Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 38

COVER STORY Asbury Park Press Friday. June 19, 1992 C5 Batman flies to rescue 5 times a day all summer THE BATMAN STUNT SHOW will be performed daily through Sept. 7. Shows start at noon, 1:45, 3:30, 5:45 and 7:30 p.m. in the stunt show arena in the ActionTown section of Great Adventure, Route 537, Jackson Township.

Admission is included with park admission of $27 for adults and $18 for children 54 inches and under. Children under age 3 are free. (908) 928-1 821 X'-. W', if Michael Keaton in "Batman By BETH WHITEHOUSE PRESS STAFF WRITER Chemistry makes sequel fly "BATMAN RETURNS," starring Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer, is playing at area theaters. Tim Burton directed from a screenplay by Daniel Waters.

A Warner Bros, release. Rated PG13 for violence. (out of 4) NANCY RICHMONOAsbury Park Press Batman is poised for a rescue during the stunt show at Great Adventure. Dt's so hot that Vicki Vale is burning her buns. She's trying to sit with Batman on the Batmobile so news photographers can snap pictures.

But the black car, out in the sun, is unbearable. The caped crusader, ever chivalrous, lays his cape on the car so Miss Vale can sit on it and pose comfortably. Batman to the rescue again. All summer Batman will be performing rescues. Five times a day he'll swing down and save Miss Vale from the evil Joker.

Five times a day he'll blow up the Joker's base of operations at the Axis Chemical plant. And five times a day, you'll have the chance to join Batman, Miss Vale and the Joker at center stage during the new 20-minute Batman Stunt Show in Great Adventure's new open-air amphitheater. Two years ago Great Adventure unveiled Shockwave, a stand-up roller coaster. Last year it opened the Adventure Rivers water park with 10 water-raft rides. And this year, Great Adventure's newest attraction is the million-dollar-plus stunt show.

It opened last weekend to full houses, according to Great Adventure spokeswoman Jana Tetrault. The stunt show mirrors the first Batman movie, not this summer's sequel. So don't look for the Penguin or Catwoman. The set is like a three-ring circus Wayne Manor, Gotham City Hall and the Axis Chemical Plant. The audience enters the arena through a chemical company pipe.

The show is in four scenes, as if it were an actual filming on a Hollywood back lot. The plot, what there is of it, goes like this: There's a party at Wayne Manor, the Joker crashes it away: With the help of a band of neighborhood strays, she comes back, all shiny and confident in her coordinated black jumpsuit and pert headgear. And like her pet, she now has a major itch to mate. Bruce-Batman is the male of choice. Director Burton, working with a zingy, but here and there hackneyed, script by Daniel Waters steers Catwoman and Batman into a battle of the sexes (he's got the weight advantage, she's got the surprise element in their fisticuffs).

Is their dual personality times two problem all that engrossing? Yes, in the claws of Pfeiffer. Keaton has his usual rubbery charm and he certainly perks up in the arms of Selina. Nice sparks here. By ELEANOR O'SULLIVAN PRESS MOVIE WRITER It's official: Michelle Pfeiffer is a Movie Star. I know, I know, she was fabulous with those Baker boys, and terrific in "Tequila Sunrise," and darling in "Dangerous Liaisons," but in "Batman Returns," this teensy actress weighs in with a magnetic, heavyweight performance that whips the otherwise plot-pudgy movie into mostly marvelous fun.

Every time director Tim Burton, who laces the film with psychological trappings and his usual Freaks-Are-Us show, trains the camera on the lissome Pfeiffer, something really magical happens. She's uncannily right as the clumsy Selina, secretary to seamy businessman Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) and cunningly sharp as Cat-woman, a seductress with a personality -problem and claws of the Edward Scissorhands school. Selina-Catwoman comes into Bruce Wayne-Batman's (Michael Keaton) life when Gotham City is at its nadir: Roving bands of clowns, led by the pathetic penguin Oswald Cobblepot (Danny DeVito) are wreaking havoc citizens and property of the city. Seamy Shreck eyes an opening to whiz his dirty power plant into operation by unseating the clean mayor (Michael Murphy) and sticking manipulate Oswald into the job. Selina, not exactly a winner with males, discovers some very compromising info on Shreck one night, enough to put a halt to the power plant, but Shreck dispatches Selina, out the office window.

Or so he thinks. A cat lover (her pet is Miss Kitty), Selina is not to be put It's in the film's pile of other stories that Burton gets into a logjam. Although he deserves a medal for bringing out a Lon Chaney dimension in De-Vito's performance, and DeVito does something intriguing with his voice a sprinkling of Jimmy Durante, perhaps the Penguin saga loses its momentum with too many breaks to other stories. Burton does pull off a bravura scene in which Oswald's penguins prepare for battle, but you may wince at animals weighed down with war gear (if the penguins are real, of course). Walken's story is also cut-and-pasted, and there comes a time, despite (or maybe because of?) the avalanche of special effects and dazzling sets, that you may murmur, "I want my Michelle back." It's a good thing she's in "Batman Returns" because the film's attitude toward women otherwise is tacky, tacky, tacky.

Bimbos all blond and nubile smile and fawn over powerful men and a particularly unlucky lass appears to have been iced by DeVito. Among the Burton alumni returning are Paul Reubens and Jan Hooks of "Pee-wee's Big Adventure." Just the mere sight of toothy Hooks, who gave Pee-wee a tour of the Alamo, lifts the spirits. "Batman Returns" has much crunchy, in-your-face violence Batman has the signature of Catwoman written all over his cheeks enough to make adults pause and kiddos think twice about saving a city. But it most importantly has Michelle Pfeiffer, a Movie Star for the books. Wonder what coulda-been Cat-woman Annette Bering thinks? and "Batman Returns" opened yester-; day.

The Batman stunt show also is playing at Six Flags in Dallas and Los Angeles. Ray Williams, Great Adven-ture's park president, said Great Adventure is poised to expand with guidance from Time Warner. He did not discount the chance a movie studio like Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park, which opened at Disney World in i Orlando in 1989, could open one day at Great Adventure. "We're just beginning that journey," Williams said of the collaboration with Time Warner. Great Adventure has 2,000 acres of property and about 1,500 acres still are undeveloped, he said.

The newly developed Batman stunt show probably will be around for a couple of years, Williams said. Oh and the Joker had a tip for Asbury Park Press readers: If you want to be sure to be picked to participate in Great Adventure's new Batman Stunt Show, sit in the first three rows and wave your arms. But the Joker can't help but add a cruel punch line about what else might help. "To be 7-foot-2 is good," said Kevin Crawford, who plays the Joker in the stunt show. That will get you noticed.

You can almost hear his evil laugh. Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha. and ruins it, the Joker later kidnaps Miss Vale, Batman comes to rescue her. The Joker's trademark laugh booms frequently. And Miss Vale, she's tough.

Even though she's wearing a gold party dress in the first scene, she gets into the fighting. She hits one of the Joker's henchmen with a shovel. "It's not just screaming. She has personality," said Jennifer Rothschild, 21, of Manhattan, who plays Miss Vale. The show is filled with falls from buildings and 35 flamboyant explosions.

A $63,000 Batmobile appears to drive itself around the set. One of the highlights of the show is Batman being shot from a smokestack of the chemical plant. "Looks like the joke's on you, Bat-brain," the Joker yells as he and his goons stick Batman into a smoke stack. Then the Joker borrows an expression from "Wayne's World." "I'm going to miss him," he yells. "NOT!" Wee-he-he-he-he.

The stunt show is a result of Time Warner Enterprises influence in the seven Sue Flags parks nationwide, according to Great Adventure officials. Time Warner now owns 50 percent of Six Flags and operates all the Sue Flag parks. Warner a Time Warner property, released "Batman" in 1989, On the cover NANCY RICHMONOAsbury Park Press Batman and the Joker shake hands before doing battle at Great Adventure's new Batman stunt show. Insets, from top: Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito, the stars of "Batman Returns." mm Ml ANTIQUES SHOW 60 QUALITY DEALERS OUTDOORS We'll Give New Members (aft least) FEATURING AMERICAN COUNTRY ANTIQUES SUNDAY JUNE 21ST 9AM TO 4PM RAIN OR SHINE COLTS NECK FIREHOUSE SHOWGROUNDS Rt. 537 Rt.

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