SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

(June 1957, U.S.)

When I first saw director Barry Levinson's 1982 debut film DINER, there was a very minor, secondary character who wandered around his friends quoting nothing but lines from SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS. At that age, I thought it was just about the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. Today, I'm a little more relaxed about it because, let's face it, I'm a movie geek who can probably quote all of STAR WARS from beginning to end.

The black and white film noir tells the story of a powerful Manhattan newspaper columnist named J.J. Hunsecker (played by Burt Lancaster and based on real life American newspaper and radio gossip commentator Walter Winchell) who uses his powerful connections to destroy his timid sister's (Susan) relationship with a jazz guitarist named Dallas that he deems unworthy of her. He's aided by his personal press agent Sidney Falco (played by Tony Curtis), who is frustrated because he's been unable to gain mentions for his client's in Hunsecker's column due to his failure to keep a promise to break up the romance. Given one last chance by his boss, he schemes to plant a false rumor in a rival column that Dallas is a pot-smoking Communist, then encourages his boss to rescue Dallas's fragile reputation, confident that he'll reject Hunsecker's favor and end up looking bad to Susan. Later, when Susan is forced to choose between her boyfriend and her brother, she chooses Hunsecker in order to protect Dallas from him. Still, a man like J.J. Hunsecker doesn't go down or go away easily. He's enraged when Dallas insults him by telling him what he really thinks of him. He decides to ruin the poor boy after all and demands to have marijuana planted on the musician, then have him arrested and roughed up by corrupt police he keeps very tight in his pocket. This, believe it or not, is where Falco suddenly develops a conscience and refuses to go along with it...well, at least for a very brief moment. When Hunsecker promises to take a very long vacation and turn his powerful column over to Falco in his absence, he quickly changes his tune and his position.

But even a man as disgustingly loyal to a pig like Hunsecker is not shielded from his own dangers against such a powerful man. When Susan attempts to kill herself by throwing herself off of the balcony of her brother's penthouse apartment, Falco is (conveniently) there to stop her, but not before he's discovered in a compromising position with her by Hunsecker when as he's rescuing her. Even as Falco realizes he was set up by Susan to be discovered in such a manner, Falco is unable to explain himself. In a climactic confrontation, Falco reveals to Susan that it was her brother who ordered him to destroy Dallas's reputation and their relationship. Hunsecker makes a call to the police to come after Falco, who tries to flee but is caught in Times Square by the brutal cops. Still, a powerful man like Hunsecker is the loser in the end because Susan walks out on him, revealing that she's going right back to Dallas.

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS vividly and visually recalls a time when the influence of the press and hustling power of New York City were a thriving force to be reckoned with. The on-location black and white photography of Manhattan's exteriors are shot at some of its busiest and noisiest areas, particularly at Times Square during rush hour...

One can just feel the thrive of the city that never sleeps and comes alive most at night when it's jazz nightclubs tell their own powerful stories. J.J. Hunsecker is often seen at these clubs sitting at his own table, making deals and deciding other people's lives. One can just feel this time in history when the McCarthy era and those of the press with their own influential columns like Walter Winchell, Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons had the power in business and Hollywood to make or breaks people's career's and lives. Burt Lancaster seems to play part of such a prick with perfect ease. He and Tony Curtis are scheming and disgusting, and perhaps that wasn't easy for movie audiences to embrace at the time, given both men were such idols of integrity. But this is what clearly defines dramatic acting, particularly with its intensity and whiplash dialogue. There is a high-tone edge of the city streets that perhaps only the true New Yorker can fully appreciate and understand. The film as a whole reminds us that while it's important to experience it visually, it's also important to sit back and listen...truly listen to the screen in front of us.

Favorite line or dialogue:

J.J. Hunsecker (to Sidney Falco): "I'd hate to take a bite outta you. You're a cookie full of arsenic."

SURE THING, THE

(March 1985, U.S.)

To look back at Rob Reiner's second film, THE SURE THING is not only a nostalgic trip back in time to when I was a high school senior in 1985, but also back to the early part of Reiner's film career before hits like A FEW GOOD MEN (1992) and THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT (1995), as well as young, unknown actor named John Cusack. But let's begin with what I consider more important than those behind the film, ME!

In March 1985, I was knee-deep in college applications and just starting to reach the point of my senior year where I (and so many other seniors) felt relatively safe in coasting through the remaining months of the school year in anticipation of guaranteed college acceptance. My mind was already focused on the insane social life (away from my parents!) that my new college life would bring. Months before ST. ELMO'S FIRE would give me a taste of the post-college years of youth, THE SURE THING gave me the first taste of college life as it happened. Yes, when I sat there in that New York City movie theater watching scenes of Cusack's life at an unnamed New England college and that half-crazed student placed his huge stereo speaker inside his window and screamed at the top of his lungs to the entire campus, "It's Friday night!!!", I proclaimed inside the theater for all to hear, "I can't wait to get to college!"

Going to see THE SURE THING, my first presumption, despite its PG-13 rating, was that it was just another product of the teen sex comedy craze that had dominated the early part of the 1980s. Not to say the film didn't have its small share of sexual innuendos and enticements. The movie immediately opens with the sights of a sizzling hot California blonde (played by Nicollette Sheridan) as she slowly and systematically prepares her gorgeous body with suntan lotion on a beach while Rod Stewart sings "Infatuation"...

Okay, we've had our momentary taste of the hot piece of ass that we'll come to know as "the sure thing". But now we meet high school senior Walter Gibson (Cusack) and his best friend Lance (played by Anthony Edwards) as they celebrate moving on to college. Gibson is hardly excited, as he's been in a sexual dry spell lately and feels his lost his touch with women (what's he bitching about? I hadn't yet lost my virginity when I was his age!). Even at college, his attempts to get close to Alison Bradbury (played by Daphne Zuniga) repeatedly fail because she's basically a stuck-up, repressed bitch with a serious weed up her ass. Still, Gibson presses on, and eventually convinces her to tutor him in English, but not after he's made a complete and deliberate ass of himself at the campus pool. Actually, it's this scene at the pool and his entire soliloquy of what will happen to his life if she doesn't help him that first made me stand up and take notice of Cusack and say to myself, "Oh man, this guy is gonna be big!" (and big he became, but not until SAY ANYTHING three years later, in my opinion. Even as he persists in trying to woo Alison off of her stubborn feet, he's been set up by Lance in California to meet (and screw) the previously-mentioned hot and beautiful blonde, assured by Lance that she's "a sure thing". All he has to do is drag his ass to California for Christmas break before she leaves for a semester abroad.

Unable to afford to fly to California, Gibson secures a ride share with a real show tune-loving square couple (the guy played by an unknown Tim Robbins). Care to guess who's also in the back seat sharing the same ride with him? Yup! It's Alison, and she's not too happy about the unexpected arrangement. At this point, Gibson has become frustrated with her, as well, even declaring to her face how repressed he feels she is. Well, like any other road movie before or after this one, it's an inevitable cliché that our two protagonists will weaken and fall in love with each other. Trouble is, Alison feels committed to her long-time boyfriend Jason, who's just as square as she is, and Gibson has a destiny with his blonde piece of ass (bless her!). The ride share falls apart and Gibson and Alison are forced to hitchhike across the country to California, enduring poverty, hunger, hard rain, sleazy rednecks, and of course, each other. There's no sex between them, nor is there even the unexpected kiss, but we know time and circumstance is bringing them closer together.

Once in California, Gibson's real intentions are exposed and Alison is pissed off, despite still feeling the attraction toward him. At a college mixer, they argue in front of Jason and "the sure thing", trying to provoke each other's buttons. As you might predict, Gibson can't go through with his arranged sexual encounter (what a wimp!) and Alison feels estranged from Jason. Following the break, Gibson and Alison are brought together in their English class when their professor reads aloud, Gibson's writing assignment in which he describes a fictional account of a young man who could not confess false love to his "sure thing" and in the end, did not sleep with her. Awww! Gibson loves Alison and Alison loves Gibson, they kiss, the movie ends, and all is well with our young college lovers.

So, it's not ANIMAL HOUSE, PORKY'S or FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT NIGHT, but we're meant to understand that Rob Reiner never intends for THE SURE THING to be such a film, though we do get the occasional visual reminder of the hot, blonde hottie Gibson is looking forward to...

(sorry, I couldn't resist one more shot of her!)

It's teenage material told a milder level, much like John Hughes's SIXTEEN CANDLES. It's the traditional romantic comedy for what was the new age, at the time, but even more than than, it was a look at what could possibly happen to a young guy like me when he got to college. Well, all I can say is that if you're interested in knowing what actually did happen to me when I got to college, refer to my post of ST. ELMO'S FIRE (it's all there). In the meantime, THE SURE THING remains a nostalgic trip to the time when my college expectation were high, as well as my expectations for John Cusack (as soon as he got crap like BETTER OFF DEAD and ONE CRAZY SUMMER out of his system).

Favorite line or dialogue:

Walter Gibson (to Alison as she swims): "I flunk English, I'm outta here. Kiss college goodbye. I don't know what I'll do. I'll probably go home. Gee, Dad'll be pissed off. Mom'll be heartbroken. And if I play my cards right, I get maybe a six-month grace period and then I gotta get a job, and you know what that means. That's right. They start me at the drive-up window and I gradually work my way up from shakes to burgers, and then one day my lucky break comes, the french fry guy dies and they offer me the job! But the day I'm supposed to start, some men come by in a black Lincoln Continental and tell me I can make a quick three hundred just for driving a van back from Mexico! When I get out of jail, I'm thirty-six years old, living in a flop house, no job, no home, no upward mobility, very few teeth! And then one day they find me, face down, talking to the gutter, clutching a bottle of paint thinner! And why? Because you wouldn't help me in English, no! You were too busy to help me! Too busy to help a drowning man!"

SUPERMAN RETURNS

(June 2006, U.S.)

By all accounts, SUPERMAN RETURNS is a movie I should never have had any interest in, as it represents everything I despise in the recycling of old material in the movies. And yet, I managed to embrace it like an old friend when it was released in the summer of 2006. Let me start by painting a brief picture of who I was at the time I saw it. It was the beginning of July 4th weekend and I was spending it with my family in the Hamptons. I should clarify that my family was now increased by one, my new baby son, who was only a few months old. My life as I previously knew it, was completely new and different due to the newfound responsibilities and anxieties of fatherhood. One might have considered it a small miracle that I was able to get away for a couple of hours one night to go and see the new Superman movie on my own. Sequel or not, I was, nonetheless, curious to see how the legendary Man of Steel would present itself under the direction of the man who had already done two prior X-MEN films.

In effect, SUPERMAN RETURNS is the true SUPERMAN III, intended to follow the events five years after SUPERMAN II, completely disregarding the events SUPERMAN III (1983) and SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE (1987), two of the worst movies ever made, and director Bryan Singer knows it! When the film began with the familiar sounds of Marlon Brando's voice, shots of the planet Krypton as it once was and that all-too familiar soundtrack music written by John Williams, I have to say my heart was filled with a sense of joy in welcoming back an old friend of the movies, recycled or not, at a time when my life was filled with anxiety and uncertainty. Superman (played by Brandon Routh), it seemed, had disappeared for five years from Earth to investigate what astronomers believed was the surviving remnants of Krypton. In his absence, the world went on without him, and Lois Lane (played by Kate Bosworth) achieved her long-awaited goal of a Pulitzer Prize for her article, "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman". She also became engaged to Perry White's (played by Frank Langella) nephew Richard (played by James Marsden) and the two already share a five year-old asthmatic son Jason. Meanwhile, Lex Luther (played wonderfully by Kevin Spacey) hasn't gone anywhere and is still scheming his ultimate plot of land acquisition and world destruction by seducing a dying wealthy woman (played by Noel Neill of the original 1950's Superman TV series, no less) out of her fortune.

His journey a failure, Superman returns to Metropolis and the Daily Planet as Clark Kent only to discover how the world and his own life have changed. It's not too long before Superman must reemerge to the world when he's forced to save a speeding jet from crashing following a mysterious power outage (triggered by Lex Luthor, actually, who used stolen Kryptonian crystal technology he stole from the Fortress of Solitude). Of course, Lois is on that saved flight, and just like their first meeting in SUPERMAN-THE MOVIE, she faints at the sight of her returned hero who doesn't fail to repeat that he feels flying is still the safest way to travel, statistically speaking. This is the moment where we have to wonder if Bryan Singer's repeated use of footage and dialogue from the 1978 classic is really an homage or a blatant rip-off? While I have a hard time respecting any filmmaker who spends their time copying the creativity of others, it's impossible to ignore the fact that as I sat there in my theater seat that night in June 2006, I enjoyed hearing what had been familiar territory of my childhood.

Once again, Lex Luther and his mindless moll (not Miss Tessmacher) are behind an evil scheme where stolen Kryptonite will play a part in crippling Superman's powers. When Lois and Jason accidentally stumble upon Luthor's yacht, they're held captive and await rescue. Luthor reveals that he plans to use the Kryptonian crystal technology Superman used to create his Fortress of Solitude to create a massive new continent which would swallow some of the current landmasses bordering the Atlantic. The world would then be forced to use his new land. Placing a crystal inside a shell of refined kryptonite, he triggers the new land growth by launching it into the sea. This is also the moment when we discover who and what little Jason actually is. Think back to the events of SUPERMAN II five years prior when Superman and Lois slept together in the Fortress of Solitude. It would seem that Lois got instantly pregnant and gave birth to the child whom she and Richard believe is theirs. We know different, of course, because ordinary five year-old boys don't possess the strength to push giant pianos across the room to crush the evil thug who's about to hurt his mother. Superman and Richard (via sea plane) eventually rescue them, and Superman must now face down Luthor. Temporarily weakened by the Kryptonite effects of the new land mass, Superman gets the shit kicked out of him and is left for dead when he falls off a cliff into the sea. Not to worry, of course. He's rescued by Lois and flies off toward the sun, the source of his power and nourishment. Back in action, Superman saves the day, Metropolis and our planet when he uses the last of his strength to remove the dangerous land mass and hurl it into space. But complications from the Kryptonite exposure cause him to fall to Earth and end up in a coma. Lois visits him in the hospital and whispers into his ear while glancing at Jason. We can only presume she's told Superman the truth of his fatherhood. No longer feeling alone in the universe, Superman visits his newly revealed son in the boy's room and repeats to Jason the words of his own father Jor-El as he sleeps. All is well with the world again, and we can be assured that Superman is "always around".

Yes, the two and a half hours of that night seemed well spent, and I was left with the feeling of reassurance of an old and familiar friend in Superman. It's just unfortunate that Bryan Singer couldn't come up with a better fate for Lex Luther than being stranded on a deserted island with only a few coconuts and his idiot mistress. This was just a stupid resolution, in my opinion. However, once I get past that piece of stupidity, SUPERMAN RETURNS remains what we generally expect of it, which is a visually complex piece of entertainment of a legendary superhero of the movies. Like the original 1978 film, there's a strong feeling of spiritual mythology, as well as the sensitivity of those impacted by Superman's presence in the world. Sadly, though, the film lacks any hardcore action that was already present in BATMAN and X-MEN films of the previous two decades (that was likely compensated with Zack Snyder's MAN OF STEEL seven years later, which admittedly, moves too fast at times) Kevin Spacey is a perfect follow-up to Gene Hackman, perhaps even more cruel and vicious than his predecessor. On the other hand, Kate Bosworth and Brandon Routh can probably be best described as nothing too special in their roles. They pull them off just fine, but they ultimately lack the charisma and energy of the late Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve. In fact, one can't help but wonder if Routh was cast simply because he bears a very strong resemblance to Reeve, thus further promoting the nostalgia and history of the big screen Superman my generation knew as kids. Well, I can only say that wrong or right, homage or rip-off, it worked well for me that night twelve years ago, and continues to work for me now. What can be wrong with that?

Favorite line or dialogue:

Lex Luthor: "Come on, let me hear you say it, just once."
Lois Lane: "You're insane."
Luthor: "No! Not that. The other thing. Come on, I know it's dangling on the tip of your tongue. Let me hear it just once, please."
Lois: "Superman will never..."
Lex Luthor: "WRONG!!!"

SUPERMAN II

(June 1981, U.S.)

Like SUPERMAN-THE MOVIE, I'd to stay in that zone inside the mind of the child who first saw it on the big screen in June 1981 (I like it there!). During that summer, I did not get to see the movie that was most important to me, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (I finally saw it when it was re-released in 1982). I did, however, manage to see SUPERMAN II twice. Since the first movie, the general knowledge among fans was that a sequel was immediately in the works to further the story of the three villains from Krypton and their ultimate battle with the Man of Steel himself. Having lived as a kid of the late '70s in a world of movies predominantly ruled by sci-fi and space battles, I put any anticipation for SUPERMAN II in the back of my head, for the time being. I guess you could say I was entertaining a level of patience for its release in that it would simply arrive when the time came. No big deal. I could wait.

After re-visiting the trial, conviction, and sentencing of the three Kryptonian criminals to the Phantom Zone (without Jor-El this time), the new Superman movie, instead, provided a montage of the first movie’s best scenes from beginning to end that would lead us up to the new story that began in Paris with terrorism. Though these men who’d seized the Eiffel Tower acted a lot more like the Three Stooges than serious terrorists. Regardless, I was old enough to know what a hydrogen bomb was and the massive destruction it would cause, even before Lois Lane confirmed the fact by declaring it could "blow up all of Paris!" When she held onto the tower’s elevator for dear life as it fell to the bottom at top speed, I got a small knot in the pit of my stomach as if my senses were falling with her; kind of the way you feel as if you’re actually riding a rollercoaster if you concentrate hard enough on film footage taken from an actual coaster. Of course, Superman arrived in the nick of time and saved the day by hurtling the bomb into outer space where it would explode and hurt no one. As it turned out, however, the bad side of that move was that the explosion destroyed the Phantom Zone and the three sentenced criminals from Krypton were now free, and it looked as if Superman didn’t see any of this happen.

Before flying to Earth, General Zod, Ursa and Non (who was mute) decided to stop off at the moon first to cause some trouble with the astronauts who just happened to be there. It was on the moon they realized their natural abilities served as extraordinary superpowers the closer they came to the yellow sun. When they arrived in Idaho, they made themselves well known to the local folks by causing more trouble and destruction. I particularly enjoyed watching Ursa take down a rather hairy and disgusting-looking man in their own little arm wrestling match. That’s what he got (and deserved) after telling her, "Let me know if this tickles." just because she was a woman and presumed the weaker sex. Even with damage done to buildings and a series of explosions, the United States military moved in on them to try and stop them, with no success. This was clearly just a small prelude to the harder action that would take place later in the movie.

Meanwhile, Superman...or rather, Clark Kent and Lois Lane were on a newspaper assignment together in Niagara Falls, posing as a newly-married couple. As they toured the falls, a small boy decided to test his balance on the wrong side of the safety rail. Just before he eventually fell toward the water, I couldn’t help but ask myself, "Just how stupid is this kid?" I also recognized the stupidity that immediately followed Superman’s rescue of the boy in a line spoken by an old woman watching the action when she said, "What a nice man!" (really??). Unfortunately, Superman’s heroic feat would have a bad side to it because now Lois suspected just who Clark Kent really was, as he was never around when Superman showed up. She nearly proved her point when she jumped into the water, fully expecting Superman to save her. It wasn’t until later in their hotel room when Clark accidentally fell into the fireplace (was it really an accident?) that he revealed himself to Lois when his hand wasn’t burned. This was when the movie decided to stop being so light and humorous for a while. Things became serious and dramatic as they two of them realized the truth of Clark’s identity and the love they felt for each other. This shift in the movie’s mood made sense to me, because even at my young age, I understood that love was a deep emotion that wasn’t always funny. After years of Superman keeping his secret from Lois, in comic strips, comic books, cartoons and an old TV show, the cat was finally out of the bag. With any ordinary movie couple, none of this would’ve been such a major event. However, this was Superman and Lois Lane, so it meant something.

Things stayed focused on just the two of them for a while. When he took her to his home at the Fortress of Solitude, they proclaimed their love for each other over dinner. But the true test of this love was whether or not Superman was willing to give up his superpowers to live as an ordinary mortal man, which according to the spirit of his dead mother, was the only way he could be with Lois. This was a shocking decision to contend with as someone who loved Superman, because we had to watch it happen when he stepped into the molecule chamber that took away his powers forever and turned him into just Clark Kent. Now an ordinary man, he could be hurt as one, too. He was hurt, in fact, when he and Lois stopped at a local diner and got into a fight with a bully who wouldn’t give Clark his seat. Clark was practically fascinated by the sight of his own blood, something he’d never seen before. It was ironic him being an ordinary and powerless man now, because it was at this very moment that he finally learned of General Zod’s existence on Earth and that he was now challenging Superman on national TV to come forward and kneel before him. What now? Superman was gone and all the world was left with was the ordinary (and weak) man, Clark Kent. He’d try to get his powers back, but there was no way to know just how he’d do it.

The three Kryptonians, now in a partnership with Lex Luthor, took over the Daily Planet in anticipation that Superman would eventually show up to face them. I wasn’t surprised when Superman finally returned with all of his powers intact. This being a movie where the good guy ultimately wins the battle, it seemed clear enough he’d have to come back somehow. But how did he pull it off? I knew his rediscovering of the green crystal must’ve had something to do with it, but the answers weren’t clear. I’d have to think about that later because a showdown was taking place between Superman and his enemies in the city of Metropolis with all its citizens watching. The battle was quite a spectacular show, with great visual images of good and bad fighting each other in the air and on the ground. I loved the moment when Superman hurled Non into the giant antenna of the Empire State Building and then watching it fall toward the street; Superman, of course, saving the woman and her baby from being crushed by it. The battle raged on for a while before Superman realized the only way he would defeat these villains was to draw them away from Metropolis. It was a shame, though, to think the people thought Superman was a coward for flying away when he did. We in the audience knew better. Kidnapping Lois Lane and taking Lex Luthor along for the ride, the villains followed Superman to the Fortress of Solitude where the fight would continue. For a time, it looked like Superman had his enemies where he wanted them until Ursa and Non grabbed Lois and threatened to kill her. Superman was, for the moment, defeated because he’d never allow Lois to be hurt. The final surprise and climax of the movie came when Superman was forced back into the same molecule chamber in order to be rid of his powers, once again. Just when we thought Zod had won, we learned through the hard cracking of Zod’s bones in his hand, that Superman had switched the effects of the chamber to take away the villain’s powers while he was safely protected inside. The battle was over. Evil was defeated and Superman was, as always, the hero of the hour.

The next morning at the Daily Planet, Clark and Lois still had to resolve the nature of their relationship. They loved each other and the thought of having to keep Clark’s secret and deny her love for him was too painful for her to bare. Clark kissed her and there was something magical about that kiss because when he finished, she couldn’t remember anything that had taken place throughout the movie. It was the “kiss of forgetfulness”, as we’d call it later. Since it was always a pleasure to watch a bully get beaten up, I loved the movie ending with Clark returning to the diner to teach the one who got the best of him earlier a thing or two with his superpowers restored. Superman was back and we, as well as the entire country, were very glad to have him.

SUPERMAN II premiered on the ABC Sunday Night Movie in 1984. Like the first movie, it also featured extra footage originally not shown in theaters. This time, however, the new scenes weren’t nearly as interesting or intriguing as the original movie. Some of this pointless footage included Lex Luthor discovering one of his prison cellmates was a bed wetter and telling Otis to pass it on, as well as a moment where Superman used the heat rays from his eyes to cook a souffle in seconds. Was this the best the network could do in order to hold our attention just a little longer? I realized, of course, this footage was originally shot by the director and it wasn’t the network’s fault, but still, I felt I had to blame somebody.

What I knew about SUPERMAN II back then and what I know about it today are two different matters. As a kid, it was just a sequel released in the United States nearly three years after the original film, the standard wait time. Shortly after the first film, there were rumors and bits of information on TV that the sequel was filmed at the same time as the original and would be released within a year. I dismissed this trivia until 1981 came along and it was finally released. It was in 2006, with the DVD release of SUPERMAN II: THE RICHARD DONNER CUT that I learned the secrets and the dirt behind the making of the movie and the difficulties between Donner and producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind, and Donner’s subsequent firing from production in March 1979. The specific reasons and details behind Donner replacement with Richard Lester remains a debated issue. One point behind this filmmaking controversy that’s always impressed me was the decision among much of the cast and crew to stand behind Donner after he was fired. Creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz, editor Stuart Baird and actor Gene Hackman declined to return to the film, though Hackman had already completed many of his scenes under Donner’s direction. Marlon Brando, who’d also completed scenes with Donner, chose to sue the producers and as a result, all scenes featuring Brando were ultimately cut from Lester’s film and replaced with Susannah York playing Superman’s mother instead. None of this really mattered, though. SUPERMAN II was a huge success at the box office, as well as with critics and fans, including myself.

As a kid, I felt the sequel outsoared the first film simply due to the fact that it had more action, primarily the fight sequences in Metropolis. I have since, changed my position on that opinion due to any cinematic maturity I’ve managed to maintain as an adult. While SUPERMAN II remains a fun and effective sequel, I cannot deny that SUPERMAN-THE MOVIE is a more spiritual film. Still, like so many others, I felt compelled to check out the DONNER cut to see what all the hubbub was about. While I can appreciate the place the original artist holds with the finished product, I am, at heart, a movie purist and strongly feel that a film should stand as it does without interference or changes later on. Regardless of what may or may not have taken place behind the scenes of production, who was right, who was wrong, who got screwed and who didn’t, SUPERMAN II, for me, remains the film it was in 1981 under Lester’s direction.

Finally, despite thirty-seven years having passed since first seeing it as a kid, I still remain unclear about just exactly how Superman got his superpowers back. We know the green crystal had something to do with it, but just how remains a mystery to me. Did Clark re-create the Fortress of Solitude with the crystal just as he had in the original film, thus getting his powers back? It’s possible, I suppose, but there remain too many holes in that theory which require explanation; explanation I’m likely never to get because I’m not one of those comic book geeks who overthinks these things. It’s just a movie...even if it’s a Superman movie.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Superman: "General, would you care to step outside?"
General Zod: "Come to me, son of Jor-El! Kneel before Zod!"