George Clooney Says Batman & Robin Is A Terrible Film and He Sucked In It

As it turns out, George Clooney isn’t the biggest fan of Batman & Robin either. The Joel Schumacher feature first released in 1997 has been widely panned by critics and fans alike and now, some 20 years later, Clooney is speaking out on his role as the eponymous Caped Crusader. Speaking with GQ, Clooney made sure to mention his performance in the movie is a major reason why the feature fell flat with the masses.

“The only way you can honestly talk about things is to include yourself and your shortcomings in those things,” Clooney says in the story. “Like, when I say Batman & Robin‘s a terrible film, I always go, ‘I was terrible in it.’ Because I was, number one. But also because then it allows you the ability to say, ‘Having said I sucked in it, I can also say that none of these other elements worked, either.’ You know? Lines like ‘Freeze, Freeze!’”

Schumacher, of course, directed both Val Kilmer’s Batman Forever and the Clooney and Chris O’Donnell-starring Batman & Robin. Shortly after the filmmaker passed away earlier this year, fans began to campaign for the release of the Batman Forever “Schumacher Cut” on HBO Max.

According to Hollywood screenwriter Marc Bernadin, there’s a version of the movie floating around in the vaults of Warner’s that has Schumacher’s unedited 170-minute director’s cut.

“I have it on pretty good authority that there exists in the Warner Bros. vault a 170-minute cut of Batman Forever,” Bernardin told his podcast co-host Kevin Smith earlier this year. “I think that it went much deeper into his childhood psychosis and his mental blocks and that it was a more serious, darker version of that movie that was one of the first assemblies that Joel filed with the studio and they eventually cut it down because they were like ‘it’s too dark for kids. We gotta sell these Happy Meals, so maybe let’s not invest ourselves in the trauma of childhood murder. We’ve got Jim Carrey, let him do some s–t.”

Though Warner’s has yet to confirm the existence of the feature, the streamer has already committed millions to help Zack Snyder release his version of Justice League at some point next year.

Batman & Robin is now streaming on HBO Max.

Where’d you list the Caped Crusader feature in your overall rankings? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!