Batman & Robin (1997): Awfully Good Movies

Batman & Robin (1997)

DIRECTOR: Joel Schumacher CAST: Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Chris O’Donnell

2022 is gonna be the year of the Batman: Robert Pattinson debuting as The Batman in a few weeks, Michael Keaton’s return alongside The Flash in November, and the 25th anniversary of the supposed worst Batman movie–and worst superhero movie–ever made: Batman & Robin!

It’s hard to believe it was 25 years ago when the late Joel Schumacher pressed his luck with Batman Forever by bringing all the worst elements of FOREVER into the final follow-up to Tim Burton’s 1989 original. But this time, the camp factor goes way beyond a Prince soundtrack. How did we go from Jack Nicholson’s Joker dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight to the Governator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, cracking ice puns in a Tin Man suit as Mr. Freeze alongside Uma Thurman in tight green latex and red hair boobs as the environmentally friendly/otherwise villainous Poison Ivy? (Oh and also Bane is there, I think.)

No wonder Val Kilmer vanished from this series like Batman himself and left George Clooney to fill the Batsuit in what failed to be his breakout from TV hunk to movie star, with Clooney hopelessly adrift alongside Chris O’Donnell’s Robin as they stop the ice man and the green gal from freezing Gotham to death. Oh, and just in time for Leslie Grace’s Batgirl on HBO Max this Christmas, we got Alicia Silverstone donning a bat cowl herself as the niece of Bruce’s butler Alfred, who’s secretly dying of Plot Convenience Syndrome.

What else can be said about this bad movie landmark that hasn’t been said already by millions of other YouTubers? Well, Awfully Good Movies is gonna find out, with rubber on our nipples and a Batman Calzone from Little Caesars in our mouths. I AM THE NIGHT!

Riddle me this, Batman: What is cheesy, funny and Awfully Good all over? Answer: Our previous episodes!