean, it’s long, it’s two and a half hours, but there’s like so much that’s like fit into it. And to be able to make a modern, realistic Batman, and you know, kind of like something that hasn’t been done before. And do it that well is really impressive.
SLIM Right. I think looking back at his career, and how it is today like we’re pretty, it’s pretty insane that we got Crispin onto a Batman trilogy. Right. Like, based on like his actual talent. Like I think it was Memento and then Insomnia. So if you’re watching Insomnia, you’re like, This guy’s got something that we weren’t. So you can kind of get a vibe, but he did co write it with David Goyer, who was known for the Nick Fury television movie with David Hasselhoff. [Danny laugh] Yeah, but he also did Dark City, he did Blade, the Blade trilogy for better or worse, but so he’s a comic book person.
DANNY I mean, it’s like between Batman Begins and Dark Knight, he does The Prestige. And in between Dark Knight and Dark Knight Rises, he does Inception. And then right after Dark Knight Rises, he does Interstellar. Like this stream of movies is baffling to me.
SLIM Yeah, Proto, what’s number one for you?
PROTO So I really love Morgan Freeman’s character of Lucius Fox in this. He’s probably my favorite character in this. I love their relationship, how it forms and then just using that coward character to have the explanations for the tech and where it comes from, and how it’s made and kind of, you know, just toeing that line of this is setting in reality, you know, it’s supposed to be like, we have to have explanations for all this stuff. But then of course, it’s Batman. So you have to kind of have a, you know, put some of that away because, you know, it’s a guy in a bat costume. Right, but just like toeing that line. I think it does so well with that character. And then just I think Christian Bale and Morgan Freeman have great chemistry in those moments. You know, it’s funny just like the you know, the old nod and wink thing that they have going on. I just, I love their relationship in this.
DANNY Yeah the moments with them bringing like levity to this like dark movie there. There’s they’re funny. They’re they’re Morgan’s adorable. Like I love this man and his bow ties. So it’s just then he straight out the comics. I mean, Lucius Fox in the comics looked I feel like it looked exactly like Morgan anyway. I mean, it was crazy.
SLIM What was, what do you think he was doing nine to five down in the basement?
DANNY Oh, baby.
PROTO Playing solitaire. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Playing solitaire for eight hours and then clocking out. I was like when run, Rutger Hauer came down and fired him. I’m like, what did you fire him for? He’s doing nothing. Like literally just breathes air. Like, who cares? He doesn’t give a crap about the job.
DANNY But that applied sciences area. Are you kidding me like just a walk around down there that the tumbler hiding under just, you know, tarps and then just pulling out the suit for you know, the armor from soldiers that was never used. I love all the explanations for every bit of gadgets that we’re just waiting for Batman to use, or Bruce.
SLIM My number two is probably my biggest thing when I think about Batman Begins is the way this movie looks with the brown or the sepia, whatever you want to call it, like the color profile of this movie. It’s so distinct. And I remember when this movie came out, you know, they wanted to really differentiate from all of the camp and rewrite history of the Batman franchise. And what better way to do that with like, you know, a lot of broad daylight scenes. The brown is everywhere in this movie. And that’s the first thing I think of when I think of Batman Begins. And he the for the scene where he sees Rachel for the first time as Batman in the subway system and it’s broad daylight. Like, thank you, God that these scenes even existed. If this is like a new superhero movie today will be total pitch black darkness, or the whole thing will be CGI, some kind of orb on the Disney lot, or the green screen or whatever. But it’s just like it’s like a bygone era. But this is 2005, it’s not even that long ago. And I love his cape. He just looks so cool in that scene where he first appears to Rachel on the whole look of this movie I love.
DANNY I mean, it’s on the box art. It’s in the poster. I mean brown is the color of this film for sure. And you can’t escape it the jackets brown like everything the coat has a has a story in this movie. I mean it’s insane.
SLIM Proto, what do you think of the style, the visuals?
PROTO Um yeah, I like it. Yeah, when he first appears I mean that’s that’s shot of him on the top of the skyscraper stop on the corner.
DANNY Stop.
PROTO Man. That’s the best shot of the movie.
SLIM Is that the one where it’s raining and he’s got one leg on the wall?
PROTO No it’s the sunset.
DANNY He’s on that like gargoyle.
SLIM It’s like a real guy dressed as Batman in Chicago. That’s how it looks.
PROTO Yeah, like, that shots amazing. Although, I don’t know. I don’t love the depiction of Gotham in this.
SLIM The Narrows. Drink when everyone’s someone said the Narrows.
PROTO Yeah, I just love the like the animated version of Gotham from the animated series so much just that you know, 1940s Retro futurism. This, like the city just makes it feel so of of a of the current time, you know, like modern times. 21st century and to me that’s just like not really Batman. And I don’t know, I can just never get past that. Like with any of like the cityscape shots. Although I do love the train. I think the train with the race platform is killer.
DANNY I was gonna ask you Proto, in your notes, do you have any notes on the bagginess of his khaki pants?
PROTO I did notice the pants.
DANNY I was gonna, what is with these billionaires and these giant, baggy khaki pants in these movies?
SLIM Funnily enough, I did not notice the baggy pants.
DANNY There’s a shot of him. I don’t know what he’s doing.
SLIM Just splunking with the baggy pants on?
DANNY I mean, they’re baggy.
PROTO He’s a little frumpy in some scenes.
SLIM But when he gets out of bed bruised up, and he does those push ups, and he’s in a best physical shape of any human being on the planet.
PROTO Alpha movie.
DANNY Okay, I was reading a story, or I was listening to a conversation Nolan was having when he was casting Bale to be Batman, and he was in the middle of filming The Machinist. And we know how skinny he got and all that. And so when he gained his muscle mass, he got too big to be Batman, and he had to lose weight to get down into the suit. I just don’t understand how this is healthy for anybody. His physical form from Machinist to Batman Begins.
SLIM He did look pretty beefy. Now think about it, like the scene where he’s doing the push ups. It looked like he maybe would even fit into a bat suit. At least maybe not like Dark Knight bat suit. He’s not shone a ton without the cape around his body.
DANNY Yeah, a lot of the behind the scenes in the beginning when they’re working out and doing the you know, choreography he looks huge, like really big. I’m just like God, he just, the muscle mass he had to put on after The Machinist.
SLIM That may explain why his little squishy mouth face in the bat mask. His little like cheeks coming out the Batsuit when he’s like talking. They should have adjusted the bat cowl I think for those scenes.
PROTO Why can’t they find some way to allow Batman to move his neck? [Slim laughs]
DANNY Next movie.
SLIM They do it in the next one, but it’s still crazy they couldn’t figure it out for this one after all these years.
PROTO Yeah, like the movie magic can’t do some work in those moments?
SLIM He’s like standing around like a bird when he’s when he’s looking down. He looks like a bird like that peak like a pigeon peeking over the edge of a building. He can’t, his visibility, he will lose every fight. He’s in the immobility of his upper body.
DANNY Good thing he’s a ninja.
SLIM That’s why he’s got to use this smoke all the time. [Danny & Slim laugh] He’s gott look around. Danny, what’s your number two?
DANNY Number two, the supporting cast in this film. What’s his name that plays Ducard. Qui-Gon Jinn.
SLIM Liam Neeson before anyone yells at us.
DANNY Rachel Dawes. Falcone. Cillian Murphy. I mean, Lucius Fox. I mean the the cast in this is unreal.
PROTO Gary Oldman.
DANNY Gary Oldman!
SLIM Yeah, Gary Oldman is like the seventh name.
DANNY Insane cast around Christian, I mean around Christian Bale is one that he has to interact with. I mean, I can’t get over every time someone’s on screen especially Gary. I love Gary as Gordon I’m it’s coming right out of the books for me. Him and Liam Neeson. I love the bait and switch with him and Ra’s al Ghul, him being Ducard it’s just it’s absolutely mind blowing this cast I can’t get over it. I mean, Michael Caine! I forgot Michael Caine as Alfred. I mean, jeez louise. This cast is unreal.
PROTO Michael Caine.
SLIM [Slim in Michael Caine impression] Never!
PROTO Oh, in honor of Michael Caine. You know, I’m a professional podcaster, I would never usually eat on the show. But in honor of Michael Caine, I did make a sandwich.
DANNY Oh my gosh.
PROTO So I just wanted to…
DANNY Are you…
[Proto takes a bite of a sandwich and continues to talk while eating said sandwich]
PROTO I want to say thank you, Michael, for the performance. It was great. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM The amount of prepared bits that Proto has come with for The Road to the Batman is off the charts.
PROTO It’s a big movie!
DANNY He’s so prepared for this movie.
SLIM Are you trying to say that Michael Caine has something in his mouth when he’s acting in this movie? Is that what you’re trying to get across to?
DANNY Talk to us.
PROTO For me, it kind of sounds like he might have something in his mouth. I just kind of think of him, that scene in Tenet where he’s sitting down with Denzel Washington son and he has food in his mouth. That scene is changed me. [Danny & Slim laugh] That’s all I think about when I see him.
SLIM We talked about the cast. I do want to call out we did get some reviews coming through in our Discord about Tom Wilkinson as Falcone.
DANNY King.
SLIM What is going on with his accent? It’s like if I played an Italian gangster. I might have had the same effect as his accent in this movie, I think.
[clip of Batman Begins plays]
SLIM But you enjoyed it, Danny?
DANNY Imagine complaining about Tom Wilkinson’s accent in this movie. Imagine having to write a review about his accent in Batman Begins.
PROTO I mean his accent so bad.
SLIM [Slim in questionable Tom Wilkinson impression] I heard about your dad the night the night your dad got shot. I heard… he begged… like a dog. And then he nods off camera. [Danny laughs] It’s awful.
PROTO It is awful. It didn’t even it didn’t even register to me that he was trying to do an accent. [Slim & Danny laugh] So, it was that bad.
DANNY That scene is so good though, stop! You’re out of your mind!
SLIM Let’s make our own version that scene with me dressed as Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone and I’ll do the voice and the acting. We’ll make our own version, that will that will come out after my edit of Last Action Hero that I’m still working on.
DANNY We’ll do it.
SLIM Like a dog! Proto, number three for you? Number two for you. Sorry.
PROTO Number two for me. So I think we all can agree that George Clooney is the worst Batman?
DANNY Yes.
PROTO And I would hope that we could all agree that Scarecrow is the worst villain in any of these Batman movies. [Slim laughs]
DANNY No one’s agreeing with you on that.
PROTO This mask.
DANNY You’re out of your mind.
PROTO This whole setup is is so stupid.
DANNY You’re out of your mind!
PROTO Every time he’s on the screen, it is so bad. Like the mask is idiotic. And then he’s like what else he’s got? He’s wearing like a business suit.
DANNY Yes.
PROTO He just looks so stupid.
SLIM Business casual.
PROTO So corny.
SLIM I do have to position this movie, like they’ve used all the quote “good ones” by this point. Like they don’t want to rehash any of the characters that were used for the first four. So we’re like, alright, we got Scarecrow and Ra’s al Ghu l.Yeah, you know, let’s try let’s give it a shot. I enjoyed the Scarecrow. I agree that he’s like a sea level character when you’re looking at the rogues gallery for Batman, but I do love Cilian Murphy’s reaction to like evil Batman when he’s drugged up. He makes like a face that is one of the greatest moments in the history of filmmaking. That’s amazing acting.
DANNY I’m a hard disagree on Scarecrow. I enjoy him in this film. I love the mask so much and especially when it’s used to entice fear into the person that he just drugged. This so many of the maggots seen the fire scene, when he rides it on the horse is like straight out of long Halloween. I mean, it’s I don’t know. I think this is, I just love Cillian in this, I think is I just really dig it. It’s a lot of fun to me.
PROTO Cillian’s glasses though were criminal. That pair of glasses he had on.
DANNY You can’t cover those baby blues. You need wider lenses for him.
SLIM My number three, I think these got poked fun at as well this week in our Discord, potentially from Proto in about 30 seconds. But I do love some of the famous quotable lines in this movie. You know at the time, you’re really wondering if this is even going to be a good Batman movie. So when you’re seeing on screen that they have some great music, they got a great cast and I’m watching here and then they have like some quotable lines like when Bruce’s dad, why do we fall? Love that line. And then also Rachel Dawes when she finds out that Bruce, first of all almost tried to murder Joe Chill, and he’d be like, you know, your dad will be ashamed of you and then she sees him as like playing the part of a drunk rich guy. It’s not who you are in the inside. It’s what you do that defines you. And then he says it back to her later in the movie when he jumps off the roof. Chef kiss in my opinion, love that stuff. Love it.
DANNY Love it. Eat it up.
PROTO How about scarecrow quoting FDR? [Proto in FDR impression] Nothing to fear but fear itself. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Imagine Tom Wilkinson as Falcone doing FDR?
PROTO Yeah, there’s I think there yeah, there’s I saw people Yeah, we’re making fun of like the dialogue and stuff as like corny or whatever, but I actually really liked it. I think Nolan kind of hits the nail one too many times. Like Nolan, we got it. We got it. Why do we fall? But I still like it. I like how he he he really works in his themes into the dialogue. Just make sure You get the point. But I thought it was like, I don’t know I liked it. I like the way that the script is written. And just like him just seeking to communicate these ideas about vengeance and justice and Bruce Wayne trying to figure this all out of like, who he is and what his role was. I thought that was like well communicated.
SLIM The one thing that I had read in the wiki, which I had did not realize was I think an earlier draft of Batman Begins, Rachel’s character was Harvey Dent. Which, like reading that I was like, Holy crap, that makes perfect sense. You know, like a young Harvey Dent, as opposed to Rachel like, and then being movie childhood friends, like that would have been insane and then have that carry over into the next movie. I enjoy Rachel’s character, I enjoy Katie Holmes in this movie, but like that idea that that almost happened would have been so rad. Because even in the second movie, like spoilers, doesn’t end very well for Rachel. Like he could have kind of even not needed that and just had Harvey Dent’s story, be the main thing and work it a little bit differently. So I thought that was pretty rad.
DANNY I did read on long those lines also for Harvey that the her boss was also almost Harvey as well in this film, the guy that she questions, etc, when Cillian’s walking out of the first deposition, or whatever you want to call it. But yeah, he was also Yeah, he was definitely almost in this film.
SLIM Number three for Batman Begins Danny?
DANNY Number three. One of my favorite parts is in the beginning. The whole Wayne training to become a member of the League of Shadows, not necessarily Batman, but just to be trained as one of them to fight crime in Gotham. From the prison camp fight scene, to meeting Ducard in the prison cell to making the hike up to the to the monastery in the Himalayas or wherever. I enjoy that bit. That whole section so much I kind of forgot about it because like I said, I always think, when I think about this trilogy, I think of Dark Knight and I watch Dark Knight 99% of the time. So I rarely come back to this film, but that whole segment of him not killing the guy that stole from the farmer next door making the conscious choice the the like, not kill then. And you know, standing up for that in the face of Ra’s al Ghul, Ducard, it’s such a great trend. Trent is not really a training montage but that whole training of him to be in the League of Shadows. I really love it. I love Liam and the scenes. He’s like the other father figure in this film for Bruce you know, you have Alfred you have his dad which is another this is the first time I’ve ever really cared about the Bruce Wayne character in a movie. Everything’s like let’s just get to Batman. But this film makes me care about Bruce and watching him you know go from losing his parents to becoming of the league. This is stuff I just eat up, really eating it up.
PROTO I love the scene of them training on the ice. I think that with the music in the background and like them wearing the like the wrist pads with the blades on them. That’s cool. Although I think the like his final scene with like the ninjas like moving around. I can’t abide that scene. That scene is so stupid.
SLIM We do have to get into Christopher Nolan’s action scenes in my opinion.
PROTO Yes, please. This is my last point.
SLIM I’d said this in our Discord. But Christopher Nolan could not direct an action scene if his life depended on it. I don’t know if he just gives the camera to somebody else who is who has no experience on set, no idea how to work camera. But almost every fight scene in his movies is too close. You can’t see any of the moves that are happening and the editing is just so bizarre to me. And Tenet was the same way, there’s a lot of stuff in Tenet that look like he just filmed it in a closet. But I don’t know what it is. Maybe he thinks that maybe that’s more realistic. Like you’re not seeing everything but like get like a seasoned actions stunt man director to move tight to move the camera back a little bit. Proto, what do you think?
PROTO That seems like a crutch that you see a lot. I feel like you see that in Bond movies. I remember the Bourne trilogy I feel like is full of that as well. Yeah, I don’t know if it’s like some kind of crutch to make it feel more realistic because if they moved it back, it would look too slow and maybe it would look you know just staged, it would look like they’re acting rather than real.
SLIM But the Shang-chi on the train scene. Like let’s compare the Shang-chi train fight scene. Like that’s, that’s insane. And that’s Marvel, so I mean.
DANNY I mean a lot of it’s a CG too, right, there’s also that aspect of it.
PROTO Yeah, I was gonna say that I’ve always liked that in The Lord of the Rings there’s like a lot of scenes where just the action, the cameras pulled back and you can see what’s going on in like the fights and like Peter Jackson makes it work somehow and it looks amazing. So it doesn’t seem like you have to do it that way. But yeah, I can’t think of like, like that first scene where they’re on the dock and he’s fighting those guys, just like, man this stinks.
DANNY Wait, the scene where he’s out of the shadows taking people out?
PROTO No but then he has like the brawl where he like falls and there’s like ten guys.
DANNY I don’t know if I agree with you guys on this.
SLIM Not to make Proto compare the Keaton Batman, but like in the bell tower, like those those fight scenes and the like the karate fight in the street, like that’s in plain view. And like it’s really short and you can see kind of like him blocking stuff and doing karate kicks and I just sound like a moron saying that out loud. But like it just looks better in my opinion. So I take it Danny you disagree?
DANNY I don’t know if I actually, I mean I do disagree. But to the point of where it doesn’t distract. It’s not noticeable to me enough to make a point about it. So when I’m watching Batman brawl in these films, I don’t know, when I watched the the stunt directors and the people that train, everything is meant to be up close and fought up close with Batman. However, whatever they called this type of fighting. It was called like something with a K like Kesey or something. I’m saying it like, it’s like Casey or something. And that’s meant to fight up close in these quick short jabs and so I don’t know maybe it’s maybe that was the wrong fighting style to film for Batman in these films, but I don’t make a note that this looks bad. And so I agree to a point.
SLIM All right. Uh, let’s see honorable mentions from me. Crane’s reaction to the nightmare Batman isn’t seen. I love the idea that the League of Shadows have already tried to destroy Gotham. Bruce’s dad has stopped them with trying to help the city over the years. That was awesome. Oh, I actually loved Alfred crying in the car when he had to go save Bruce for the first time when he was drugged up. And he was having hallucinations in the backseat and Alfred is driving his little car while crying. I think that might be it. cinematography is legit as hell. Yeah. So I had a fantastic time watching this. The ending, the ending also my big honorable mention the cliffhanger ending that you might be getting a Joker in the next movie. Like this is like the original MCU easter egg ending at the end of movie. And you had to wait years for the next movie to come out with Joker like yours it’s insane for the nerds like me that had to wait. So I went four and a half stars for Batman Begins. Loved it. Loved it. Danny?
DANNY Honorable mentions the design of the tumbler. Are you kidding me with this design? I’m in love with the tumbler This is insane this this whole working vehicle etc the line when he fighting Ra’s on the train. I won’t kill you or I won’t kill you but I don’t have to save you and he just jumps out of the train and let’s let them die. I love that. I love it. I love that line. I love the scene and I love so much of that finale. You know what my stars are for this. You know.
SLIM Yeah we do.
DANNY It’s five.
SLIM It’s a five banger for Danny.
DANNY It’s a five banger. This rewatch has been so much fun. To watch it with my daughter for the first time and her to you know, cover her eyes or jump on the Scarecrow scenes happen and experiencing this with a kid. This is the best. Love it.
SLIM Proto, it’s time.
PROTO Wow, honorable mentions. Yeah, you brought up the tumbler. I remember I was really put off by the tumbler. The first time I saw this, that was like, my main thing was just that. It’s like, I don’t know. It’s just like it’s not a Batmobile. It’s just like a military tank. And I was like, but I think it’s grown on me. It is really cool. Even if he just kind of drives it like a tank. It looks Amazing.
SLIM Every time he had to go in the middle, his head is like angled at his feet because of his cowl being pigeon cowl and it’s so dangerous for him to go in the middle of that tumbler.
PROTO How about when he has to turn the Rachel? Rachel!! [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM His cheeks.
PROTO Let’s see, honorable mentions. The cop eating the falafel. That guy. Walking in the rain. Yeah, he should have let him hit the pavement like he let him down to easily drop the guy like 15 feet off the ground. I don’t know what that’s about. Alfred crying about the way name. Get a life. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Also, what do you think Alfred has been doing for seven years at the Wayne mansion? Also just kind of dilly dallying playing solitaire, like Morgan Freeman.
PROTO Yeah. Who knows? Um, yeah, on paper. I think this movie, it has like everything. I love the script. I mean, he has an amazing cast. It has everything on paper but I don’t know, whenever I watch this. I just don’t, I don’t love it. And I I don’t I think Christian Bale is a great actor. But I just don’t like him as Batman at all. He’s just never worked for me. I just don’t buy it for whatever reason. And then I don’t know, with like an hour to go in this I’m just usually like just not engaged anymore and just kind of bored. I don’t know why this movie just doesn’t work for me at all. So I’m at two stars. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Proto Begins. Where would you rate Christian Bale in the Batman universe so far?
DANNY This is a good question.
SLIM That we’ve gone on on 70mm, we’ve done them all until this point. Some of which are behind a supporter only episodes.
PROTO So we have — so we have how many Bats so far?
DANNY Bale, Keaton, Clooney, Kilmer and that’s it.
PROTO Okay, yeah, so Kilmer is number one.
DANNY Jesus Christ. Cut the stream. [Danny laughs]
SLIM Great Batman, though.
PROTO I guess I have to go Bale. And then Keaton, then Clooney.
DANNY Wow, your turn Matt.
SLIM I wasn’t expecting you to do this.
DANNY I’m putting you on the spot.
SLIM I do love Keaton as Batman. And Val Kilmer. He’s probably two. I mean that Batman Forever episode we did together. That was an experience.
DANNY It was magic.
SLIM Early 4K viewing for that movie. Who’s left? Clooney’s last. Bale’s three I think. I mean, it’s not like a real negative on Bale. It’s just that Keaton and Kilmer do it for me.
PROTO Danny?
DANNY Clooney’s last. Kilmer is three. Keaton is two. And Bale is one.
SLIM Bale is one? Did I just hear that?
DANNY Yeah.
SLIM Holy smokes. Now there’s whispers that Michael Keaton might return. Might return in The Flash movie as an elder Batman.
DANNY I’m all for that. That’d be amazing.
PROTO Alternate universe?
SLIM There is a multiverse stuff happening in The Flash movie.
PROTO Wow.
SLIM Can you imagine an emergency Flash episode?
DANNY Emergency!
SLIM Some comments about Adam West I’m talking about the show. Just episodes we’ve covered on the show. We’ve done all the theatrical movies so far. Okay, we have some emails to get to, some VMs. Batman Begins in the can. [alarm rings] Just wanted to play that audio again. Shut it off. Shut it off please. You can email us at 70mmpod.com Send us an audio file, drop us a VM and let’s get to a letter that we got. Let’s see. Let me refresh things, make sure we don’t miss anybody. Subject line, Bekschex Begins.
DANNY Take a drink.
SLIM Dear Proto Danny and Slim or is it Kramer, Costanza and Seinfeld? I’m so excited for you all to be covering the Batman trilogy. I’ve realized recently that I’m a big fan of beginning movies in a trilogy series. My favorite Lord of the Rings movie is Fellowship of the Ring. And my favorite Star Wars prequel is Episode 1, shout out to Danny on our shared love. And Batman Begins is my favorite three films in this series, very bold statement.
DANNY That is very bold, I like that.
SLIM I think I might be in the minority here. There’s something special about watching all these characters being introduced and seeing their development unfold. Cillian Murphy is something else in his role as Scarecrow and he’s a delight to watch on screen. Gary Oldman is believable and perfect as ever. Michael Caine is forever Alfred no matter who comes along after him. Speaking of which, sorry to interject, I had maybe blocked out that Alfred is being played by Gollum from Lord of the Rings.
DANNY What are you talking about?
SLIM Did you know that? In the new Batman movie?
PROTO Oh, yeah.
DANNY Andy Serkis is Alfred? Can we pivot?
SLIM It’s not a lie, I saw it and I was shocked. We gotta go back to this email here. Christian Bale figured out how to play Batman and Bruce Wayne with equal measure and care. Chef kiss. And I always wished Kay Holmes got to stay in this series. I imagined how it may have changed or influenced the rest of her career as an actress. Anywho. Circling back to faves. Do you hope notice yourselves favoring one movie of a trilogy? If so, do you tend to like the beginning, middle or end movie? Curious to hear your thoughts. Danny, what about you?
DANNY I’m thinking of trilogies. And I’m all over the place. I’m a mess, Beks. I can’t answer that question. I’m a Return the Jedi fan. I’m a Phantom Menace fan, I’m a Fellowship of the Rings fan. I’m a Dark Knight fan. It’s like, I’m all over the place.
SLIM Back to the Future. which is it? One, two or three? Is it three? The Western one.
DANNY No.
SLIM Yeah, nobody watches the Western one. Everyone says they love that what the Western, they don’t watch it. You can’t sit through that thing.
PROTO I saw the third one like four times before I saw the first one.
DANNY That’s a lie. Stop lying.
PROTO It is not a lie! [Proto bangs table] [Danny laughs]
DANNY You’re gonna wake up your kids.
SLIM Last Crusade, my fav of that trilogy.
DANNY It’s really hard to, I don’t know if I’m, I guess I’m all over the place.
PROTO Yeah, I think it’s harder to say what your is your favorite but I think we can all agree usually the third movie, is not as good.
SLIM Spider-Man 3 jumps to mind.
DANNY Yeah, that’s true, we’re Spider-Man 2 fans.
SLIM Mad Max trilogy. Beyond Thunderdome. I don’t have any memories of that movie.
DANNY What kind of question is this Beks?
PROTO This is a good question, Beks.
SLIM She’s trying to destroy us.
DANNY She’s trying to take us down. Calls coming from inside the house.
SLIM Thank you Beks. I was not expecting Beks to say the Batman Begins is her favorite of the series.
PROTO It’s embarrassing. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Did we pass the Dune line? What’s the count? We might not have, we have a two stars. Can someone did the math on that? I can’t do the math on that. Let’s hear some VM from our dear friend Andy.
[voicemail plays]
VOICEMAIL Hey, what’s up? It’s Andy from Orlando and I just wanted to leave a voicemail on land you guys are talking about Batman Begins. I love this movie so much. It’s incredible. The cast the storyline, the score, the world building special effects, writing, directing all of it. My list of lines and I quote on the regular include “Never.” “Why do we fall?” said to my two year old all the time. “It’s not who you are inside. But what you do that defines you.” “Tell him that one joke, you know,” and “swear to me.” I love this movie again, so much to the point that the first time I watched it was in high school with my girlfriend and her brother in theaters. With about 30 minutes left in the movie. She leans over to me and tells me we have to leave because we need to take her brother to work. I leaned over to her and said you don’t you can take him I’m gonna stay here movie. So I finished the movie in a theater and then waited for her to come back to pick me up afterwards. It was at that moment. I knew that this movie was special. Anyways, I am so excited for this journey. Love you guys. Talk to you guys later. Bye.
SLIM Thank you Andy, appreciate it. Final VM for this week, comes from Max.
[voicemail plays]
VOICEMAIL Hello 70mm, LilSizzle here from Down Under. Just imagining this as like about one of 30 voicemails are getting madman begins. So Batman Begins more like Batman Beguns. This film shall never stand alone for me. There’s no I had a friend and then met his sister and fell in love. I’d be grateful for my friend yet the love would be strongest for the second movie. Yes, this is a three and a half star movie for me. Oh, this feels a bit comic booky with all the swordplay looking forward to the guns. Back Story page turning and not enough of one single bad guys Ark. Anybody else want more scarecrow? Prototype I know that my little six year old there’s a monster under the bed Self does not want anymore. Doesn’t mean I didn’t love Batman poobah Batman’s frothing black tie mouth a little beautiful moment. And I also had a heart softening moment when little Bruce was nurtured and comforted by Alfred’s when he said this is my fault. Now if we clear up and said Oh, no, it’s not your fault. I’m so looking forward to the dark night. Love this movie. Love this community. Goodbye.
SLIM Was there a behind the scenes scene of Bale as nightmare Batman with that stuff coming out of his mouth?
DANNY That was CG, Matt, please.
SLIM Wait, was it?
DANNY That wasn’t real, Matt, come on.
PROTO I mean, you can tell when it’s CG in this.
DANNY Matt, please.
SLIM That looked real to me. There’s no CG. Christopher Nolan wouldn’t use CG in this movie.
DANNY Matt, please.
SLIM We’ll check the making of. Thanks for the VM. Max sounds a lot like Neil. Can you imagine a podcast with Neil and Max? I’m going to cut together VMs and make it sound like a podcast.
PROTO Play them at the same time.
SLIM Oh boy, I think that’s it for this week. Next episode — did you drop the art yet?
DANNY Of course I did.
PROTO Oh the art, my god! One of his bests.
SLIM Ridiculous.
DANNY Thank you. You guys are sweet.
SLIM Almost fainted in our DMs.
PROTO Something special. The thought of holding this in my hands like in physical form if you’re in the same room as this print. It’s impresse. This is the kind of thing you you put it like your, the entrance to your home.
DANNY See it once they walk in.
PROTO Yeah, let them know.
SLIM Feels like almost like we could get, we’re close to like a Danny Haas Batman Begins comic book adaptation is what are we getting from that art. Can you imagine like a full comic book size version of this with like the Batman logo on top of it? [Slim & Danny laugh]
DANNY Cut the stream.
SLIM Alright, next week is — it could be the biggest episode we’ve ever done. Could be the most popular episode in the history of this show. It’s the Dark Knight. This is the one that changed nerds lives forever.
DANNY Forever.
SLIM It’s not even an understatement. Everything changed when this movie came out. Proto, can you set the stage for next week, the end of this episode? Batman Begins.
PROTO Sure. One sec, hold on.
SLIM He’s eating the sandwich again.
DANNY What kind of sandwich is this? Peanut butter?
PROTO [Proto talking with a mouthful of sandwich] Yeah, we can all agree that this was a weak start. But that was great about trilogies. Chris Nolan has two more chances to right this wrong. And to do something truly incredible. Let us pray. [Danny & Slim laugh]
SLIM Oh boy, we’ll see everybody next week for The Dark Knight.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
