BATMAN: RETURN OF THE CAPED CRUSADERS [2016]

Adam West & Burt Ward reprise their olde tyme dynamic duo roles for the hilariously disjointed animated Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders.
Taking us back to the '60's, Batsy & The Boy Wonder must travel to outer-space (and back) to thwart the diabolical plans of the fiendish foursome: The Joker, Penguin, The Riddler & Catwoman.
With it's silliness perfectly intact it's really hard to resist it's bad humor, silly one-liners and outrageous situations.  Fully aware of how ludicrous the series was, this new film bathes in it and makes it all the more fun to jump in to the tub with it (cheeky Aunt Harriet jokes included).  There's nothing here that's going to leave a lasting impression (except maybe that creepy granny voice coming out of the "sexy" Catwoman cartoon) but it's a helluva lot better than the lifeless adaptation of The Killing Joke from earlier this year.

3 Bat-Brass-Knuckles out of 5

Return to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt (2003)

A villainous cad steals the original 1960s Batmobile, so Adam West and Burt Ward, not as the dynamic duo Batman and Robin but as actual Adam and Burt, attempt to retrieve it. Things get weird(er) after that.
The film serves as a kind of history of the show and a biopic of the cast. It’s impossible to know how much events have been embellished or where the truth is overlapped by fiction. It could've been a disastrous attempt to capture past glories, but the addition of some old style TV show transitions, occasional skewed camera angles and iconic music make everything feel lovingly camp, turning danger into success.

3 character flaws out of 5

BATMAN: THE MOVIE [1966]

POW! BIFF! KERSPLAT!
That's the sound of your brain taking a beating as you sit through this film. Not to say I didn't enjoy it...because I did to a certain point. It's just mind-numbingly bad at times.
Mayor Adam West and uber-dork Burt Ward as the Dynamic Duo are actually quite entertaining and hilarious in their shiny undies with "lumps". Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith and Frank Gorshin delightfully reprise their campy television roles as The mustached Joker, The Penguin and The Riddler. While Lee Meriwether steps in for Julie Newmar as the boring but sexy Catwoman.
Using less brains and more luck to defeat his enemies, this Batman almost accurately represents the comic books of that era when they were neutered by the censors.

3 Bat-stars out of 5