Thursday, May 31, 2012

Alyas Batman en Robin


Alyas Batman en Robin ~ This film, made in the Philippines in the early 1990s, is hard to describe. On one hand it is the stuff of legend, like Andy Warhol's Batman, or the also Filipino Alyas Batman at Robin from 1963, something few people in the United States have even ever seen. On the other it's just bizarre. Though made in the Philippines it has many of the hallmarks of a Bollywood film - comedy, drama, romance, and people spontaneously breaking into song and dance.

The plot has criminals taking on the identities of their idols - the Penguin, and the Joker, among others - to rob banks. To counteract this, two men, I am unsure if they are brothers or father and son, dress up like Batman and Robin, and have their car souped up to look like the Batmobile. Hilarity, romance, as well as song and dance numbers ensue, as one would expect.

For an unauthorized film using DC Comics characters, some of it looks good, not great, but some is better than that prime time NBC "Challenge of the Superheroes." The costumes are plays on the 1966 TV series rather than the Tim Burton films of the time. Comedian Rene Requiestas as the Joker reminds me of Prince's alter-ego Gemini, and not in a good way.

All in all this is probably worth a look for the curious. If you watch it in the wrong mood, you'll be horrified, but if you watch it with the right attitude, you'll be satisfactorily entertained.

4 comments:

  1. Oh my, Glenn! What on earth called your attention to watch this? And where did you find it. I was still living in the Philippines when this movie came out. We used to call these films "toilet humor" films, which honestly, is where they should be flushed.

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  2. Toilet humor certainly doesn't sound good. ;-)

    I'm a big nerd, so of course I was drawn to it because of the superheroes. I found it online, and was so ...transfixed... I had to write about it.

    I have found some Filipino superhero films and comics to be quite good. It is one of the few cultures in the world that seems to have embraced the superhero concept just as America has.

    Are you familiar with the work of Mars Ravelo? He was a comic genius on a creative level that rivals Stan Lee, responsible for most of the superheroes from the Philippines, like Darna, Captain Barbel, and Lastikman.

    Yeah, I know, like I said, I'm a nerd. :-)

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  3. Where can I find this film? I would love to see this. I love bollywood films because it's too funny how often they break into a song or dance.

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  4. love this and where can I find this film? I love bollywood films because of the way they so often break out into a song and dance.

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