Batman and Robin (1997)
director: joel schumacher
cast: arnold schwarzenegger, george clooney, chris o'donnel, uma thurman, alicia silverstone, michael gough, pat hingle, john glover, elle macpherson, vivica a. fox, vendela k. thommessen, elizabeth sanders, jeep swenson, coolio
Rubber-maid,
Joel Schumacher, strikes again in the fourth installment of this wretched series.
The movie is filled with wall-to-wall action and yet achieves a sense of going
nowhere fast. The actors are left floundering around enormous sets and competing
with big explosions. The scope is huge but there's no sense of space in this
neon and noir Gotham. Cringing at each other while encased in black rubber (with
perky nipples), capes, and giant codpieces, George Clooney and Chris O'Donnel
come off like a couple of simpering gimps who escaped from the dungeon scene
in "Pulp Fiction". Alicia Silverstone, whose success as an ingenue
made her a star, is sexless here. Uma Thurman suffers a worse fate as she is
made to prance and pose like a drag queen instead of a real woman. Meanwhile,
a wasted-looking Arnold Schwarzenegger barks mono-syllabic wisecracks that are
so mind-numbingly dumb that they will have you begging for mercy. Once more
this bloated series makes the mistake of creating too many characters, each
with his or her own origin sub-plot. The result is an unfocused wreck. The whole
thing is a bore. The most damning criticism is that a friend who is a "Dark
Knight" fan and has attended the premiere of each installment, walked out
in the middle of this pig-fucker to check his beeper. — Tom Graney
$0.25
© 1997 Hollywood Outsider™