Rating: 
Summary: Clooney + Schwarzenegger = Box Office Disaster
Review: 1997 marked what is more than likely the end of the Caped Crusader's series of live-action films with the ill-fated release of the fourth film, "Batman & Robin". Taking up the role of the Caped Crusader in this film was the completely unsuitable George Clooney. Unlike his live-action predecesors (Adam West, Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer) who each gave a marked realism to the character, Clooney's portrayal of Batman/millionaire Bruce Wayne was uninspired and pallid, as well as being very poorly acted. Returning from the third film as the Caped Crusader's sidekick is Chris O'Donnell as Robin/Dick Grayson. Like Clooney, O'Donnell's performace was equally uninspired, but it was also disconnected from the sorrow and seemingly misunderstood teenager that he portrayed far better in the third film.In this film, Batman and Robin are faced with two deadly enemies: Poison Ivy/Dr. Pamela Isley (portrayed by Uma Thurman) and Mr. Freeze/Dr. Victor Fries (portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger). Not only did Uma Thurman overact her part ad nauseam, Schwarzenegger's ineffectual acting only contributed further to the film's failure and disappointment. In at attempt to make up for the film's paltry story, predictable plot and bad acting, director Joel Schumacher repeatedly fills the screen with a collage of fluorescent color and black lighting. If he was attempting to make the film resemble a comic book, he failed miserably because the further lack of realism from the first three films only contributed to the film's inability to engage the audience. Overall, I can only give this film 1 star for its very poor acting and completely unengaging story. My advice to anyone who hasn't yet seen the film is to not bother watching it. The first three films are far better than the fourth. If you have already seen it, it's easy to see why it unintentionally brought an end to the Caped Crusader ever being on the big screen again.
Rating:
Summary: pure dreck
Review: i don't know why clooney was chosen for batman. his everyman feel and charm just don't suit the dark knight's personality. i really missed michael keaton's machiavellian performance in this movie. as for schwarzenegger as freeze.....puh-leeze. the accent was very difficult to wade through, so most of his dialogue in that plastic fishbowl on his head was garbled at best. there are other massively-built actors that could've filled the shoes more effectively. and uma thurman as poison ivy.....yeech. i don't find her seductive or charming. and she's just not evil enough. the villains for this movie were too cartoonish. the heroes were not very heroic. and the color was too annoying. reminded me too much of the dick tracy movie.
Rating:
Summary: A sad ending for a great franchise.
Review: This fourth addition to the Batman franchise is the one to blame for bringing a great franchise to a sad and dismal ending to a legendary movie legacy. This movie absolutely fails on every front and in every possible way. The whole idea of Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze teaming up seems completely out of line as plants and cold temperatures do NOT mix, except maybe for pine or evergreen trees. This movie also is destroyed from the very beginning by a really weak cast and even the better actors involved give miserable performances in their characters. Even the background music fails as well. I can't believe that the movie franchise went from a dark and moving start with 1989's "Batman" and came crashing down to the ground with this trendy MTV-Oriented "Batman & Robin". A terrible end to such a great superhero. Even "Batman Forever" was miles above this garbage.
Rating:
Summary: A Waste Of Time
Review: Even now to this day, I still can't seem to figure out how Schumacher managed to go from being able to pull it off well with "Batman Forever" and cause the movie series to tumble down to the ground with the abysmal follow-up movie entitled "Batman & Robin". That's probably what the third Batman movie should've been called. It's even funnier that they couldn't muster up a movie title more creative than "Batman & Robin". Now come on! Robin was in the third movie in the series. Even when brushing aside the uncreative movie title, "Batman & Robin" absolutely fails on almost all fronts, turning the dark and foreboding franchise from a chilling series into a laughable joke that's almost on par with a bad remake of the campy 60s series but more like bathtub TV material. It's really sad to see one of the darkest and most angst-ridden comic book characters become the laughing stock of the decade or possibly the century. The main villains this time are the nefarious Mr. Freeze and the sultry villainess Pamela Isley also knows a Poison Ivy. George Clooney fills Batman shoes after the dark knight was played by Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer. Unfortunately, while I personally am not trying to criticize Clooney, he (at least at the time) was completely unfit for playing the mysterious dark knight crime-fighting hero. Chris O'Donnell's role as Robin was almost as ill-fated, faring much worse than in "Batman Forever". Where as in the previous movie, Robin at least showed reason to be angry and sometimes even snotty with the loss of much of his family, in "Batman & Robin", Robin comes off as just a spoiled brat with little or no common sense. Batgirl in this movie was absolutely despicable and wretched, looking more like something that I would've seen from a bondage video film. That Bat mobile was repulsive and disgusting to look at. Do we need to see close-up [rear] shots? Eww! I don't mean to sound like a mad scientist with this review but most of the scenes are completely unrealistic. The scene where Robin was frozen and then revived after being thawed out was almost like a bad dream. HELLO! Freezing an entire human body would instantly kill him/her and even if the person didn't die immediately, the extremely low temperatures would cause immense tissue destruction and more than likely tortuous suffocation and it would take HOURS, not minutes, to unthaw a frozen human body. Believe me, I've tried to thaw out chicken in hot water and it took nearly an hour to do so. To add to that, a human would be killed just being in extremely cold water for too long and suffer fatal hypothermia...and this is without being frozen completely. Mr. Freeze's metal wings would more than likely only accelerate his fall to the ground. To add to that, how can diamonds enhance the cold temperatures needed to keep him alive? Diamonds actually amplify the heat generated by lights and would also scatter light and laser beams in all directions. Dry Ice or liquid air would've made much better material for Freeze's well-being. Perhaps this movie should've taken place on Ellesmere Island or in the icecaps of central Greenland with Mr. Freeze lying comfortably in the extremely cold weather of the Arctic or on top of a mountain and with with Poison Ivy, it should've taken place in like Florida for her ambitions. Bane was the most despicable of all, being nothing more than just a steroid OD'd junkie whose role was no more than just the equivalent of a bear with rabies. In the comic books, he was an intelligent and evil character. In the movie, he's no more than just a pawn whose strength is because of a disgusting yellow fluid fed to his head by means of a series of tubes and he would be a goner if one of those tubes were severed by a coat hanger, light fixture, or just simply detached. What a horrible insult to a great character! Poison Ivy was rather disgusting as well, being a rather tasteless object that is nowhere near being sexy like Catwoman was from "Batman Returns" and Poison Ivy could'nt be able to able to save this movie from plummeting into the realm of mediocrity and artistic oblivion. Schumacher could've been able to follow up on his grade A success that became "Batmen Forever" with the perfect balance between the colorful visuals and the dark undertones of the first two Batman movies. Sadly, none of that happened and instead was just a hodgepodge of colors and monotonous and boring dialogue that an elementary school student could surpass by entire oceans. On it's own, this movie is okay but this absolutely does no justice to it's three predecessors and should've have even been categorized with the movie series and should've been categorized separately from the other three. In fact, this hardly feels like a Batman movie at all. I, to this day, still can't believe that Schumacher pulled it off so well with "Batman Forever" and destroyed a legendary legacy with this burning wreckage of a movie. Nothing, not even the action sequences that came along nor the sympathetic role of Alfred battling health failure could've been able to salvage this garbage. I find the whole ranting about the "Batman is Dead" to be somewhat exaggerated somewhat but I do have to admit that if the franchise is to be revived in the future, I sure don't see that happening anytime soon and Batman might as well be in a state of dormancy or hibernation while he recovers from the blow that "Batman & Robin" inflicted on him. Schumacher and company completely soiled a great legacy and deserved the high level of criticism for the mess his crew made. Crash a vase over my head for all I care but for a Bat-O-Phile like myself, give me the Gothic foreboding darkness of 1989's "Batman" or the Gothic, cold, wicked black & white undertones of 1992's "Batman Returns" or even the fun eye-candy of "Batman Forever" over the MGM Grand flashy colors of "Batman & Robin". We could wind up waiting for many years before Batman hops back onto the big screen again. "Batman & Robin" is a sad, crushing, and extremely ignominious bookend to a legendary legacy.
Rating:
Summary: This is the worst movie I have ever seen!
Review: I only have to say that when I went to the theater to watch this, for the first time in my life, I seriously thought of getting out. I only stayed because I wasn't alone. Anyway, avoid this trash and stick with Batman, Batman Returns, and even with Batman Forever. R.I.P. Batman.
Rating: 
Summary: Chill out....Mr. Freeze is here
Review: Batman and Robin also stars Uma Thurman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney as Batman, Chris O'Donnell as Robin, and also has a cameo by Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura. Batman and Robin is a pretty good movie with some good action scenes. i'm not real big on detail like other Batman fanatics, and i've heard that Joe Shumacker really messed up this one because Batman has to much detail in his suit, he's not as dark in nature, and that Gotham is to bright.
i don't really care about that, the only thing i wish that would have changed is that Michael Keaton would continue to play Batman, but that didn't happen. one of the coolest scenes in Batman and Robin is the part when Batman and Robin are running towards you and you see the Batman logo in the background. pretty good movies with good action scenes. Batman is Batman, nough said.
Rating:
Summary: Holy bad movie, batman!
Review: Didn't Arnold Schwarzenegger once say that after the first "Terminator" movie that he would never play a villian again? Well, he went back on his word when he plays "Mr. Freeze" in this, perhaps the last batman movie ever.
Posion Ivy tries to woo both Batman and Robin and even Mr. Freeze himself. The only good thing about the movie is the scence-stealing Gotham City landscape. and SOMEONE needs to explain the reason for editing.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the finest cinematic achievements of this or any era.
Review: Imagine Bela Lugosi in the Mr. Freeze role, Alan Ladd in the Batman role, Joan Crawford in the Poison Ivy role, Veronica Lake in the Batgirl role and Mickey Rooney in the Robin role. You're welcome.
Rating: 
Summary: Weak, despite awesome scenes and special effects.
Review: I cannot even begin to explain how taken aback that I am at the humungous slide that the Batman franchise has taken with the Joe Schumacher directed "Batman & Robin". The three previous Batman movies "Batman", "Batman Returns", and "Batman Forever" are great movies but this fourth Batman movie though just simply falls flat on it's face on a lot of fronts. Yeah the plot might have been hit-and-miss but the execution of it was just unconvincing. Basically it's Gotham City under threat from Mr. Freeze and the lascivious Poison Ivy. Sadly, this movie even though it might have had it's good moments, wastes almost eighty percent of it's potential to be a great movie with totally abysmal acting performances by most of it's cast. Schumacher completely ruined its potential by reducing the movies from the dark, dramatic, and driving force that was "Batman" and "Batman Returns" and "Batman Forever" to almost a comedy action scene that feels more like rejects from "The Fifth Element" with tons and tons of drab clichés, horrible plot executions, and laughable villains. It's even more bewildering that Schumacher set the rules that no villains are supposed to die. The scenery, colorful sets, and some of the action scenes are great, which do save this film from being a burning wreckage but some other action scenes are just abominable and tailor made for MTV masses. The scene with Robin being frozen and Batman using a laser to unfreeze him in a pond of water was totally unrealistic, even for a futuristic movie. It would take hours to unfreeze a human corpse if he had died in that battle. This scene felt more like a rejected script scene that was probably taken out of the garbage can and put into the plot scenes. The steroid induced Bane shrinking back into a skinny person after being defeated was also absurd too. With the exception of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze and Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, all of the casts acting results are almost on the border of being completely wretched and they all seem very uncomfortable in their roles. George Clooney's role as Batman is nowhere near as engaging as Val Kilmer's was in Batman Forever and nowhere near the wonderful role that was taken by Michael Keaton in the 1989 "Batman" movie and 1992's "Batman Returns". Chris O'Donnell's role as Robin was just terrible and Robin was quite annoying. Clooney and O'Donnell are both better than this! Arnold Schwarzenegger's role as Mr. Freeze wasn't anywhere near as bad as the previous two and shows the sense of grief and anger but the diamonds to create cold and ice was dumb. ... Uma Thurman's role as Poison Ivy was actually quite good, showing the lascivious, evilness of the character and doesn't ruin the character. The Frankenstein-look-alike Bane was completely and totally insipid being some steroid loaded animal who gets his strength from a special fluid circulated by tubes that go to his head and he's a goner if one of those tubes is pulled off, by Batman, by a coat hanger, by a light, or firecracker! All that Bane does is grunt like a rabid Bear. How low could Batman go? Batgirl is also downright ridiculous with a look that is more geared towards being fodder for a ... magazine or something like that. ALL of the actors and actresses involved in this project are FAR better than this! ... On a more positive note, I still can find things in this movie that manage to add up enough to save it from heading into the trash compactor. The racing scene was fun to watch. The colorfulness of some of the action scenes are great too and the ice-hockey-like fighting scenes. Mr. Freeze was quite cool in my opinion and Arnold Schwardsenegger didn't do a bad job of playing him. I loved the line towards the ending of the movie and that saves this movie from being a complete disaster in my opinion. Although I can find plenty of good things about this movie, everything unfortunately seems to come off as contrived and totally fake, even if they are good. ... I do tend to pop this movie into my VCR from time to time though, just to see the colors, battle scenes at the beginning and others scattered throughout the movie. Overall though, this movie is definitely enjoyable to a degree while it's playing in my VCR but once it's finished, it leaves nothing behind like the previous three movies did. ... I rate this movie a 2.4 our of 5 but rounded the rating down to a 2.
Rating:
Summary: This Is NOT Batman!!
Review: Joel Schumacher owes me a decent batman movie. Tim Burton's movies may not have been great, but the way he portrayed Gotham and Bruce Wayne made you BELIEVE that it was Batman. And it was. Could they have been better. Yes. But they were good movies.
Then came Joel. Batman forever was tolerable. Jim Carey as the riddler was genius. Val Kilmer did an adequete job. But then they decided to make another movie, and once again give Joel the reins, which brings us to....
THE MOVIE THAT KILLED BATMAN!!
When did Batman become a fun loving guy who cracks jokes? He's supposed to be the DARK Knight, not the Funny Knight. Gotham looks like a circus town. It didn't even try to catch the spirit of batman. I'm buying this just because it comes with the boxed set, and i love boxed sets, but otherwise stay away!!
| 
