One of Roger Eberts most hated films, this $100 million megaflop opened on over 3000 screens and didnt even make back half of its budget in the US. Worldwide, it grossed only $81 million. Bearing no resemblance to Selina Kyle, the villainess who first appeared in Batman #1 (1940), Patience Phillips (Halle Berry) is a graphic designer (!) exterminated with extreme prejudice by Sharon Stone when she stumbles across a diabolical masterplan involving a skin cream with dangerous side effects. This naturally leads to Berry running around in S&M gear with her midriff exposed, swearing vengeance on Stone and whoever greenlit a movie with cheesy effects, dreary action sequences and crummy logic. Throw in a comic relief gay character and you have a movie that, had it been a hit, wouldve shaken Western Civilization to its foundations.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
