Joel Schumacher

Alfred posits, "For what is Batman if not an effort to master the chaos that sweeps our world? An attempt to control death itself." Okay, fine, but we get this and dick jokes?

The fatuousness of that title sums up Schumacher's approach. The director allows his few scrupulous choices to be overwhelmed by garish vaudeville.

Roars to life in its least intimate passages...If not for his blind spot for his "angel in hell" Phantom, Schumacher would do Webber's popular entertainment justice.

Though the holes were rather small, I had to count them all. Now we know how many holes it takes to fill The Number 23.

With its cool cast and classic kiss-off ending, The Lost Boys will forever be a cultural touchstone of '80s cinema.

A heavy-handed potboiler, but as it raises the temperature, it does give cause to consider the line—so easily crossed—between social function and disasterous personal undoing.