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brianhemstreet
Reviews
The Acid House (1998)
if you love dark humour, this is your movie
I saw this movie at the Film Forum in NYC back in 1998. In my opinion it is one of the funniest movies ever made. In fact the audience was screaming and falling on the floor. The portrayal of God (and I am a Christian) is classic. There was a scene in the movie I will not detail, but you must see the sex scene with the older couple. I will not sugar-coat this--there are some very disturbing situations with drugs. And even though the movie is in English, subtitles were used do to the heavy Scottish accent. This movie is clearly not for everyone, but for its genre--the Trainspotting genre--it is as funny as anything ever made. Also beware of the fairly harsh language. But If you love dark comedies, there is none darker.
Adventures of Superman: Superman on Earth (1952)
now THIS is Superman
This is the official first episode of the series, although the show's pilot, "The Unknown People" aired sometime before. For you aspiring writers of blockbuster films, check out this episode. In this half-hour show--which probably equated to about 20 actual minutes of programme, we watch Superman's dad--Jor-El--tell the ruling powers that their planet was about to explode. No one listened, so Jor-El sends his little baby off to earth in a rocket. Krypton explodes. The little baby--which of course is the future Man of Steel--lands on the Kent Farm. We meet his earthly parents, watch him grow up, and then move to Metropolis. In the last 5 minutes of the show we get to meet every character from the series, each with their own idiosyncrasies--and we even get to see Superman catch some poor guy who fell out of an air plane. Incredible character development, story, and action in under a half-hour.
So, let me ask the writers of "Superman Returns" this question: why did it take you 140 minutes to say nothing?
Adventures of Superman: The Evil Three (1953)
scary as hell
The Superman TV show from the 1950s is my all-time favourite. And this episode is one of the best in the series. They put Jimmy Olsen and Perry White on a fishing trip, where they stay at this run-down, "haunted" hotel. The "ghosts" were these three absolutely crazy people--one, an old lady who never stops screaming--chasing each other around, trying to kill each other. In the basement? A skeleton from some guy was left there, chained to a wall. One guy dresses like General Lee and runs around with a sword. In the end, the old lady is carried out on a stretcher, screaming, "nobody got da' money nobody got da' money!!!" Perry White looked at her and just shrugged his shoulders. Great fun for the the 1950s era kids!
Adventures of Superman: The Stolen Costume (1952)
unique in many aspects
OK, my first sentence is a spoiler, so avert your eyes now while you have the chance.
This is the infamous episode where Superman is "responsible" for someone's death. These crooks somehow stole Superman's costume from Clark Kent's apartment. In the end, Superman, more perturbed than he usually is with crooks, takes them up in the mountains so they won't tell anyone about his secret identity. You almost feel sorry for the crooks--one being your typical noir-style femme-fatale--when they ask "what are you going to do with us?" And Superman says, "I haven't figured that out yet." So, he leaves them up there. It is freezing, snowing. They decide to try and climb down the mountain...and they fall to their death.
Superman, guilty of kidnapping and reckless endangerment!!!!!
This episode apparently caused quite a stink, eventually leading to a major overhaul of tone the following season. They dropped the noir-style lighting and outrageously great music and turned the program completely into a kid's show. This was a truly unique episode from what in my opinion is the best year from the entire series.
Superman Returns (2006)
tragically disappointing
As a die-hard Superman fan I wanted to love this movie. I grew up with the 50s TV show, saw the wonderful Christopher Reeve and I even watched Lois & Clark back in the 90s-- unfortunately, any of those renditions of the Superman story are better than this movie. There was not a single moment of fun and it completely lacked charm. If you are a Superman fan, do me a favor: go see this film and then immediately rent the 1st and 2nd Superman movies with Christopher Reeve. It will show you just how great the late Mr. Reeves was, and why Brian Singer's vision of this character is the wrong one.
Aside from the lack of fun, the story is mediocre. My God, why must they always use the first draft in every bad blockbuster??? I won't rip Brandon Routh--he did OK and had a tough act to follow--but Kevin Spacey is not in the same league as Gene Hackman. And in my opinion, if they used archival footage of Marlon Brando in the film, they certainly could have brought back Hackman--he might have saved the movie. The rest of the characters...well...they just didn't do anything. They slept-walked through the movie.
The special effects were decent, especially the flying sequences, but again, go watch what they did in 1980 with Superman II without CGIs. Remember how they destroyed Metropolis? The only reason I gave this a 4 is for Kate Bosworth, who is scorching hot to look at.
Just My Luck (2006)
harmless but bad
This could be a fun movie for teenagers--cute young girls and guys, and mindless entertainment. If you are a parent, worried about what your kids might see at the movies, send them to this harmless flick. But the acting and script were about as bad as it gets, filled with every cliché possible, and there was even a stumble with dialogue with one character. The only reason I even gave this 2 stars was because, believe it or not, the concept of the movie was great. Good luck girl meets bad luck guy--fun concept, and should have been a fun movie. But it lacked charm, humour, and every line was spoken over the top. As a filmmaker, this is the kind of movie that really irritates me: If I wrote a script like that and submitted it, it would be roundly criticised. But somehow, Hollywood continues to make the very movies they claim they don't want to. Hard to believe.