Monday, November 17, 2008

Batman: George Clooney 1997




By the time, George Clooney rolls into town, the Batman revival is showing signs of breaking down. On paper, Clooney should have been great in Batman & Robin, with his charmed, never grow up, confirmed bachelor status in real life. But he with Chris O'Donnell as Robin and Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl, sleep walk through the movie, pausing only on occasion to offer some double entendre one-liner. Nothing in the movie gels, the villain Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Poision Ivy (Uma Thurman) feel like the 3rd string team. I have no idea who is to blame. Most likely it's just the Hollywood system. Where, by the fourth in the series of a good run, people get lazy and rely on formulas and gimmicks instead of original ideas that made the first films interesting.

Two months ago, this movie was playing on flight to San Francisco, and yes, that is the sad state of our airlines. It's unfortunate, that the movie hasn't turned into, so bad, it's good. George, Chris, Uma, and Arnold as just as bad as they were a decade ago, and I doubt it will get better with age.

Well, there is one thing to note, Clooney discusses playing Batman as gay in an interview in 2006 with Barbara Walters.

"GEORGE CLOONEY outs Batman on Barbara Walters' Oscar special tonight. Asked if he'd ever play a gay role, Clooney says he already did - as Batman. "Think about it," he explains. "I was in a rubber suit. I had rubber nipples. I could have played him straight but I didn't. I made him gay." Well, that puts Bruce Wayne's "ward" Robin in a new light ..." via Rotten Tomatoes and the Daily Dish.

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