Review: Irreverence, affection click nicely in 'Lego Batman'

If a kids movie can do all that AND get in a perfectly placed clip from "Jerry Maguire" — and you know which one we're talking about — well, then, you had us at hello, "Lego Batman Movie."

The laughs at the Dark Knight's expense start early in director Chris McKay's manic romp of a movie — in the first seconds, actually, with a very husky Christian Bale-like voice opining on the importance of starting a superhero movie with a black screen.

Arnett's Batman is not a happy guy, weighted down as he is by a limitless sense of self-grandeur.

Since nobody can do what he does, he has to do everything alone.

Alone in his cavernous abode, he munches on his crustaceans, plays a little solo guitar, and watches one of his favorite chick flicks, er, movies — yup, "Jerry Maguire."

[...] old nemesis Joker (Zach Galifianakis, delightful), is up to his usual destructive mischief.

The essential struggle of the movie (besides the constant battling of returning criminals — too many to mention — and defusing of apocalypse-threatening bombs, of course) is Batman's struggle with his own loneliness, and his thorny path toward accepting the help — and companionship, and maybe even love — of others.

The Lego Batman Movie," a Warner Bros release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America "for rude humor and some action.