Batman - played by Val Kilmer in this movie - has to catch two criminals (The Riddler and Two-Face) this go-round.
Because Jim Carrey (of ACE VENTURA fame) plays The Riddler, you know this film is going to be full of physical humor and little else. He is allowed to play this character in an over-the-top fashion - WAY over-the-top - and for laughs. Tommy Lee Jones, playing Two-Face, takes a few cues from Carrey and hams it up as well. Kilmer’s dead seriousness in his role makes for even more laughs, as if he had used Adam West as his role model.
Because there is so much humor in this film, it resembles the Adam West-Burt Ward series more closely than any of the other Batman movies to date. Just as plot didn’t matter much on TV, it doesn’t really matter much here.