The beginning of the end of the original Batman franchise was started with this movie. The Batman was devoid of emotion, half of the bad guy tandem was horrible, the hot chick was not even that hot let alone interesting, oh and the side kick was in dire need of an ass whipping, and the story and directing sucked. The only saving grace was Jim Carrey as the Riddler.

This installment of Batman has the caped crusader going against a duo of bad guys, Two-Face, a.k.a. Harvey Dent, played by Tommy Lee Jones (Man of the House,) and The Riddler, played by Jim Carrey, who have discovered Batman's true identity is Bruce Wayne, played by Val Kilmer (Mind Hunters.) Batman enlists the help of Dick Grayson, an acrobat whose family was murdered by Two Face, and fights the duo, with Grayson becoming his side kick, Robin, played by Chris O'Donnell (Kinsey.)

Let's start with the smallest things, the writing by Lee Batchler, Janet Scott Batchler, and Akiva Goldsman. Well it's terrible. First off, as a kid reading Batman comic books, I don't remember ever seeing Harvey Dent's name combined with his evil character Two-Face. Yet, in the very beginning of the movie we are introduced to a character named Harvey Two-Face, something he was never, ever, called to my memory. Now they did roughly get the back story to Robin's character right, but his dialogue didn't make the character a younger shadow of Bruce Wayne, but more of the obnoxious younger brother who didn't understand what happened. The writers did provide some humor to the story but over all its just poor writing.

The writing issues for the characters were compounded by the acting. Val Kilmer, who is one of my favorite actors, did not capture Bruce Wayne's essence at all. Instead of Michael Keaton's brooding, he went for a more of a quiet, laconic man who almost had no depth. It was like Bruce Wayne was upset because his dog was run over by a car, or he found his girlfriend in bed with another man, not the man who was haunted by the memory of the murder of his parents. Fortunately for Kilmer, the next Batman was played by George Clooney and he was completely lost. But Kilmer's Batman is still second to Michael Keaton and now Christian Bale.

Tommy Lee Jones, the first second he was on screen, acted like he had the part of the one time lawyer turned insane by the scarring of his face by acid. He was dark, cheerless, demented, but classy, like a high class lawyer. But mere seconds after his first line, Jones takes this character on the most annoying Disney land ride in the world, Whiney Mountain. He becomes painful to watch in every scene and turned a character that could have been as good as Jack Nicholson's Joker into something out of the Batman TV show out of the 60's. Again, fortunately for Jones, Batman and Robin came out and Arnold and Uma, were worse at their roles then he was. Chris O'Donnell? Well he just plain sucked, and I won't waste anymore time talking about him, just really really bad. Bad like piercing your balls on a spear, bad. The one saving grace was Jim Carrey as the Riddler. But all he did was be himself, which is funny, so I enjoyed him in every scene. My favorite scene is when he is being shown how to throw a punch and screws it up, short but funny. Nicole Kidman was the female in the movie and I don't find her attractive or particularly good so I shall not speak of her any more.

I will, however, say that I enjoyed the butler, Alfred, played by Michael Gough, who was the butler in all of the four original Batman movies. He was very British and very good, mixing humor and concern for his beloved Bruce. He was the second best actor in this movie and the best in Batman and Robin.

Batman Forever was the last Batman movie Tim Burton associated himself with, as producer in this one. I think he could tell what direction Joel Schumacher was taking this franchise and wanted to jump ship like the owner of the Titanic on its maiden voyage. Schumacher did not understand the characters, especially Bruce Wayne/Batman and began to treat it like a kid in a toy shop. Look at the new design of the Batmobile for starters, or Batman's new suit, or the incredibly gay fight with glow sticks that Dick Grayson had with that "tough" street gang, wow. One step away from the gay carnival it became in Batman and Robin. For this Mr. Schumacher I spite thee, and curse thee to three years being the tester for the ass-o-matic butt piercer, African-American size.

Don't watch this movie. There are better Jim Carrey movie's out there and you can watch one of the first two Batman movies to watch the late Mr. Gough as Alfred. But if you are forced to watch one of the last two original Batman movies, watch this, no matter how hot you think Uma Thurman is, its not worth it.

Brian - the Naked Gun