By Geno McGahee
I’m not a big fan of superhero films, but Batman is one of the exceptions that I typically enjoy. I like the idea of a rich guy sick of the assholes stealing shit and causing trouble. I don’t think anything can beat THE DARK KNIGHT when it comes to superhero movies, but it’s not all positive with the Batman series. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first two BATMAN movies by Tim Burton in 1989 and 1992 and hadn’t seen BATMAN FOREVER since it first came out in 1995. I suspected it would be shit, but it was somewhat of a pleasant surprise.
Batman (Val Kilmer) starts off by suiting up and he’s got a major issue with Harvey Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones). Two-Face is focused on killing Batman after he blames him for his disfigured face. During a trial, a mobster throws acid in Two-Face’s face before Batman could jump in. I didn’t know that Batman attended trials. I think he’d be a distraction sitting there and I consider it really disrespectful. If you’re in court, you dress nice. You don’t wear some rubbery black leather thing with a mask. Also, doesn’t the guard ask everyone to take off their hats in court? Wouldn’t he ask Batman to take off the mask? I guess Batman could have told him to fuck off.
Despite all attempts, Two=Face keeps failing to end Batman. I heard that Tommy Lee Jones didn’t like the over-acting of Jim Carrey, but he is living in a glass house here. Jones performance in this movie is something to behold. He is hilarious in this. 99% of his performance is just him laughing maniacally over and over again and you’d think that would get old. It didn’t. I loved it.
Edward (Jim Carrey) works for Bruce Wayne and has a great idea to use brainwaves to create a better television experience. When he brings the idea to Wayne, it’s shot down because of the potential danger to the user. This infuriates Edward and he now plans revenge and enjoys using riddles for some reason. So, he becomes the Riddler and he soon teams up with Two-Face and things get really bonkers.
One character that I could have done without is Robin (Chris O’Donnell). Robin starts off as one of those circus tight rope guys and Two-Face kills his family and now, for some reason, he is being fostered by Bruce Wayne. What the fuck is that about? One, he looked of age to live on his own. Secondly, why the fuck is Wayne doing foster care? I’d think he’d want to keep his house empty to keep his secret and this blows up in his face when Robin finds the Bat Cave.
After discovering the Bat Cave, Robin takes the Batmobile on a joy ride and runs into a gang. This film was in love with neon shit. The entire gang is wearing face paint and attack with glow sticks. It’s not surprising that the gang gets their asses kicked. You don’t try to fight people with glow sticks. That’ll never work.
With Two-Face and Riddler becoming more and more of a problem, Batman agrees to accept Robin as his partner and they team up to take out the bad guys. Before that can happen, the evil duo find a way to infiltrate Wayne Manor and it’s hilarious. It’s Halloween and kids come to the door and trick or treat. Shortly after, there’s a knock and Alfred looks out and sees two “kids” saying “trick or treat” but it’s obviously Two-Face and Riddler in masks with big smiles. It was so funny. I know Tommy Lee Jones doesn’t do roles like this and might not like what Carrey does, but he gave his all here and Jones was absolutely amazing in this role. We need more movies where he runs around maniacally laughing and trick or treating.
We get the big showdown with Batman, Robin, Riddler and Two-Face and we also have Chase (Nicole Kidman), the love interest of Bruce Wayne, there too. Batman is wearing a new suit for this battle and they show it off. They show his Bat ass for about a good 5-10 seconds in that suit. I’m not sure if they just loved the look of the Bat ass suit or thought that Val Kilmer filled it out nicely. I suppose there could be a “best Bat ass” competition and this was just Kilmer throwing his hat in the ring. Whatever the case, the editor could have shaved off two seconds.
The final showdown goes as you’d expect. There was no shocker. Two-Face and Riddler did not win. Sorry to spoil that for you, but they did provide some amusement. Carrey and Jones both were great in their roles. Carrey was just being Carrey. Jones was bringing something new to the game that I’ve never seen. He gave his all in this role and appeared to have a lot of fun.
BATMAN FOREVER isn’t horrible. It’s not great either, but if you appreciate ridiculous overacting and consistent maniacal laughter, you are going to like this. It’s odd that Harvey Two-Face flipped like this over the acid in his face. I know it’d suck but to go completely crazy and blame Batman was fucked. Why not blame the guard that let the mobster into the courtroom unchecked? He could have confiscated that acid. At least in DARK KNIGHT, Harvey was upset about his girlfriend being murdered on top of his face being fucked up. He had reasons to go ape shit. The BATMAN FOREVER Harvey overreacted and if they wanted to blame Batman, they could have had Batman walk over as Harvey is in pain from the acid and say something like “sucks for you.”
Without question, this movie is better than I remembered and the two hour running time didn’t really drag. I recommend it.
