Batman Forever (1995)

Director:

Joel Schumacher

Writers (WGA):

Bob Kane (characters)
Lee Batchler (story) ...

Release Date:

16 June 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Fantasy | Thriller

Tagline:

Courage now, truth always....

Plot:

Batman must battle Two-Face and The Riddler with help of an amourous psychologist and a young circus acrobat who becomes his sidekick, Robin.

Plot Keywords:

Batman | Gotham | Acrobat | Circus | Sidekick

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 16 nominations

Cast

Val Kilmer	...	Batman / Bruce Wayne
Tommy Lee Jones	...	Two-Face / Harvey Dent
Jim Carrey	...	Riddler / Dr. Edward Nygma
Nicole Kidman	...	Dr. Chase Meridian
Chris O'Donnell	...	Robin / Dick Grayson
Michael Gough	...	Alfred Pennyworth
Pat Hingle	...	Commissioner James Gordon
Drew Barrymore	...	Sugar
Debi Mazar	...	Spice
Elizabeth Sanders	...	Gossip Gerty
Rene Auberjonois	...	Dr. Burton
Joe Grifasi	...	Bank Guard
Philip Moon	...	Male Newscaster
Jessica Tuck	...	Female Newscaster
Dennis Paladino	...	Crime Boss Moroni

Also Known As:

Batman 3 (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for strong stylized action.

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:PG (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | UK:12 (video re-rating) (2005) | Brazil:10 | Italy:T | Netherlands:12 | Netherlands:6 (re-rating) | South Korea:All | Norway:11 (heavily cut) | Norway:11 (DVD rating) | Norway:15 (re-rating, cut) | Norway:15 (Original rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:TE | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Germany:12 (bw) | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG (cut) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #33850) | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Iceland:10 (original rating)

Filming Locations:

ARCO Refinery, Carson, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Director Joel Schumacher wanted Nicole Kidman to play Poison Ivy, but he decided that Ivy, Two-Face and The Riddler would be too many villains for Batman.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Obvious stunt double for Robin while he's piloting the Bat-Boat.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Alfred Pennyworth: Can I persuade you to take a sandwich with you, sir?
Batman: I'll get drive-thru.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Fanboys (2008)

Soundtrack:

One Time Too Many

Jim Carrey stole the show

Some people talk about "the stick of straw that broke the camel's back", meaning when something reached the tipping point. So when did the Batman franchise go bad? Well, "Batman Forever" was getting silly, but it still had Jim Carrey to steal the show as The Riddler ("Batman and Robin" had about as many good qualities as a barrel of toxic waste). Personally, I don't know why they had to have Batman (Val Kilmer) going through therapy; remove that and he still would have been a cool superhero with neat gadgets. Tommy Lee Jones wasn't bad as Two-Face. Nicole Kidman and Chris O'Donnell, as Dr. Chase Meridian and Robin, respectively, didn't really add anything.

Overall, the point is that when Joel Schumacher took over directing, the franchise went downhill. Part of the problem was that while Tim Burton created an eerie Gotham City that looked like New York in the 1940s, Joel Schumacher created a Gotham City that looked like it was trying too hard to be "Blade Runner".

So, the franchise starting getting stale with this one, but Jim Carrey kept the movie from being unwatchable. As Edward Nygma, one of Bruce Wayne's employees, he had some great lines. In the movie, Nygma proposes a device that rests atop TV sets and reads peoples' minds, but Wayne rejects it, considering it too dangerous. Thus, Nygma becomes The Riddler, and he's the best character in the movie.