The fourth Bat-flick finds this juvenile franchise running on empty.
Batman & Robin (1997)
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Reviews Counted:58
Fresh:7
Rotten:51
Average Rating:3.5/10
Consensus: Joel Schumacher's tongue-in-cheek attitude hits an unbearable limit in Batman & Robin resulting in a frantic and mindless movie that's too jokey to care much for.
Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Synopsis: The Caped Crusader returns to battle the abominable Mr. Freeze and green-thumbed Poison Ivy. To save his ailing wife, Dr. Victor Fries turns to a life of crime after a hideous accident makes him... The Caped Crusader returns to battle the abominable Mr. Freeze and green-thumbed Poison Ivy. To save his ailing wife, Dr. Victor Fries turns to a life of crime after a hideous accident makes him unable to tolerate even moderate temperatures, while Dr. Pamela Isley falls victim to mutated plant DNA when things go awry in a jungle laboratory funded by Wayne Industries. Of course, though their interests are diametrically opposed (Freeze wants another Ice Age; Ivy wants to make the world safe for plants), the two villains team up to defeat Gotham's dynamic duo of Batman and Robin, who are joined by butler Alfred's motorcycle-obsessed niece as Batgirl. And when Alfred is diagnosed as having the same terminal disease as Freeze's wife, the trio find themselves not only fighting an altruistic battle, but a personal one as well. A frenetic, colorful, and often overwhelming sequel to "Batman," "Batman Returns," and "Batman Forever." [More]
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell, Uma Thurman
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell, Uma Thurman, Alicia Silverstone, Michael Gough, Pat Hingle, Elle Macpherson, John Glover, Jeep Swenson, Vivica A. Fox, Vendela Kirsebom, Elizabeth Sanders, John Fink, Michael Reid MacKay, Eric Lloyd, Jonathan Simmons, Christian Boeving, Stogie Kenyatta, Joe Sabatino, Michael Paul Chan, Kimberly Scott, Jay Luchs, Anthony E. Cantrell, Alex Daniels, Peter Navy Tuiasosopo, Harry Van Gorkum, Jack Betts, Sandra Taylor, Elizabeth Guber, Marc Glimcher, Mark P. Leahy, Jim McMullan, Patrick Leahy, Jesse Ventura, Ralph Moeller, Doug Hutchison, Tobias Jelinek, Greg Lauren, Dean Cochran, Lucas Berman, Coolio, Roger Nehls, Howard Velasco, Bruce Roberts, John Ingle, Nicky Katt, Azikiwee Anderson, Michael Bernardo, Steve Blalock, Steve Boyles, David Cardoza, Chris C. Caso, Mark Chadwick, Stephan Desjardins, Todd Grossman, James Hardy, Steven Ito, Dennis Keiffer, James Kim, Simon Kim, Dennis Lefevre, Jean-Luc Martin, Cory M. Miller, Chris Mitchell, Christopher Nelson, Jim Palmer, Jeff Podgurski
Director: Joel Schumacher
Director: Joel Schumacher
Screenwriter: Akiva Goldsman
Producer: Peter MacGregor-Scott
Composer: Elliot Goldenthal
Reviews for Batman & Robin
A high-rent jumble sale of smarty-pants pop-culture gags and expensive tchochtkes.
The villains, Arnold Schwarzenegger and especially Uma Thurman in this instance, remain the highlights here, as the rest of the gargantuan production lacks the dash and excitement that would have given the franchise a boost in its eighth year.
This fourth modern Batman film features perhaps the worst screenplay -- or at least the worst dialogue -- ever written.
Schumacher's intention appears to have been to make something so awful, so corny, so campy, so preposterously bad that audiences would simply laugh at it. Sorry. Bad is bad.
I don't know anyone who'll admit to liking BATMAN AND ROBIN. Except me.
It represents the things I really, really dislike about Hollywood and its overblown product.
Alfred posits, "For what is Batman if not an effort to master the chaos that sweeps our world? An attempt to control death itself." Okay, fine, but we get this and dick jokes?
Burton's Batman was capable of snapping criminal spine -- Schumacher's is a sissy lib who believes in redemption, if not the possibility of rehabilitation.
Devoid of a point of view, a narrative structure, intelligent dialogue and three-dimensional (or even two-dimensional) characters, the latest Batman movie is much more like a violence-oriented video game than a form of dramatic art.
By most accounts, the worst of the series - yet I like it the best. Probably because my expectations were so low to begin with. Clooney breathes some life back into the role.
It is great film to look at. The movie in-jokes are quite good too.
Campy costumes can't disguise the incoherent plot, confused performances and lame script that send this star vehicle spiralling downward.
Warner Brothers owns the Batman character; you would think they would have a vested interest in doing a good job of the films, but the films themselves prove that they don't -- and this film provides the most numbing, sickening, inane proof of all.
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