Director Joel "The Client" Schumacher's
"Batman Forever," is the best, funniest, most balanced
Batman adventure yet.
The highly energized cast includes Val Kilmer, Tommy
Lee Jones, Jim
Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Chris O' Donnell, Michael Gough, and
Pat Hingle.
The basic story revolves around the dastardly plot, hatched by
the Riddler (Jim Carrey) and Two Face (Tommy Lee Jones) to become
incredibly smart and powerful by zapping the minds of Gotham city
residents by an invention created by the Riddler. The Riddler,
Edward Nygma, once worked for Bruce Wayne's Company. When Wayne
(Val Kilmer), rejects this new invention of Edward's, Edward schemes
to get even with Wayne, and personally benefit from his own invention.
Batman finds that he has two new allies, Robin and a psychologist,
Dr. Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) to help him battle this evil
partnership formed between the Riddler and Two Face.
This Batman introduces Robin,the boy wonder, who
is now Bruce Wayne's ward, and Batman's acrobatic sidekick, played
by Chris O'Donnell. Robin is out for revenge as Two Face killed
his family during a circus performance. Chris O'Donnell is convincing
Val Kilmer is particularly good here. Unlike Michael
Keaton and George Clooney, Kilmer is credible in the Batman scenes
AND as millionaire Bruce Wayne.
With Jim Carrey's Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones' Two-Face offer
the viewer a double dose of bad guys. While Carrey fans may dig
his wildly overdone antics, Tommy Lee Jones really comes across
better, by doing less, proving once again that less is more.
Nicole Kidman is stunning as amorous psychologist who becomes
Kilmer's love interest. She's never looked better, bringing much
spice and tang to her sexy shrink role.
Drew Barrymore has a small role as Sugar, one
of Two Face's groupies.
"Batman Forever" is a new classic film because it provides
wild, fantastic, eye-popping comic book style entertainment in
a manner that has frequently been attempted but rarely achieved.
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