3. Dick Tracy (1990)
Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy is a bit higher on this list then some might anticipate because it does more great things than it's given credit for. For starters, the production design is excellent. From the awesome matte paintings to the cinematography and stylized make-up design for the villains, the film is great eye-candy. The limited color palette, which is basically just the same seven colors as the original comic strip, make it one of the first movies to really try to be a translation of the source material rather than an adaptation (which Sin City did much better years later). It does unfortunately fall into some of the same trappings as most of the movies on this list as far as story is concerned, and there really isn't much of one. The movie is "style over substance" up the wazzu, but there are some attempts at humanizing the characters that I can't fault the film for. There's a subplot involving Dick Tracy taking in a no-name street kid as his own that at times is rather touching. But other than that, the main plot is a simple good guys vs. bad guys one. The all-star cast is a lot of fun to watch though, the highlight being Al Pacino as Big Boy Caprice. He chews the scenery in typical Pacino fashion, but since he's a caricature of mob boss villains, it's welcome in this type of movie. Warren Beatty, who also directed the film, is good as Tracy, even if he may have been a bit old for the part. Dick Tracy was released right after Tim Burton's Batman, so it's easy to write it off as a cash-in. Hell, Danny Elfman even wrote the music score. But judged on it's own terms, Dick Tracy is an under-appreciated gem that definitely deserves more credit than it's given.