the m0vie blog

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week with special guests Joe Griffin and Alex Towers, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin.

A new villain has arrived in Gotham City. Calling himself Mister Freeze, the fiend is stealing diamonds for his scientific experiments. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne finds himself struggling to strike the right balance with his young and reckless partner Dick Grayson, while managing his unconventional family unit.

At time of recording, it was ranked 71st on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Show Notes:

• Recorded 2nd July 2020.
• Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
• Note: Yes, we are in fact interrupting our Summer of Scorsese season for this. It was Batman Day last weekend, and we’re looking at maybe doing an annual Batman-related episode to mark the day, like we’ve traditionally done Star Wars films at Christmas.
• Batman and Robin at The Internet Movie Database.
• The IMDB Bottom 100 as it appeared at time of recording.
• Follow Alex on Twitter.
• Listen to When Irish Eyes are Watching on their homepage.
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• Follow Joe on Twitter.
• Benny Johnson at Buzzfeed ranks Mister Freeze’s terrible puns in Batman and Robin, January 2014.
• Alan Siegel at The Ringer on how Arnold Schwarzenegger willed Total Recall into existence, June 2020.
• Hadley Freeman at The Guardian critiques Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography, Total Recall, October 2012.
• Mary McNamara reviews Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography, Total Recall, for The Los Angeles Times, October 2012.
• Lynn Hirschberg profiles Arnold Schwarzenegger for Vanity Fair, June 1990.
• Adam Smith at Empire looks back on the production of Flash Gordon, December 2015.
• The Hollywood Reporter offers an oral history of the development and production of Batman and Robin, June 2017.
• Jeff Gordinier at Entertainment Weekly reports on early casting rumours for Batman and Robin, December 1995.
• Joel Stice at Uproxx on some of the more famous roles that Anthony Hopkins passed on, December 2014.
• The Hollywood Reporter offers an oral history of the development and production of Batman Forever, June 2015.
• Roger D. Friedman at The Los Angeles Times profiles the stars of The Three Musketeers, November 1993.
• Glenn Kenny argues in favour of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls at The Criterion Collection, September 2016.
• The Onion reports that comic books are not just for kids any more, July 2012.
• Jackson Ayres looks back on the so-called “dark age of comic books” for The Los Angeles Review of Books, February 2016.
• Nathan Rabin reviews Joel Schumacher’s commentary on Batman and Robin at The A.V. Club, November 2005.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger breaks down his most iconic roles, and discusses Batman and Robin, with GQ, October 2019.
• The BBC reports on how stars remember Joel Schumacher, June 2020.
• Tom Breihan at The A.V. Club on the enduring strangeness of Batman Returns, March 2018.
• Donna Britt at The Washington Post reports on parental outrage over the sex and violence in Batman Returns, June 1992.
• Tom Chapman at Geeks on how McDonalds’ discomfort with Batman Returns led to Batman Forever, 2017.
• Tom Breihan at The A.V. Club on the disappointing emptiness of Batman Forever, May 2018.
• Andrew Glass at Politico looks back on the “Republican Revolution” of November 1994, November 2007.
• Rob Crossley at the BBC looks back on the moral panic around video games during the 1990s, June 2014.
• Maureen Dowd in The New York Times argued that Republics are trying to “repeal the sixties”, December 1998.
• Darren Mooney at The Escapist on the moral panic and straightwashing of Batman Forever, July 2020.
• Darren Mooney at the m0vie blog on the refreshing queerness of Batman and Robin, September 2020.
• Glen Weldon at Slate offers a brief history of queer subtext in Batman comics, April 2016.
• Grant Morrison explains that Batman is gay to Playboy, April 2012.
• Matt D. Wilson at Comics Alliance looks back on The Seduction of the Innocent, April 2016.
• Joel Schumacher discusses his life and career with Vulture, June 2020.
• Joel Schumacher talks to GQ about the legacy of Batman and Robin as a landmark of queer cinema, June 2017.
• Joel Schumacher apologises to Vice for making Batman and Robin, June 2017.
• GCN reports on George Clooney’s decision to play Batman as gay in Batman and Robin, June 2014.
• Bill Higgins and Sharon Swart at Variety report on George Clooney’s claims that Joel Schumacher told him to play Batman as gay in Batman and Robin, June 2005.
• Rich Juzwiak at Jezebel attempts to assess the camp legacy of Batman and Robin, June 2020.
• Uma Thurman discusses some of the reaction against Batman and Robin as homophobic with The Huffington Post, March 2014.
• Alicia Silverstone talks to The Guardian about her experience making Batman and Robin, April 2020.
• Louise Kiernan at The Chicago Tribune reports on the obsession with female actors’ weight in the late 1990s, August 1996.
• Degen Pener at Entertainment Weekly reports on the body shaming of Alicia Silverstone while she was working on Batman and Robin, April 1996.
• The Orlando Sentinel reports on Alicia Silverstone’s frustration with the body shaming in Hollywood, August 1996.
• Rebecca Ascher-Walsh at Entertainment Weekly reports on Val Kilmer’s alienation of various Hollywood directors and filmmakers, May 1996.
• Benjamin Svetkey at Entertainment Weekly reports on the replacement of Val Kilmer with George Clooney on Batman and Robin, July 1996.
• Kevin O’Sullivan at The New York Daily News on the trouble that Val Kilmer caused during the production of The Island of Doctor Moreau, September 1996.
• Aaron Couch at The Hollywood Reporter discusses rumours that Coolio was supposed to play the Scarecrow in Batman Triumphant, February 2017.
• Rob Leane at Den of Geek looks back on Batman Triumphant, the planned sequel to Batman and Robin, March 2016.
• Nathan Rabin looks back on Batman and Robin for The A.V. Club, October 2017.
• Tom Breihan at The A.V. Club wonders whether Batman and Robin deserves its reputation as the worst comic book movie ever, June 2018.
• David Sims at The Atlantic on how the failure of Batman and Robin set the superhero movie on a very different course, June 2017.
• Kevin Fiege explains to MTV why Batman and Robin is the most important comic book movie ever made, October 2009.
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Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: alex towers, Alicia Silverstone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, bane, batman, Batman and Robin, camp, caped crusader, cult, george clooney, imdb, joe griffith, joel schumacher, logic, mister freeze, Poison Ivy, puns, queer, The Bottom 100, toyetic, uma thurman, val kilmer, villains |