Alyas Batman en Robin

Okay, the first half hour of this Filipino Batman and Robin parody is a bit testing. But don't give up - the madcap musical numbers (even coinciding with bank robberies, of all things), manic fights and general craziness pop up in the second half. The songs are crackers and the plot? Basically various folks become Batman characters - The Penguin, etc - to rob banks (of various types), sing a little and play some air guitar. In return, the goofball caped crusader and his boy wonder get down to their crime-fighting duties. The finale is the entire cast and the Marvel Comics back-catalogue singing a rousing tune ("Let's be afraid of God. Let's believe in love!"). Not once does this film take itself seriously - for starters, the batcave carport has Batman TV series posters on the wall and comes well-stocked with bat milk, bat coffee and bat tea. A very silly movie.

"Alyas Batman en Robin" is an unauthorized, Phillipino, Batman musical with cheesy results and "Batman and Robin"-esque tedium. Well, with that recipe it must be so bad that its good right?

Right. If you're prepared to hit the fast-forward button a lot (you won't miss much) through the inescapable sappiness and get to the hysterically out-of-place musical numbers. If you enjoy a mind-numbing hour-and-a-half of utterly confusing fun, then see this.

What begins as a dreary, foreign-language comedy (not funny) with no fantastic elements picks up after the first half-hour and turns into a crazy BATMAN rip-off, complete with cheesy action, even cheesier costumes, over-the-top acting and even song-and-dance routines! Yes, another movie strictly for cult film lovers, ALYAS BATMAN EN ROBIN is an oddity made on the cheap in the Philippines, where the occasional line is in English while the rest of the dialogue is in the Tagalog dialect - making for a very odd listening experience! As well as this, the numerous song-and-dance numbers are also in English, which makes a romantic number halfway through and the sing-along finale (complete with a midget Spiderman for good measure) real laughs.

Intended as a comedy, as is often the way with these movies, ALYAS BATMAN EN ROBIN is often unfunny when it tries to be so, but unintentionally funny when it does not. The cast is made up of Filipino comedians who wink and talk to the camera, and their enthusiasm - if not their skill - shines through. The so-called "comedy" highlights include a band of villains breaking into a bank to discover it's a blood bank (groan), and an episode in the "Batcave" where Batman shows off his collection of Bat-milk, Bat-tea, Bat-coffee and Bat-juice! Other humour includes a girl's bikini top getting torn off (just like in CARRY ON CAMPING), a jailbreak through the sewers and much snivelling, whining and maniacal laughter on the part of the guy playing the Joker, who you end up wanting to kill.

The very, very low budget makes it look like someone just took a cheap camera out into the back streets and began filming, which they probably did. Little imagination is displayed in the plot, which just has Batman and Robin fighting the Joker and the Penguin; with the latter getting captured and escaping over and over again. The costumes are true to the original television series and there are some nice touches, and the final hour of is nothing if not lively. My favourite scene is where a bank robbery turns into a song-and-dance number. ALYAS BATMAN EN ROBIN - real one-of-a-kind entertainment with lots of fun action!

You have to love these cheapo foreign take-offs on popular film franchises and characters. In this one it's the old "Batman and Robin" TV show, made in the Philipines for what looks like a zero budget.

There's a lot of pretty girls around and tons of silliness as the heroes fight crime, most notably the Joker and the Penguin. There's also a lot of music, as in one sequence when the Joker and Penguin go to rob what looks like a bank, and they break out into song!

The music is actually pretty funny as they are remakes of 50s and 60s tunes with "Batman and Robin" lyrics thrown in. For instance, The Beach Boys' "Surfin' Safari" gets changed around with lyrics such as, "Holy smokes, Batman and Robin, Oh my God, Batman and Robin, Praise the Lord, Batman and Robin..." The film concludes with a musical sequence that has to be seen to be disbelieved, as many people in superhero costumes (DC and Marvel comics, including a midget Spider-Man) sing and dance to a remake of "At The Hop." There is no doubt whatsoever that this is a fun film to watch, although not to be taken seriously at all.

Well for one thing, this movie is not weird. It has the Filipino blend of comedy. Meaning it would be wacky, tons of slapstick, hilarious dialogue and of course a song or dance scene. This spoof of the popular Batman and Robin characters never let me down for a knee slapper. The costumes are poor imitations from the old Batman television series.

Joey De Leon's antics as Batman and his real life son as Robin was nothing but classic Filipino comedy.

Joker was the best villain in the movie. The laugh of his was immortalized by the late Rene Requiestas. While Tiyo Paenguin was played by one of the Philippines' top comedians, Panchito. The tandem works well and the on screen performance is nothing but short of laughs.

However corny or cheesy the movie gets, Filipino's comedic innovation is at its worst and best.