James Batman (1966) Poster

(1966)

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4/10
Professional, despite being what it is
peefyn6 January 2016
The plot of this movie is simply: A UN-like meeting is interrupted by the leader of a communist organization that threatens to destroy the free world in five days if the countries does not join him. The UN then calls in James (a version of James Bond) and Batman & Robin. They work separately to get to the bottom of this evil organization, and is joined by others during the way.

This is, in fact, a watchable movie. It's not just "so bad it's good" (which it is, too), but it works alright as a low budget 60s action movie. The action scenes and the plots are not much worse than what you would find in 60s TV-shows, like Batman, Bonanza, etc.. The sets and locations are good enough, especially one of the villain's weapons: a huge metallic hand shooting death rays. The cinematography is at times quite interesting. Partly because they are inspired by the Batman TV-show, but other times it seems like they just went for unusual perspectives and blocking. Maybe it's unintentional, or for practical reasons - either way it's something to notice as you are watching it.

I'm not saying it's a good movie though, because it is not. The plot is weak, the characters thin, the humor often juvenile (lots of fun is had with James being bit in the butt by a centipede), and some scenes goes on for way too long. But still: it's entirely watchable. And it's the kind of movie that would fit perfectly for riffing (funny comments), like Rifftrax or MST3K.
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3/10
Strange
BandSAboutMovies22 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Imagine: A Filipino James Bond and Batman hybrid starring their King of Comedy. It's 100% true - starring Dolphy, who from 1965-1966 made several James Bond spoofs including Dolpinger, Genghis Bond: Agent 1-2-3, Dr. Yes, Operation Butterball, Dressed to Kill, Dolpinger Meets Pantarorong, Dolpinger: Agent sa lagim and even a Man from U.N.C.L.E. parody, Napoleon Doble and the Sexy Six.

Boy Alano is his Ruben as they battle CLAW in the face of nuclear armageddon. Of course, Batman and James Bond don't get along, despite being played by the same actor.

There's also Alyas Batman at Robin, a ripoff of Batman made around the same time that was remade in 1989 but earned the ire of Warner Brothers, sitting for two years until lawsuits could be settled. Bob Soler, who played Batman in the 1965 version also played a fake version of Lee Falk's The Phantom, Captain Philippines and the Shazam/Superman/Captain America hybrid Captain Barbell.

There's also the 1965 film Batman Fights Dracula and the 70's brought us Fight Batman FIght! where Batman literally goes to hell to kick Satan's ass.
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