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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 2082
Released: May 21, 1997 |
| Our Price: $8.29 |
| Used Price: $7.48 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
The Caped Crusader returns to do battle with Two-Face and the Riddler. Also introduces Robin who becomes his partner, while Kidman is Batman/Bruce Wayne's love interest.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: KILMER/JONES/CARREY/O'DONNELL/
Title: BATMAN FOREVER
Street Release Date: 11/14/2006
Domestic
Genre: ACTION / ADVENTURE
Description of Batman Forever:
When Tim Burton and Michael Keaton announced that they'd had enough of the Batman franchise, director Joel Schumacher stepped in (with Burton as coproducer) to make this action-packed extravaganza starring Val Kilmer as the caped crusader. Batman is up against two of Gotham City's most colorful criminals, the Riddler (a role tailor-made for funnyman Jim Carrey) and the diabolical Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones), who join forces to conquer Gotham's population with a brain-draining device. Nicole Kidman plays the seductive psychologist who wants to know what makes Batman tick. Boasting a redesigned Batmobile and plenty of new Bat hardware, Batman Forever also introduces Robin the Boy Wonder (Chris O'Donnell) whose close alliance with Batman led more than a few critics to ponder the series' homoerotic subtext. No matter how you interpret it, Schumacher's take on the Batman legacy is simultaneously amusing, lavishly epic, and prone to chronic sensory overload. --Jeff Shannon
Batman Forever Reviews:
The Riddler, Two Face, Robin and bat crap. 
2008-08-26 - Its bad, its green and the bright colors are out of control, Its Batman Forever. The movie has a new director whos name is Joel Schumacher. Whenever I think of this movie I think of greeeeeeen!! The new Batman is Val Kilmer, hes not the best choice but he gets the job done. Which is probably what Joel Schumacher was thinking while making this candy scented bat crap. The movie was passible but that dosent mean much. Jim Carrey was good as The Riddler and was my favorite villian out of Batman 3 and 4. My favorite comedy scene from that movie was when E. Nigma absorbs his bosses knowledge.
Next is Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face. Not alot to say but what happened, Billy D. Williams played as Harvey Dent in 1 and 2 but not 3! It was probably because he didnt want to be in this crappy movie. Chris O'Donnel plays as Robin. He has a fit about everything and complains to much, but its a substantial update since the 1960's Robin played by Burt Ward. Then thiers the love intrest Dr. Chase Merridth played by Nicole Kidman, her Character is pretty shallow like all the other girlfriends of Batman. Alfred is again (and for all four movies) played by Micheal Guff. Not much to say but that he had a great performance in the Batman movies. It was defenitiley dumbing it down for a wider audience. This movie gets 2 1/2 complainig Robins out of 5. Tomorrow ill be reviewing Batman and Robin. God help me.
Pretty good 
2008-08-21 - I like this Batman movie a lot of people hate it but I like it a lot and this was a big hit in 1995 got a few award nominations. Val Kilmer did a good job Jim Carey was just Jim Carey. Tommy Lee Jones was good as Two Face not great loved Bruce Wayne's love interest Chase Maridan played by Nicole Kidman. Good story but they should've stopped here or gave it a few years had Tim Burton do the directing cause Tim Burton being the producer of the film saved it from being a Joel Schumacher camp fest like Batman & Robin was.
Mediocre at Best - the Beginning of the End 
2008-08-18 - This movie began the descent part of the Batman arc or dive. Even though Bob Kane himself said that he always pictured Bruce Wayne as portrayed by Val Kilmer, the film as a whole did not carry a whole lot of appeal. Chris O'Donnell, while doing a fine job as Robin, reminded me more of Jason Todd than Dick Grayson.
I enjoyed Gotham much more as Tim Burton's dark vision rather than Joel Schumacher's Neon Funland.
The movie carries on the mythology with the introduction of Robin, but sets the premise for the subsequent failure of "Batman and Robin."
The Dark Knight Is Becoming a Little Less Dark...
2008-08-18 - After two successful installments in the Batman franchise, the third film, "Batman Forever", signaled a time of change for the series, from cast and crew, to the overall tone of the movies, even to costume choices. The biggest casting change was that of Michael Keaton stepping aside, supposedly over money and age related disputes. Filling in for Michael this time around was actor Val Kilmer ("The Saint"), other new additions to the franchise were Chris O'Donnell ("Vertical Limit"), Nicole Kidman ("The Invasion"), Tommy Lee Jones ("The Fugitive"), and Jim Carrey ("Liar Liar"). The other major additional change with this third installment in the series was that of director Tim Burton shifting gears from directing the film to becoming just a Co-Producer, allowing for Joel Schumacher ("A Time to Kill") an opportunity to try his hand at crafting a blockbuster worthy of the caped crusader.
"Batman Forever" finds Batman (Val Kilmer) up against two of the strangest members of his rogue's gallery, Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) and the Riddler (Jim Carrey). With these two villains teaming up to wreak havoc on Gotham City, they may just be too much for one hero to handle. Enter young Dick Grayson (Chris O'Donnell) whose thirst for vengeance drives him to aid Batman in his ongoing war on crime and become his heroic partner, Robin.
With the first two installments in this series, "Batman" and "Batman Returns", director Tim Burton had established an overall darker tone with a brooding hero and truly evil and twisted villains. In "Batman Forever", director Joel Schumacher dispatches with the darker tone set in the previous movies, opting for a more family friendly atmosphere with just semi-serious undertones. The story, written by talented screenwriter Akiva Goldsman ("I, Robot"), plays too much as a light-hearted action/comedy than a dramatic-themed action film, as the movies in this series had previously been. I'll grant that the film does contain some serious elements in regards to some of the psychological issues that Bruce Wayne is going through, and even more so with the trauma and pain of events occurring in Dick Grayson's life and his struggle to control the rage burning within him; however, as dramatic as those elements were, they were easily overshadowed by the far too over-the-top and way too comedic portrayals of Two-Face and the Riddler.
Speaking of the cast of characters, lets talk about what went wrong with Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey's performances, shall we. First, we have Two-Face, who is one of Batman's most tragic villains because his evil is one born out of physical and emotional scarring mixed with a quick-temper. Harvey Dent had been Gotham City's District Attorney, until an unfortunate attack at the hands of a mob boss left him scarred and twisted as the villainous Two-Face. Now, he must contend with a major case of split personality, where both Harvey and Two-Face are vying for control over the decisions that he makes as a person. A character this rich in history and drama would seem a prime choice for an actor of Tommy Lee Jones' ability to really sink his teeth into; however, instead of playing the character seriously, Jones turns him into what feels like a cheap imitation of Jack Nicholson's Joker from "Batman". Along with Tommy's far less-than serious portrayal, his henchman are about as brainless as you can get, I mean how does a villain of Two-Face's supposed caliber ever successfully pull off a heist with these henchmen is beyond me, I guess that says a lot about Gotham City's police department, doesn't it.
Second, we have Jim Carrey's turn as the Riddler, where we are given a front row seat to see exactly what it means to go over-the-top in a performance. In the comic books Riddler is a somewhat laughable villain, because his crimes rarely pose much of a threat to Batman or Gotham City, plus his penchant for leaving riddles that once solved give clues to where he is or what he will do next causes the character to rarely seem to succeed. In "Batman Forever", writer Akiva Goldsman at least made Riddler a much more successful villain, granted part of his success is from his partnership with Two-Face; yet, as a villain Riddler still fails to appear all that intimidating when going up against Batman. I don't know if Jim Carrey is to blame, or if it is a mixture of Akiva Goldsman's writing or even Joel Schumacher's directing, but one major complaint I have with Riddler, is that he seemed to be way too spine-less and feminine in his actions. If the character had been this kind of person to begin with in the comic books, then I could have gone along with it, but since he is not portrayed this way in the comics, I find it difficult to overlook. In fact, there are numerous instances where he physically clings far too much to Two-Face in this movie, to the point that I found it a little uncomfortable, especially for a more family friendly approach to the Batman franchise.
With my complaints regarding the two villains out of the way, I wish I could say that those were the end of my complaints about the cast; sadly, this is not the case. Taking over for Michael Keaton we have Val Kilmer, a good actor (particularly in his best performance as Doc Holiday in "Tombstone") and one that has been in the business long enough to know how to convincingly play a character; yet, as Bruce Wayne he seems very flat and stiff in his line readings, basically giving off the vibe that he's only in this movie for the paycheck. I will grant him that when he's in the Batsuit, he seems much more committed to the role, and as Batman he was a very good choice to follow-up Keaton, it's just too bad that he couldn't bring this same level to his acting game when portraying the Bruce Wayne side of the character. Nicole Kidman was adequate as Bruce's newest love interest Dr. Chase Meridian, but her character never gets established beyond that of a source of exposition to bring out some of Bruce's psychological issues in this movie, and at times she seemed like she was just an updated version of Kim Basinger's Vicki Vale character from "Batman", just a little less developed, if that's possible. Lastly, we have Chris O'Donnell as Dick Grayson/Robin, his character's introduction while staying fairly true to the comics, simultaneously serves as further evidence that this franchise is becoming much lighter in tone. In the comic books, when Robin was introduced it was to boost Batman's popularity with children so that his books would sell better; however, by introducing this teenage sidekick, Batman as a character and as a series became much lighter, almost completely removing the brooding, vengeful aspect of the hero to where he was just a slightly cranky shell of the man he once was. At least in "Batman Forever" the character of Robin was given a fairly serious backstory with a decent amount of drama and even some tragedy to drive his character's story arc throughout the film. Chris O'Donnell, who was an unknown to me whenever this movie first was released to theaters, was a good choice for Dick Grayson/Robin; he portrayed the character's deep-seeded anger and quest for vengeance as unfocused and volatile, which made him an interesting example of what Bruce Wayne may have been like in his younger years. His performance was very strong, and seemed to be one of the better performances in the movie, which is surprising given the amount of talent assembled in this film.
Before I continue, I must say that even though I have complained about several aspects of this movie, from its story to some members of the cast's performance, I did find it to be a fairly entertaining, slightly above average movie; it's just not on par with what Tim Burton had done, especially with the first movie in the series. Now that I have that little side note out of the way, I do have another complaint for the movie, which would be some of the costume choices. Lets start off with Riddler's various wardrobe choices, in the comics he normally appears in the green suit and jacket or in a green skin-tight leotard-esque costume; however, in this movie he not only appears in those two outfits, albeit briefly, but also in a wide assortment of other variations of the costume. I've never been a big fan of the character in general or his costumes, but I don't think any villain would want to spend near as much time on wardrobe changes as Jim Carrey does in this film. Along with the costume changes, I have no clue who decided that Riddler should have make-up on at all times when in costume. I have read numerous Batman comics that feature Riddler as one of the villains in the story, and never once can I recall seeing the character with such rosy cheeks, bright pink lips, and even brighter pink hair. I don't know what the costume designers on this film were thinking, but their choices for Riddler only further cemented him as an extremely feminine character, which as I stated earlier he has never been. So, why can't the people that make these movies just leave some things well enough alone? As if that wasn't enough of a complaint over the costumes in this movie, the only other one I have, would have to be the biggest of all... who had the bright idea of putting nipples on the batsuit?! Never in the history of Batman comics have there been nipples on the character's suit, or even that of Robin's; so again why not leave well enough alone. Anyways, other than that the costumes for the characters were well made, and appeared to be ripped directly from the pages of the comic books, so aside from my complaints the costume designers did a very good job adapting them for the screen.
Well, after all that I'm sure you're probably saying to yourself, "How can this guy possibly say that he even remotely liked this movie?" Well, I can't explain it, but even with all the problems I still find the movie moderately entertaining (as I said earlier), and a decent entry into the franchise, although it does signal that things may be going downhill for the series as a whole. Sure the movie has problems, some bigger gripes than others, but it still does a decent job with the much lighter direction it was given, without going so light that it approaches the level of the 60's TV series.
"Batman Forever" is rated PG-13 for violence and language.
Riddle Me This, Riddle Me That, How come the bad guys made that film 
2008-08-08 - Batman Forever is pretty good only because of the villians. Jim carrey basically made that show, with a little help from Tommy Lee Jones. This movie was meant for jim carrey. because he could go nuts. just like the character. he was perfect for the part. & tommy lee jones did a pretty good job with Two-Face. Val Kilmer was okay as batman & Chris o'Donnell as robin, i think they rushed that. he was okay but i think they could of found someone better. but all in all the movie was enjoyable. if you like batman then you have to see this one. It's a Must see
