Wolff rating: MOSTLY HARMLESS
Plot summary: Part four---Batman has two new enemies and a sick butler.
Biased, pithy comments: I was right to be afraid for the sequel to part 3. Where ``Batman Forever'' was overacted solemnity vying for screen time with ironic humor, and where ``Batman'' was a dark mood/character piece, ``Batman and Robin'' is just comic book explosions totally disconnected from anything. It would be OK to be disconnected from reality---we all know grown men don't dress in rubber suits except in certain circles, and in *those* circles, it ain't about fighting crime. However, this is disconnected from the cool Batman franchise, the grim Miller Dark Knight comics, and even from the hip silliness of ``Forever.'' I wasn't expecting much, but I was totally floored by how inane this film is. Most of the lines are delivered perfunctorly, and the editing gives Clooney only grunts and blinking to act instead of his normally nuanced portrayal of a pediatrician on `ER.' Thurman is probably the best, but she can't figure out which accent to use, and Schwartzenegger is just odd. Silverstone, for whom I had high hopes, is written as if she were in a different movie entirely---most of her development is isolated from the main thrust of the story, and she, too, is edited and scripted into oblivion. There are zillions of computer-enhanced special effects, and though the freezing is neat and some of the yawing and slewing camera work is fun, your suspension of disbelief is so sprained by the time you're trying to make sense of them that you end up noticing the mistakes in the models instead of letting yourself believe in it all. So, the only good thing about this movie are the costumes. Silverstone has the best wardrobe (or at least the best fetish wardrobe)---schoolgirl to motorcycle leathers to figure-hugging rubber bodysuit. Mmmm--figure-hugging rubber bodysuit on Alicia Silverstone. (So, OK, I salvaged something from the film.)
Other Notes: For a computer scientist, Barbara Wilson sure does type slow. And if you were busting a password, wouldn't you just dump /usr/dict/words into the program? And isn't that a neat 20th anniversary Mac?
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Uma Thurman, Alicia Silverstone, Micahel Gough, George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell, and Arnold Schwartzenegger.
Directed by: Joel Schumacher