Tag Archives: throwdown

THE THROWDOWN : Christian Bale vs. Michael Keaton

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Wednesday is Throwdown day at Keith & the Movies. It’s when we take two movie subjects and pit them against each other and see who’s left standing. Each Wednesday we’ll look at actors, actresses, movies, genres, scenes, and so much more and see how they stand up one-on-one. And it’s not just my opinion that counts. I’ll share my take and then open up the polls to you. Visit each week for a new Throwdown. Vote each week to decide the true winner!

This week’s Throwdown is a Bat-Battle to the death between Michael Keaton and Christian Bale. Both of these men wore the cape and the cowl and were undeniably the best that did so. This isn’t measuring which had the better movies. This is all about who was the better Batman and whose performance you liked the best. Forget Kilmer and please, please, please forget Clooney. These two guys WERE Batman. Now you vote and decide who was the best.

BALE vs. KEATON

Christian Bale was a fantastic choice to help revive the Batman franchise after Joel Schumacher’s disastrous “Batman and Robin”. Director Christopher Nolan took Bale and built a more grounded and believable Bruce Wayne and took him through some pretty dark places during his immensely popular trilogy. But it’s Bale’s performance that’s key. He unquestionably gets better and better with each movie and by the end of the trilogy he made the character his own. He also has the physical abilities to sell it all. Bale was a wonderful Batman and there’s an easy argument to make that he’s the best caped crusader to hit the big screen.

It may be easy for some people to dismiss Michael Keaton’s two movie tenure as Gotham’s Caped Crusader. But for those of us who remember standing in line in 1989 to see Tim Burton’s “Batman”, we most certainly appreciate how well the actor embodied Bruce Wayne. I’ve always been a fan of Keaton’s but I wasn’t sure about him taking on this role. He was a pleasant surprise and he’s a key reason that the first film worked so well. He’s a much different Batman that Bale but that’s in large part due to the material. Even in the second picture “Batman Returns”, a movie I’m not crazy about, Keaton shines. He left the role just before the franchise was destroyed but his stint still holds up today.

So who is it? You’ve got two very different actors giving two very different depictions of Batman. Forget their movies. This is about the men behind the masks. Bale or Keaton…your votes decide.

THE THROWDOWN : John Doe vs. Hannibal Lecter

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Wednesday is throwdown day at Keith & the Movies. It’s when we take two movie subjects and pit them against each other and see who’s left standing. Each Wednesday we’ll look at actors, actresses, movies, genres. scenes, and so much more and see how they stand up one-on-one. And it’s not just my opinion that counts. I’ll share my take and then open up the polls to you. Visit each week for a new throwdown. Vote each week to decide the true winner!

Many movies are made by their villains. Some are loud, in-your-face, and charismatic. Others slither under the surface and their presence is felt even as they are rarely seen. In other words, there are a wide variety of movie villains. In today’s Throwdown we are looking at two of the sickest and creepiest villains to ever hit the big screen – John Doe from “Se7en” and Hannibal Lecter from “The Silence of the Lambs”. The question is which one of these truly messed up killers is the sickest and creepiest. Your votes will decide.

David Fincher’s grisly but calculated thriller “Se7en” features detectives Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman trying to find a serial killer who is patterning his murders off of the Seven Deadly Sins. The two discover each disturbing crime scene but we never completely see the killer, John Doe, until the last few scenes of the film. Kevin Spacey plays this truly twisted murderer who shows up at the police station soaked in the blood of two different people. I won’t give away the end but let’s just say the pure evil John Doe provides one of the most shocking and gruesome endings to a thriller you’ll find. Spacey’s John Doe doesn’t appear in every scene but he permeates every scene and he is chilling, even in his absence.

Everyone knows Hannibal Lecter mainly due to Anthony Hopkins Oscar-winning performance in “The Silence of the Lambs”. Forget about the Hannibal spin-off films, “The Silence of the Lambs” is where Lecter staked his claim as a sick and twisted character. Hopkins is perfect for the role and he manages to mix Lecter’s immense intelligence with his sheer gruesome and murderous side. His manipulative and cryptic conversations with Jodie Foster are mesmerizing and even before he makes his big escape later in the film he’s extremely unnerving. Hannibal Lecter has several memorable lines and memorable scenes and it’s impossible to watch him and not remember him.

So which of these two intelligent yet twisted psychos is the creepiest. You get to decide. Leave your comments below but don’t forget to click below to cast your vote.