For no better reason than that I noticed they were on Netflix, I watched BATMAN FOREVER and BATMAN AND ROBIN, both for the first time since the press screenings. I was curious about just what they were; memory wasnt enough. BATMAN FOREVER is ponderous, with an outrageously off-base portrayal of Two-Face (often called Harvey Two-Face, I suppose to distinguish him from the other Two-Faces) by Tommy Lee Jones. He doesnt seem to be playing Two-Face, but the Joker instead, laughing insanely with almost every appearance, cracking jokes, acting like a loon. The tossed-coin bit is almost completely gone, as is the idea that he can be a good guy or bad guy on the toss of that coin. I have heard that Jones was worried that Jim Carrey, as the Riddler, was going to steal all of their shared scenes, so he chose to, um, broaden his portrayall--perhaps the makeup, too: half his face is magenta. Its hard to overplay a character as ludicrous as the Riddler (who really worked only on the Adam West series), but Carrey manages it. He practically pops off the screen, and is more intrusive than even Jones as Two-Face. I never cared for the character in the comic books, and liked him less here. As Batman, Val Kilmer is marginally okay, but hes a dull bore as Bruce Wayne. The script doesnt offer him much, and he doesnt add to it. I disliked his squabbles with Dick Grayson--they seem unmotivated and out of character for both of them. Why the heck would Wayne even bother with a brat like this guy? BATMAN AND ROBIN is awful, just dreadful, with neon-faced thugs in the alleys of Gotham City (they seem to be multiplying just off screen), an idea introduced in FOREVER, and bad there, too. The whole movie is wildly overstated, with GIGANTIC statues, DEAFENING explosions, RIDICULOUS stunts, etc. etc. Poison Ivy is okay; Uma Thurman does her best. Arnold Schwarzenegger is flamboyantly terrible as Mr. Freeze, constantly joking, with a silly freeze suit and gun to match. He insults the audiences intelligence. As Bruce Wayne, George Clooney is merely there, but that seems to match the intent of the script. Hes fond of telling interviewers that in this movie, he gives the worst performance of all time. No, not that bad, but not what Im sure he could have done had he a better script, and a director more concerned with story and character than spectacle. Theres more of the Batman-Robin squabbling here, and its even more annoying. And I am not a major fan overall of Nolans version of Batman, though the second film is excellent, mostly for Heath Legers amazing Joker.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 23:04:31 +0000
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