213. Batman Forever; movie review

BATMAN FOREVER
Cert 12A
116 mins

BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence

Oh, Val Kilmer - the George Lazenby of the 1990s.
He was given a gift of a part but threw his weight around way before his career credentials had earned him the right.
Consequently, even a superhero couldn't have saved his career.
Pity Joel Schuhmacher - he had to pick up the baton so brilliantly wielded by Tim Burton and had to handle key cast members who had reputations for being a pain in the backside.
So, when Michael Keaton turned down Batman Forever because he, understandably, didn't like its script, he had to handle Kilmer as replacement.
If that wasn't a tough enough assignment, he also had two giant egos in the shape of Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones.

What could possibly go wrong?
Well, pretty much everything apart from the money. Dazzled by Burton's Batman films, audiences queued around the block to see Batman Forever and it made $336.5m on a $100m budget.
Batman Forever fails to gel from the start. Kilmer tries to imitate Keaton's low-key Caped Crusader and, consequently, fails to inject any personality into the role.
Carrey just plays typical Jim Carrey - so The Riddler looks like a cross between The Mask, Ace Ventura and The Grinch.
He pulls his rubbery face, stretches his rubbery limbs and shouts loudly.
Meanwhile, Tommy Lee Jones appears to have overdosed on Jack Nicholson's Joker because his representation of Two Face is almost identical.
Except that his exaggerated laugh is very very irritating,
Meanwhile, Nicole Kidman is a bit part player and Chris O'Donnell's introduction as Robin is overshadowed.
The plot? The Riddler and Two Face join together to try to engineer Batman's demise - not much more to it than that.
No wonder Keaton didn't fancy it.

Reasons to watch: Well, it is Batman
Reasons to avoid: Falls well below the standard set by its predecessors

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 5/10

Did you know? Val Kilmer reportedly found out he had landed the part of the Caped Crusader while in an actual bat cave conducting research for The Ghost and the Darkness.


The final word. Joel Schumacher: "[Val Kilmer] was being irrational and ballistic with the first assistant director, the cameraman, the costume people. He was rude and inappropriate. He was childish and impossible. I was forced to tell him that this would not be tolerated for one more second. Then we had two weeks where he did not speak to me but it was bliss!”

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