Movie #57 - Batman & Robin

Batman & Robin
Warner Bros. Pictures
1997 - Rated PG - 2 hr 5 min
Director: Joel Schumacher
Starring: George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chris O'Donnell, Uma Thurman, Alicia Silverstone

This movie is like a Who's Who in Nineties Film? project. That dude from Circle of Friends, that chick from Clueless, and oh yeah, the hottest doctor (move over, McDreamy) on TV: that guy from ER. And Arnold. He's cool too.

It's the same director, and yet the only person in this movie from the last is Chris O'Donnell... who plays the kid-brother kind of Robin that you want to punch in the face. Sorry, he annoys me. Whine, whine, whine. Go play on your trapeze, you big baby.

This time, Alfred is sick, his niece (Silverstone) is in town visiting, and a whole bunch of funky stuff is going down at a nearby lab - owned, of course, by Wayne Enterprises. In fact, between Dr. Freeze's cryogenics accident and Pamela what's-her-name's plant problem, Batman & Robin feels like an anti-chemistry advertisement at times. "Don't play with cryogenics at home, kids..."

Again, we have randomly intersecting bad guy plot lines, making things irritatingly complicated at times. At least there's legit girl power in this movie (although it's not much... I mean, really. Batgirl? She couldn't come up with an independent name?), and another dowdy chick turns hot thanks to a freak accident (i.e. Catwoman and Poison Ivy could be BFF's and share weird stories over a pedicure some time.)

But the best part about this movie is what it signifies... the END of the Batman movies before Christopher Nolan rebooted the franchise. Thank God.

Movie #56 - Batman Forever

Batman Forever
Warner Bros. Pictures
1995 - Rated PG-13 - 2 hr 1 min
Director: Joel Schumacher
Starring: Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Chris O'Donnell
New Batman, new director, new look... kinda. These films are still a dark interpretation of the comic series, without being 100% comic. Some of the modern hero movies / graphic novel movies seem straight off the page, a really interesting and aesthetic approach. The Batman movies seem to get lost in the pages... maybe that's my problem with these earlier movies.

Anyway, Val Kilmer is not as gritty a Batman as Michael Keaton (or Christian Bale for that matter) but he plays the suave Bruce Wayne pretty well. Is it intentional that the Harvey Dent that was Lando Calrissian in the first movie is now Tommy Lee Jones? Or are we okay with it because there's a new Batman? Whatever.

Anyway, Jim Carrey is just... weird. Not sure why he's in this movie. Jones is pretty gross looking and definitely has split personality issues, but that's to be expected. I hear being drenched in acid can make you go nuts, so I'm not going to judge him for that. And if he wants to have a girlfriend for each side of his face, more power too him.

The one thing that really does bother me about this movie is Nicole Kidman's character Chase Meridian. She's supposed to be this big, smart psychologist who wants to study Batman's psyche and diagnose his inner pain. She makes all these comments about how he probably has a troubled past. Then she talks to Bruce Wayne about his troubled past. Somehow, she can't connect the dots. I wanted to shake her a couple of times.

Otherwise, this movie wasn't terrible...