Dick Tracy (1990)

Based on the hugely popular comicstrip from the 30's Tracy was merely a regular tough guy cop of the era that fought hoods, the main difference that made him so popular was the oddball mutant-like villains that he was up against which were pretty much like extreme caricatures.Almost like a fantasy version of 'The Untouchables' the film has an obvious plot with good guy cops, bad guy villains, beautiful dames in nightclubs, lots of dimly lit offices highlighted by neon lights streaking in between the drawn blinds, fedora hats aplenty, tommy guns and sharp suits.The film is also made in a highly inventive way, making everything look like a real comicstrip (very much like 'Sin City') using only the same few colours used in the original comicstrip and with lots of matte paintings and models. It looks very impressive even today with the neon selected colour palette, abit dark at times but its very effective and could be mistaken for cgi at times. Add to that some fantastic costumes with highly colourised suits and pinstripes, all buildings in and out are coloured the same, a nice use of classic old cars as they zoom around and of course the tommy gun makes it all come together when when you see Beatty in a full shot firing it decked out with trenchcoat and fedora.The film is very reminiscent of Burtons Batman of course and this might be to do with Danny Elfman creating the musical score, its excellent as usual but maybe abit too close to Batman in all honesty. The whole film does have that Dark Knight feel about it, the classic 'Shadow' type vibe which is to be expected but it still stands well on its own.Like the comicstrip the hoods are one attraction with all the varieties of facial deformities on show, the makeup is really well done on all bad guys it just makes you wish there were more of them. Nice casting for all the hoods and policemen but the inclusion of Madonna wasn't required and should of gone to a proper actress and I firmly believe Sean Young would have made a better 'Tess Truehart', Young was the original choice.Very stylish fun flick which is also a decent homage to the original material surprisingly, one of the better adaptations that has made been over the years which is just about the right level of violence and camp 60's Batman and Robin type action.