George Clooney won't allow his wife, Amal Clooney, to watch his portrayal of the Caped Crusader in 1997's much-maligned Batman & Robin, widely considered to be the worst film in the history of the franchise.
After admitting to Variety he "destroyed" the Batman franchise with the film, Clooney's wife chimed in, "He won't let me watch it." The actor confirmed, "There are certain films I just go, 'I want my wife to have some respect for me.'" Amal, adding that Batman & Robin is on the "banned list" in the Clooney household, then commented that their young twins will want to watch the reviled flick. Clooney wasn't too keen on the prospect. "It's bad when your four-year-old kid goes, 'This sucks,'" he joked. "That would be really painful."
Clooney played the titular superhero in Joel Schumacher's widely-panned movie opposite Chris O'Donnell as Robin. The film pitted the heroic duo against the villainous Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who teams up with Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman) in an attempt to turn Gotham City into a frozen wasteland.
Batman & Robin was the fourth entry in Warner Bros.' Batman film series of the late '80s and '90s, which began with 1989's Batman and also included 1992's Batman Returns and 1995's Batman Forever. The fourth outing was so poorly received that it temporarily halted the franchise until Christopher Nolan rebooted it with Batman Begins eight years later.
Over the years, Clooney has been self-deprecating about the failure of Batman & Robin and his lackluster portrayal of The Dark Knight. "The truth of the matter is, I was bad in it," the actor said in an interview last year. Prior to that, he said, "Like, when I say Batman & Robin's a terrible film, I always go, 'I was terrible in it.'"
Batman & Robin screenwriter Akiva Goldsman was equally self-deprecating when he apologized for the movie in an interview last year, saying "We didn't mean for it to be bad." With a 12 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Batman & Robin isn't just the worst-reviewed Batman movie of all time -- it's one of the worst-reviewed superhero movies in general.
Despite frequently being cited as the worst film in the franchise, Batman & Robin attracted a semi-cult following over the years thanks to its campy tone and flamboyant production design. In fact, some fans have even argued that its corny style makes Batman & Robin the most faithful adaptation of the original Batman comics.
Source: Variety