BATMAN & ROBIN (1997) **1/2 Joel Schumacher's vision of Batman, realized. And unlike so many visions of Batman that are apparently out there, this one is well worth engaging, if not necessarily contemplating in the finer libraries and monasteries. The sets are incredible, just brilliant. A cityscape to bring tears of joy to the eyes of Ayn Rand and Frank Lloyd Wright, and.I dunno, Mick Jagger maybe, Princess Di, Antoni Gaudi, you know, people like that. Urbanites. A city's city. Appropriately enough, the insane asylum is the most brilliant of it all. It looks great (even "right" if you're a comic book buff or can be weaned from the original, which I'm not and can't), and Joel ensures its success by emphasizing the lighter side of Batman (emphasize the light, show the dark, neh?). Arnold Schwarzenegger gets the cream of a script that relentlessly bombards us with throwaway lines, and acquits himself nicely as a giant lunatic, but the scene with his choral evil henchmen is comedy for the ages. One of the funniest scenes ever set to screen. With all that it wouldn't really matter what else there is, the good news being that there's plenty and the better news being that there's just too much. George Clooney is a good Batman. He doesn't ape Adam West (the best and definitive Batman, but is he the best possible ever? I don't know, I'd like to see Tyrone Power's take, and Sean Penn), but does homage in a manner invoking a genuflection interrupted by a sudden offer of two dinners for the price of one. Great stuff, reasonably so. Uma Thurman offers up the world's most appropriate eco-terrorist (she's half plant) and the most awful-ever sexually transmitted disease, but in a touch of reality it doesn't seem to throw anyone off the scent. All this filtered through vague if partial efforts towards Joan Crawford and Tallulah Bankhead. While we're at it, no effort towards name-dropping would be complete without mentioning Jesse Ventura, Alicia Silverstone, Elle Macpherson, Senator Pat Leahy, Chris O'Donnell, Coolio, and Warren Beatty (no, Warren's not in it, it's just that no respectable effort towards name-dropping could be complete without his inclusion). I'd be happy to watch more of this take on the Batman myth.
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