Following Val Kilmer's portrayal of the caped crusader in Batman Forever, the fourth Batman feature stars George Clooney under the pointy-eared cowl, with Chris O'Donnell returning as Robin the Boy Wonder. This time the dynamic duo is up against the nefarious Mr Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who is bent on turning the world into an iceberg, and the slyly seductive but highly toxic Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman), who wants to eliminate all animal life and turn the Earth into a gigantic greenhouse. Alicia Silverstone lends a hand as Batgirl, and Elle McPherson plays the thankless role of Batman/Bruce Wayne's fiancèe. A sensory assault of dazzling colours, senseless action and lavish sets run amok, this Batman & Robin offers an overdose of eye candy, but it is strictly for devoted Bat-o-philes. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

When Tim Burton and Michael Keaton announced that they'd had enough of the Batman franchise, director JoelSchumacher stepped in (with Burton as coproducer) to make this action-packed extravaganza starring Val Kilmer as the capedcrusader. Batman is up against two of Gotham City's most colourful criminals, the Riddler (a role tailor-made for funnyman Jim Carrey) and the diabolical Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones), who join forces to conquer Gotham's population with a brain-draining device. Nicole Kidman plays the seductive psychologist who wants to know what makes Batman tick. Boasting a redesigned Batmobile and plenty of new Bat hardware, Batman Forever also introduces Robin the Boy Wonder (Chris O'Donnell) whose close alliance with Batman led more than afew critics to ponder the series' homoerotic subtext. No matter how you interpret it, Schumacher's take on the Batman legacy is simultaneously amusing, lavishly epic and prone to chronic sensory overload. --Jeff Shannon

The first Batman sequel takes a wicked turn with the villainous exploits of the freakish and mean-spirited Penguin (Danny DeVito), whose criminal collaboration with evil tycoon Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) threatens to drain Gotham City of its energy supply. As if that wasn't enough, Batman (Michael Keaton) has his hands full with the vengeful Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer), who turns out to be a lot more dangerous than a kitten with a whip. As with the first Batman feature, director Tim Burton brings his distinct visual style to the frantic action but this time there's a darker malevolence lurking beneath all that extraordinary production design. --Jeff Shannon

As with Batman 5, currently undergoing the turmoil of pre-production. If it's going to be based on the excellent graphic novel, we'll find a darker, older Batman avenging too far, with Superman drafted in from Metropolis to stop him in his vigilante tracks. It doesn't end happy.

Like the other ailing Batman projects, this languishes in pre-production. With the visually exciting Aronofsky helming, this should be a corker of a project. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, we literally get back to the roots of Batman and how he came to be...

The fifth big budget Batman has the desired colon subname of 'Intimidation'. Now shooting Iceland and then Shepperton Studios in England, this movie will re-start the ailing franchise. Bale was a brave, but great choice, and now Neeson, Freeman, Oldman and Caine have joined the cast, expect a bit of class from the director of Momento and Insomnia.

Bats is for everyone who misses those old Roger Corman monster movies, only it has animatronics and computer effects instead of papier-mâché. The title pretty much sums up the plot: crazed bats are running amok, disembowelling people and cattle. Only beautiful wildlife zoologist Dina Meyer and stalwart sheriff Lou Diamond Phillips can save the day. Let's be frank: the scenario is ludicrous, the dialogue awful, the special effects unconvincing--try as they might, the bats just aren't that scary--but what does it matter? The movie rips along effectively. There's always a bat attack just around the corner and the director makes liberal use of all kinds of editing and camera effects, including adistorted bat-cam point of view that makes no sense at all but is pretty entertaining. Various scenes imitate Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, but lack even a hint of that film's eerie precision. The actors play it straight without trying to be particularly serious. All in all, Bats knows what it is--trash-horror--and accomplishes its ends with good humour. Not quite up to the standard of Tremors (still the definitive trash-horror flick), but better than most. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com