Lethal Weapon 4

So now we get to the last film in this great series, “Lethal Weapon 4,” released in 1998. The most important people returned in their previous roles: Richard Donner as director and co-producer, Joel Silver as producer, Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, and Rene Russo all as the main cast, and lastly Michael Kamen as music composer. The film got a 100 million dollar budget, which is very high, especially for the series. Richard Donner planned this to be the final, as he and the cast had been willing to return for a fourth film. Even though doing that for a third film used to be rare, they had waited a couple of years to develop great ideas, which everyone got to add, and they shot and edited scenes before writing new ones. It was very ambitious, but Richard Donner was still a detailed actor’s director, who allowed for improvisation when fitting, and he was a detailed visual director. They got Miles Millar and Alfred Gough as co-storywriters, who would do the same for the brilliant “Spiderman 2.” One of the funniest comedians, Chris Rock, and a great martial artist, Jet Li, both were added as new cast members. Also, in spite of it now being 1998, and “Jurassic Park,” “Forest Gump,” and “Men In Black” having used CGI excessively, they still used practical special visual effects and stunts, even though the action scenes in this film are even more excessive then those in the first 3.

The film got mixed reactions, where the third got mixed to positive, but it still was liked by a lot of fans, although some dismiss it also the same way some dismiss 3, but it was the second highest grossing film, making $285 million.

So the question is: Is this is a great film and does it live up to the first 3 films? The answer is yes, and it is a great finale to the series.

Its action scenes are phenomenal with large trucks and cars exploding, kung-fu fighting added, crashing rocks, and giant shootouts are very well shot and also edited. They are numerous but they further the story with having the Chinese family be captured, and resulting in the villain’s death, and the death of the four fathers. The film again is really funny, with Riggs shooting the glass door in the Chinese restaurant when they are lying, and a guy seeming to be a killer when he actually just got scared, and Riggs paraphrasing Murtaugh saying he “ain`t too old for this $%*&.” We see that he feels as though they just have to take the bad guy out at the end, he makes Murtaugh think his future son-in-law is gay, and all these jokes are in character and further the characterization and story. They range from slapstick to witty one-liners. The special visual effects are fantastic, the explosions detailed, and all the destructed cars authentic. Its music is again exotic, dramatic and exciting. It has really detailed and vibrant cinematography, intense and also very dramatic lighting, and very fluent directing and exciting editing.

So the film succeeds technically, but does it have substance? Oh yes.

It furthers the story by this time centering on immigration smuggling, and Murtaugh becoming richer, which is because his wife, Trish (played by Darlene Love), writes romance novels which follows up on her being a supportive house wife. The film has a smart theme of immigration, showing Murtaugh is ok with supporting people who break the law by coming secretly, as his ancestors were granted the same thing. We see people often immigrate because they are desperate, and that sometimes people of their own nation try to take advantage of it. It furthers the theme of family from the first 3 films, showing Leo really likes Riggs, and that new friends are just different, after which he can finally move on and marry again. Murtaugh learns to accept that his daughter, Rianne (played by Traci Wolfe), is dating a cop, as he is a good person, and we see the Chinese family care about each other also. The film also comments on age, showing Riggs is now getting old, but that often you can decide how old you want to be. The film’s mystery is really smart and thick involving fake money; kidnapping, human trafficking, and deals with the military, and the characters are again really deep. Murtaugh is a bit prejudiced, but also supportive, caring, and he can be scared, yet courageous, and grows to accept a new son-in-law. Riggs is more sentimental, romantic and warm, yet still violent and jokey, and he completes his character arc of moving on, and Leo Getz is still whiney, yet helpful, comforting, and awkward. Lorna Cole is sweet, supportive, yet also a bit secretive about how she truly feels. Lee Butters is a smarty, yet also strong, loving, and supportive. Wah Sing Ku is menacing, sadistic, and also cruel, manipulative and subtle, yet he loves his four fathers, and is principled. Mel Gibson is intense but also more subtle and vulnerable. Danny Glover is detailed and warm, yet cranky. Chris Rock is funny and witty but can also be serious. Joe Pesci is funny yet vulnerable. Jet Li is menacing, and intense, and Rene Russo is sweet and subtle. The film also has great deep and also witty dialogue, and is dark, yet a lot of fun.

The film completes Riggs and Murtaugh’s arcs, as well as the family theme, and ties up Leo and Lorna’s character issues. It is a very complete ending to the series, and a great film. It lives up to the first 3, and is really underrated, so check it out.

Chris Rock himself said on “Inside the Actors Studio” that Lee Butters was what came in the kit where you end up in a big movie. They made a poster, tested Chris’s name with two or three other comedians, and his name tested the highest. Joel Silver brought Chris to see Mel Gibson; Mel just looked at Chris and said, “You’re kind of funny. You’re in.” Chris knows that people do not like Mel, especially after what he did in “The Passion of the Christ,” but gives credit to Mel for giving Chris his first big check. It was an unbelievable experience for Chris because he grew up watching “Lethal Weapon” so many times. This must have been surreal for Chris working with Mel, Danny, and Pesci, who Chris says was as funny as they come.

Thank you so much for joining in on “Lethal Weapon Month.” I hope you have enjoyed this month as much as reviewreviewer1 and I had fun writing these blogs for these four really great films. One more thing: “Lethal Weapon 5.” Should it really happen? I think they should. There has been talk about it for a while, but I don’t think Mel is interested. He might get interested down the road, or they might just work the film out without him, the same way Dan Aykroyd is working “Ghostbusters 3” without Bill Murray. As always, stay tuned for more of my film reviews coming at you.

Lethal Weapon 3

Alright, so now we come to “Lethal Weapon 3,” released in 1992. It is a really great film up there with the first two films, and the film was an enormous box office hit, but some of the fans and critics claimed it was a disappointment and not as good as the first two films and even bad. But why, this film is really good and consistent with the first two films.

Richard Donner again came back as director and co-producer and Joel Silver was producer again. Mel Gibson, Joe Pesci and Danny Glover all reprised their roles, Michael Kamen did the music again, and although Shane Black did not return as writer, Jeffrey Boam again did most of the writing, being storywriter and co-screenwriter, and Robert Mark Kamen, who wrote the 3 great Original “Karate Kid” films, is co-screenwriter. Richard Donner was also detailed with the actors, since he is a director who allowed improvisation when it was fitting, and was a detailed director on the camera work and special visual effects. The film this time got a 35 million dollar budget, so it was very well made.

The film, like the second film, tells a new story with them having to fight an ex cop who steals weapons and sells them to kids, and they have to find out who he is and take his army by surprise, as well as making sure he doesn`t infiltrate the police station again. So the plot is again really thick, and also it further expands on the characters, delving into Murtaugh deciding he doesn`t want to willfully retire and what Riggs means to him, and also learning to be proactive when he feels guilty and also we see his bonding with his son, Nick, played by Damon Hines, grow. Riggs isn`t sidelined, he again gets a new girlfriend that is actually strong, he grows to accept and she lives, he keeps hope for her, and he learns to be open with Murtaugh about his feelings. He is again violent and jokey, and also worried, sad, supportive, helpful, and we see more of Murtaugh’s sad, doubtful, and tired side. So not only does the film have really deep character development, but also it is very consistent with the first two films. Murtaugh has a strong conscious and it means a lot to him to help people, Riggs was slowly becoming warmer, Leo Getz is also helpful, but whiney, and scared, yet more of an advisor and more courageous. Lorna Cole is Riggs’ new love interest. She is helpful, yet stern, a tough, but also jokey, and grows to be open to a more crazier person, and she and Riggs both learn from each other, being more vulnerable, and being open and supportive. They help and love each other, their romance is great, and it is fun. This new love interest is tougher and stronger than the one in “Lethal Weapon 2.” Jack Travis is a really interesting villain. He is menacing, manipulative, and arrogant, but frustrated, extreme and there is a darker Riggs. He has the back-story: he was mistreated by the police.

The film has a consistent tone with the first two films, being darker, intense, and scary, but also action packed, romantic and having a lot of comedy. The film is really thematically deep. It really delves into how people who support gang violence corrupt the police and you shouldn`t be blamed for having to shoot even a kid. We see that we should get our kids to stay away from such an environment, we see we should be open about our feelings and be willing to be vulnerable, as this can allow true love to grow, and we see we should never give up on helping people. There is a theme showing that if we allow our harsh methods to go too far, we can become violent ourselves.

The film has well shot and edited action packed action scenes, and detailed special visual effects, which further the story. It is just as funny as the first two, Riggs convinces the hospital to keep Getz longer, and Getz thinks he is dying because he is cold on the ice. Riggs encourages a crazy black woman to hit on Murtaugh, and when Murtaugh is depressed, he kicks him off the boat and both can laugh at it. Riggs gets a guard dog on their side, and this furthers the narrative also. The direction is again vibrant, and the music exciting and emotional.

Also Danny Glover is again funny, and also serious, but shows a darker side, Gibson a happier side, and Pesci is funny, and also intense. Rene Russo is sweet, strong and dramatic, and Stuart Wilson is scary, and gets the arrogance and greediness across well.

So this film is great and underrated, it lives up to the first two films and continued a great series, check it out if you haven`t already.

Be sure to check out reviewreviewer1's YouTube channel if you haven't already, as he is responsible to helping to write these blogs. Look out next week, because I'll be wrapping up Lethal Weapon month with the fourth installment of this series.

Lethal Weapon 2

Today I am going to look at “Lethal Weapon 2,” the 1989 sequel to the highly successful and great “Lethal Weapon.” This film had been a box office hit, critically acclaimed, made even more money on home video, and became a classic. Shane Black returned, as did Richard Donner, Mel Gibson, and Danny Glover. All of them wanted to have a sequel, so Shane Black came back and wrote a story that involved the African American villains and furthered Riggs’ character. It was dark and action packed, and then Richard Donner came back as director, as well as co-producer, which he also was on the first film. Joel Silver came back as producer, and both of them were involved a lot with the writing. Although they stayed true to the idea of Black’s script, they had Jeffrey Boam as co-storywriter and screenwriter. He made really good changes to the script adding an anti-apartheid theme, and further deepening the characters. This made for an even better script but caused Black to leave the series. Jeffrey Boam is a great writer who co-screen wrote “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” as well as “The Lost Boys." Richard Donner was again a detailed director on the camera work, special visual effects, and the acting, although he again sometimes allowed for in-character improvisation, and Joe Pesci was added to the cast. Also, Michael Kamen came back as the music composer, and this time the film got a 25 million dollar budget. Now that might sound like the recipe for a great sequel, and it is.

“Lethal Weapon 2” has an original story centering on the gold trade and money involved in the drug business, as well as having to take down crime bosses with diplomatic immunity. People say the plot would be thin, but it isn’t. They have to discover where their base is, Riggs loses his love interest, they have to take down their home, Leo Getz gives them clues as to where to find the dealers, and he gets kidnapped. It is a thick and clever plot, and again we delve even deeper into the characters, seeing Riggs being happier and romantic, and finding a new loved one and losing her, but this time being proactive and constructive, and bonding further with Murtaugh. Murtaugh is shown as more supportive, humorous and relaxed, and Gibson and Glover are both great in their roles. Leo Getz is a great new character who is greedy and spoiled but not mean, and even helpful and supportive, becomes a new member of the family, and Joe Pesci adds very funny humor to him. The villain, Arjen Rudd (played by Joss Ackland) is very pompous, but also sadistic, and overconfident, as well as funny and menacing, and Pieter (played by Derrick O’Connor) is really intimidating and loyal. Rika, played by Patsy Kensit, is a great love interest. She is loyal, funny, but a bit insecure and vulnerable, but happy and playful. She is a more typical vulnerable woman, but what is actually refreshing in these films.

The film explores the theme of friendship, showing that even when we are stressed and angry, like Riggs, our friends can help us pull through, which we see when Murtaugh helps him take down the criminals, and that friends are more important than stuff. Leo finds more meaning in them, and it also shows we should always move forward with life, even when we lose our loved ones, and feel as though we cannot win. We can always move on, as we will still have some family, as Riggs finds in Murtaugh, and we can find that just being angry can help, if we don`t let it destroy us, as Riggs takes down the drug dealers. Due to dislocating his shoulder, he lives, and Riggs helps Murtaugh survive, showing true friendship goes both ways. They show that Apartheid is wrong, as often when you perceive yourself as better, you are actually evil for what you do, like selling drugs.

This film again had really deep dialogue, and also it is what the first film had as well, but I didn`t mention great humor, funny lines, scenarios, and slapstick. This can be seen in the part where Murtaugh wants to emigrate to South Africa, or where Riggs dislocates his shoulder, and these further the story and characters. The film also again had a dark tone, but combines it nicely with lighter moments. It has even better action, with more explosion and crashes, more detailed special visual effects, and emotional direction, music, and detailed exotic set-design, all which further the story, characterization, and themes. This a fantastic sequel! It really furthered the characters, like with Riggs growing further, as well as him gaining a new friend and love interest, yet it had a lot of the humor, action, as well as grittiness from the first film. It also had great continuity, with it building on Riggs and Murtaugh’s character, and including Murtaugh’s family.

So overall this is a great sequel, and gets a 10, it was an even bigger box office hit, and enlarged the Lethal Weapons fan base. It did great on home video as well, and it got great critical reviews, although not as good as the original, which is wrong as this film rocks, but I am glad as it mostly got its deserved praise, so go see it.

Also, make sure to check out reviewreviewer1's YouTube channel, as he again helped with this blog, and stay tuned for this Friday, where I look at "Lethal Weapon 3." That's right, special treat (since last week I did all the Superman films), this week I will review 2 Lethal Weapon movies.

Superman Week Part 7

We have now come to the finale of Superman week, where it is time to talk about the reboot to the Superman series, “Man of Steel,” which actually came out a month ago. FINALLY, we get a good Superman movie, which ironically enough, hasn’t been since “Superman 2.” Now the story begins with a Kryptonian named Lara, played by Ayalet Zurer, giving birth to her son, Kal-El. This is the first natural born child of Krypton in over hundreds of years, which makes her husband, Jor-El, played by New Zealand actor you might remember from such roles like “Gladiator” and “Les Miserables,” Russell Crowe, really happy. He tries to tell the government that the planet is about to explode, until General Zod, played by Michael Shannon, enters in. I will say that I didn’t like the way they killed Jor-El in this one. Zod stabs him to death after he and Lara send their son off to Earth. I always thought that the image of Jor-El and Lara holding one another before Krypton explodes was great. Then again, they do change the origin story somewhat in this film, which I’m fine with. But how come I always see Russell Crowe in a film where he dies in? Seriously, he died in “Gladiator,” “Les Miserables,” and now this film? Is it written in his contract that he needs to sign on to just play a role where he dies in? The only film that I have seen of his where he doesn’t die in is “A Beautiful Mind.”

On Earth, we cut years into Kal-El's, or Clark Kent now (or Joe as he is called a couple of times in here), played by Henry Cavill, life. Unlike the past adaptations where we see his childhood until he reaches his adult life, we see glimpses of his past in the form of flashbacks, which I think is nice for this remake. His Earth parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, played by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, try to help him until they tell him where he originally came from. No, they do not know about Krypton, so they just tell him that they found him in the spaceship. Also, Jonathan Kent died of a heart attack. In this film, there is a hurricane that comes in, and the three of them get out of the truck until Martha said that the dog is still in the truck. Why send Jonathan back to get your dog? I don’t hate dogs, but in this case, just forget the dog. Also, when Clark steps forward to save Jonathan, he stops him and dies in order to keep his secret, which I think is strong that he did that, but it's still contrived. Still, why did you send Jonathan back to save your dog Martha? He is the man that you said to have a lifetime commitment with, and you send him back to save your dog? Have you forgotten the wedding vows? Why didn’t you let Clark go back? It would have been great if you just made him go back because he can’t die or get hurt by the hurricane. There have been reports in the news of hurricane survivors, so it would have been a great story for the paper. Other than that, Costner does do a good job in this film and really does a good job with the emotional scenes, which would remind you of when Uncle Ben died in the “Spiderman” films. People complain that Costner is a bland actor and he isn't good, but I think he does a really good job in his roles.

Now Lois Lane is played by one of the hottest actresses, Amy Adams, who I have to say is really good in this film. She doesn’t play a reporter like she is top notch and can do anything; she just goes and does her own business. I like that. She, Cavill, and Shannon look good for the today’s look on Superman, Lois, and Zod. Also, I like how when Clark finds the Fortress of Solitude, Lois follows him, and they start the film off with her knowing that he is Superman. She does the report, goes around Metropolis to find clues as to who he is, before coming to Martha at the farm in Smallville. I really liked that update, and no there won’t be that weird mind erasing kiss at the end of the film, thankfully. With this version, she is the only person that knows about Clark being Superman, and she doesn’t tell anyone. Much to the dismay of her boss, Perry White, played by one of the coolest actors, Laurence Fishburne, she does stop, which ultimately leads to her four week leave in the Daily Planet.

When Superman finds the Fortress of Solitude and becomes Superman, he discovers the powers he has, and notices he can’t fly so high into space, or else he won’t breath. Thankfully, director of “300,” Zack Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan didn’t make a “Superman 4” mistake of him breathing in space. Snyder and Nolan really treated this film with care and did a fairly good job with this reboot.

However, I do have a complaint with the action scenes. Why do Zod and Superman completely trash Metropolis? Isn’t Superman supposed to protect Metropolis, not destroy it? When Zod has the tanker and throws it at Superman, he doesn’t just grab it and set it down, he instead moves out of the way, and it gets thrown into the building. Then when Zod is using his lazer eyes to kill the humans in the building and Superman is pleading with Zod not to kill him, and he doesn’t listen, he breaks Zod’s neck, killing him. I don’t get why Superman all of a sudden cared for those people Zod was going to zap with his lazer eyes when there were several people that he and Zod killed in the buildings they crashed through, and Superman didn’t give any emotion towards them. With Batman, even though he may not have saved everyone when he went out to fight crime in Gotham City, he at least had felt bad that he couldn’t save them. Why can’t Superman do that? I grew up watching "Superman: The Animated Series," and that was a pretty good cartoon. They portrayed Superman very well, but he wasn't like that in here. He doesn't show any emotions, doesn't seem to care about people, and he seems completely expressionless. I hope that in future sequels, they at least give Superman a soul. Also, fan boys would be saying, “Superman doesn’t kill his villains!” It’s a different time people. I don’t mean to say that in the future films I want to see Superman kill all of his villains, but still, it was going to happen. Zod wasn’t listening to Supeman’s pleas to not kill the people, and when he killed Zod, he screamed out in agony over what he did. That comes across as strong since Superman doesn’t like what he did. Since we live in a different day-in-age, it would not be any different than a cop shooting a criminal. Even though Superman has flight power, Zod would have resisted. However, as good of a job Michael Shannon did as Zod, it's not as memorable as Terence Stamp's Zod from Superman II. Also, the villain that "truly" stole the show was Antje Traue, who played Faora, Zod's sub-commander and a commander of the Kryptonian military. She is completely devoted and loyal to General Zod.

One more flaw I don’t like about the film is Clark gets a job at the Daily Planet at the end of the film. Wait, we didn’t see anything that built up to that. Why didn’t they show him working for his school newspaper company or anything where he gets clips before getting the job at the Daily Planet? Also, he doesn’t start wearing the glasses until the end of the film, which I was perfectly alright with. I still don’t understand how anyone can’t see past the glasses. He was exposed for a few moments in “Superman 2,” and no one noticed that Clark was Superman. But I digress, this film is still good. It’s “way” better than 3, 4, and Returns, but the first two are still better. As much as I like this movie, I do acknowledge the faults and won't defend it like it's the best Superman movie. However, it's nowhere near being as bad as some of the past Superman movies, and that's a fact. Also, like Brandon Routh, Cavill doesn’t get many lines, but that’s ok, since Cavill doesn’t sound like a Christopher Reeves rip-off. Go see the film if you haven't, I think you'll enjoy it. Just a heads up, it's darker than Batman Begins, but that doesn't mean there are still moments of humor in it. There are some funny moments, but not as much as in Batman Begins. Still check it out when you get the chance.

Thank you for joining in on my Superman week. I hope you enjoyed this week as much as I did reviewing every single film in the Superman franchise. The Wall Street Journal has said the sequel to “Man of Steel” is going to come out next year, which I feel is going to be rushed, but we’ll see, they’ll probably delay it. Stay tuned for next week where I start back up with the “Lethal Weapon” reviews.

Superman Week Part 6

After the horrible films in 3, 4, and even the spinoff, Supergirl, the Superman franchise was laid to rest for many years, much like how they did with the Batman franchise. After 19 years, Bryan Ratner left, failing several attempts at trying to bring Superman back, and so did Joseph McGinty "McG" Nichol. Finally, Bryan Singer approached the project, and he was also said to be a childhood friend of Richard Donner. Warner Bros. asked him if he could do another Superman movie, and he accepted, leaving two other films in pre-production, "X-Men: The Last Stand" (which would be directed by Ratner), and the remake of "Logan’s Run." The smart thing Singer did was that he made the 2006 film, "Superman Returns," ignore the events from 3 and 4, and instead made it an alternate sequel to "Superman 2."

The story of this film is that Superman returns to Earth after a five-year search for the survivors of his home planet, Krypton. When he returns, he finds out that Lois Lane, played by Kate Bosworth, now has a son, played by Tristan Lake Leabu, and is now engaged to Richard White, played by James Marsden. Singer followed the casting choice like how Donner did, and chose Brandon Routh to play Clark Kent/Superman, who sort of looked like Christopher Reeves. More high profile actors in the supporting roles were casted, like one of the greatest actors, Kevin Spacey, to play Lex Luthor and another great actor, Frank Langella, as the Daily Planet head, Perry White. Eva Marie Saint plays Martha Kent, Superman's Earth mother.

For this film, Singer brought the entire crew from "X2" to work on it. They even used digitally-enhanced archive footage of the late Marlon Brando to appear as Jor-El in this. "Superman Returns" was positively received and made $391 million worldwide.

Now the big question you’re probably asking is, “How is this film compared to the previous sequels?” In my honest opinion, I think it’s better than 3 and 4, but the first two are still better. The reason why is because for the first half of the film, it really is good. Up until the climax of the film when Superman saves that airplane and has it land safely in the baseball field, it then becomes too predictable. Examples of this include another rip off of the romantic flying sequence from the first film, and how Lex Luthor is using his power to take down Superman and take over Metropolis. If you remember near the end of the movie Lex Luthor makes an island out of Superman’s weakness, kryptonite. That’s the reason why the last half of the film is not really so well, because it borrows heavily from the first film. Also, it makes it look unremarkable.

Of course the dumbest moment of this film is the casting for Superman and Lois. Kate Bosworth and Brandon Routh don’t really look old enough to play the parts. Well, they probably are, but they look like teenagers out of high school that were casted for this film. It’s like they were supposed to be in that horrible Superman sitcom, "Smallville," which I think we can all agree, it was really bad. Thankfully their careers were saved by being in this film instead. Also, their acting didn’t make them suitable for the roles, they just were very bland. Brandon Routh doesn’t really have much dialogue in this film, but he’s not anywhere as memorable as Christopher Reeves was.

Well I can’t really say much about this film because it didn’t really leave an impact on me that I could give a thorough review of it. So I’ll just end it here with this cliffhanger for the finale tomorrow: Will there be a sequel to this film? Or will the people finally realize that this franchise needs a reboot? All of that will be found out in tomorrow’s finale. Up, up and away!

Superman Week Part 5

I can’t believe that they did this to Superman! They should have stopped after how bad Superman 3 was received. But no, instead they decide to pick up a fourth one. That’s right, Cannon Films picked up the option to do the fourth Superman movie, and Christopher Reeves decided to come back because the film was about nuclear weapons, and Reeves was interested in that topic. Bad mistake Mr. Reeves. Because Cannon decided to cut the budget of the film from $35 million to $15 million, and what happened with that much of a budget cut? Poor special effects and constant re-edits which made this the worst film in the Superman film franchise.

That’s right, I am not looking forward to reviewing this 1987 god-awful film, “Superman 4: The Quest for Peace.” Well, I have to, so let’s try and see if we can survive this review. The first problem is the constant use of Superman flying towards the screen. Just because it looked good the first time doesn’t mean that you need to reuse it. Second, the special effects are, like I said before, the worst amongst the rest of the films. You might be saying, give it a break, this was 1987, but no, this is just bad! You can easily see the strings on Superman when he is fighting, the black curtains in the background can be noticed, and the Green Screen effects are just so obvious.

Now the film begins with Russians in space, and Superman saves one of the astronauts, with his cape flying like a fan is blowing on it, and he talks in space. Did these people forget their science class from kindergarten? You cannot talk in space. Just because Superman is from another planet doesn’t mean that he has the ability to talk in space! The President, played by Robert Beatty, gives a broadcast on TV about how America strives to become second to none in a nuclear arms race. That’s when one of the students in the school the broadcast was being shown in, Jeremy, played by Damien McLawhorn, writes a letter to Superman, asking him to solve this problem. After learning that the Soviet Union and the USA are going to engage in a nuclear war, he goes to his fortress of solitude to ask his elders for help on what he should do. And what does he come to for a resolution? He goes to the United Nations assembly and says that he will get rid of all nuclear weapons. And you want to know what else? They are all for it! Over the next few days, he takes all of the nuclear weapons, wraps them up in a gigantic net, and throws them into the sun. HOW DOES THAT WORK!?!?!?!?

Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is back in this film with a very nuisance nephew, Lenny, played by Jon Cryer, who is, hands down, one of the most annoying characters ever put in any movie. They decide to create a villain that is just as powerful as Superman, so they steal a strand of Superman’s hair that he donated to the museum that is held on by a giant weight, AND THEY SIMPLY CUT IT WITH SCISSORS!!!! HOW DOES THAT WORK!?!?!? After that, he launches a missile into space, which Superman catches and throws into the sun, and thus the villain is born with a skin-tight outfit. How is a villain born from the sun with a skin-tight outfit? Guess what, there will be no explanation how it works. This villain is Nuclear Man, played by Mark Pillow, but voiced by Gene Hackman. Even though he needs sunlight to stay powered up, making him a solar-powered villain, THERE ARE SHOTS WITH HIM NOT IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT AND HE IS JUST FINE!!!! INCONSISTENCY!!!!!

And you want to know what else? The Daily Planet has been bought by a media mogul named David Warfield, played by Sam Wanamaker, WHO PLANS ON TURING IT INTO A TABLOID!!! THIS IS A NEWSPAPER COMPANY YOU RETARD!!!!!! His daughter, Lacy, played by Mariel Hemmingway, joins the company as well, and starts to get an attraction towards Clark. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!? ARE YOU STARTING ANOTHER LOVE TRIANGLE BETWEEN CLARK, LOIS, AND ANOTHER GIRL!?!? AND WHERE’S LANA!?!? IS THERE NO MENTION OF HER!?!? OF COURSE NOT, BECAUSE THIS IS A GOD-AWFUL SEQUEL!!!!!

What else can they do to make this film the worst of the series? THEY RIP OFF THE ROMANTIC FLYING SCENE FROM THE FIRST ONE, FRAME BY FRAME! THEN THEY RIP OFF THE MIND ERASING KISS FROM THE SECOND ONE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?!?!? Also, Nuclear Man starts to develop an attraction to Lacy, and threatens to wreck havoc if she is not brought to him. He even makes Superman sick for a while with a nuclear scratch. This is after Lex Luthor, somehow, manages to give Superman a supersonic message, and he fights Nuclear Man. Another plot device that they have is that Clark retrieves a crystal from the barn, just like he did in the first one, and without any explanation, he feels better!!! ARE YOU PEOPLE GOING TO FILL US IN ON ANYTHING, OR ARE YOU GOING TO JUST LEAVE US OUT IN THE DUST!?!?!?!? BECAUSE YOU’RE DOING A GOOD JOB OF DOING JUST THAT!!!!

You want to know what else happens that makes this film so god-awful. When Nuclear Man and Superman fight in space with Lacy being brought there as well, she is apparently breathing just fine despite the fact that SPACE HAS A LACK OF BREATHING AND AIR PRESSURE!!!! THIS IS KINDERGARTEN SCIENCE PEOPLE, YOU CAN’T BREATH IN SPACE!!!!! Science just doesn't even exist in this movie. When did Superman get the power to repair walls? That's what he did with the Great Wall of China. Also, how is he able to carry the Statue of Liberty all the way back to where Nuclear Man picked it up from WITHOUT BREAKING A FINGER ON IT!?!?!?! HAVE ANY OF YOU FILMMAKERS TAKEN PHYSICS!?!?!?!? And how is Superman able to move the Moon to block the Sun to get Nuclear Man killed? And how is Nuclear Man able to get killed by being dropped INTO A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT!?!?!? I thought you said his name was Nuclear Man, as in that's his strength, NOT WEAKNESS!?!?!?! This movie really needed some environmental specialist to help out because obviously, no one working on this movie knew anything about Science or the environment!

Just don’t watch this film, long story short. This is right up there with Batman & Robin as one of the worst superhero films ever made. Thank goodness I'm done with this review because I just couldn't stand it any longer. Thankfully, Warner Bros. left this franchise alone after the poor receptions from both 3 and 4. How long will it be after the Superman franchise will be resurrected? Will the new one be better, or will it be good up to the half-way point, and the last half will be very predictable? All of this will be figured out tomorrow. Up, up, and away!

Superman Week Part 4

Remember when I was reviewing Superman 3 and I had said that Ilya Salkind was originally thinking of putting Supergirl in the film as Superman’s love interest? Well, in 1984, Ilya and Alexander purchased rights for Supergirl and made a spin-off film about her. Making her motion picture debut is Helen Slater playing Kara Zor-El, later to become Supergirl. Faye Dunaway played the villain, Selena and Marc McClure reprised his role as Jimmy Olsen.

This will come as no shock: the film did poorly in the box office and critics and audiences were not impressed at all. However, Helen Slater was nominated for the Saturn Award, and expanding on the Superman mythology, like taking us into the Phantom Zone, which in the first two was represented by a spinning black pane of glass.

So the film is about Kara Zor-El who lives in an isolated Kryptonian community in another universe known as Argo City. Zaltar, played by one of the greatest actors who you might remember from such classics as Lawrence of Arabia, Peter O’Toole, allows her to see the Omegahedron, which powers the city. However, it gets blown into space and Kara decides to go retrieve it, even though her parents, played by Simon Ward and Mia Farrow, decide against it. She goes to Earth, transforms into Supergirl, and follows it to find the Omegahedron.

Now the major problem with this film is that she didn’t undergo a transformation when she arrived on Earth. Didn’t Superman go and have his costume made? Why would Supergirl be given the suit automatically, when I believe in the comics, she also got it made as well? Also, when she arrives and sees what kind of powers she has, she plays around with them like some kid who just discovered they have superpowers. FIND THE OMEGAHEDRON!!! And another major problem is that instead of finding the Omegahedron, she instead decides to play high school girl, going under the name, Linda Lee. Hello, you have your home planet to save lady, why are you hiding out playing high school girl? And how ironic that she rooms with Lois Lane’s younger sister, Lucy, played by Maureen Teefy, at the dormitories? I think that with the allotted time this movie has, the planet would be dead by now thanks to her playing high school girl, INSTEAD OF FINDING THE OMEGAHEDRON!!!!!

Selena is some wanna-be witch, assisted by Bianca, played by Brenda Vaccaro, who wants to break up her relationship with a warlock named Nigel, played by Peter Cook. Is this Earth, because there’s no such thing as witches or warlocks. Unless you’re Charlie Sheen who has his head in the fantasy world all the time, which is something no one will understand. Once Selena finds the Omegahedron, she uses it to perform real magic spells. And thanks to Supergirl, Argo City will be dead, and all of Earth will be destroyed. This movie would be over really quickly IF SHE WASN’T PLAYING HIGH SCHOOL GIRL!!!!! I’m sorry; I can’t fathom the thought of why the Salkinds made this film this way. They completely destroyed this character.

You want to know what else? The groundskeeper of the school, Ethan, played by Hart Bochner, falls in love with Supergirl. Why doesn’t she just go out with him? He doesn’t need to know that she is Supergirl. Just go that extra mile and have her go out with him, since she has already been destroyed enough. It's like how Joel Schumacher treated Batgirl in Batman and Robin. It was her only feature film, and they destroyed Batgirl in that film, and we never saw her again. Same thing with Supergirl. This is her only feature film, and there hasn't been another one, which I don't blame them for doing.

Christopher Reeves was supposed to make a cameo, but bowed out early. Thank goodness he did, but they said in a news broadcast in the film that Superman was on a “peace-seeking mission” in another galaxy. Ok, now that’s just bad writing. If you have the opportunity to just pass this by and not watch it, do so. Save yourself and never watch this film, because it is in the top 5 worst comic book adaptations ever made.

What a relief! Now that’s off my chest, let’s see tomorrow how Cannon Films treats the fourth Superman film. Trust me; I’m not looking forward to it either. Up, up, and away!

Superman Week Part 3

Unbelievable, just unbelievable! I can’t imagine what they have done to Superman after the second film. Unlike Batman Forever, where Schumacher just decided to make it more child-friendly and it was ok, they did not do the same thing for Superman. Want to know what they did? Just hold on to your vomit bags, it’s time to look at the 1983 horrendous sequel in the franchise, “Superman 3.” For this film, Ilya Salkind originally wrote the film introducing other famous Superman villains, like Brainiac and Mr. Mxyzptlk, and even introduces Superman’s cousin, Supergirl. Originally there was supposed to be a father-daughter relationship between Brainiac and Supergirl. Hold on a second! Brainiac and Supergirl aren’t father and daughter! Did you bother to read a Superman comic before writing out this outline, Ilya? If that’s not enough, there was going to be a romance between Superman and Supergirl. They’re cousins, you moron! Do your stinking research before writing this out! Thankfully, Warner Bros. rejected that idea. Well that’s a relief. However, they decided to create their own film, where the script took Brainiac and instead made it an evil “ultimate computer.” I would have personally loved to have seen Brainiac in this film, but I guess that would be a hard one to pull off. It’s like if you decided to put Clayface in a Batman movie, it would be difficult to make him. However, Salkind’s rejected idea was later released online in 2007.

Back to the review, the film co-starred the late raunchy comedian, Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman, who is a computer genius. Boy do I have to say he does not do a very good job here. Richard, you’re one of the funniest comedians we ever had, what are you doing in a Superman movie? It’s fine that you are in here, but still, where’s the comedic genius that we all are familiar with from your stand up or other films? Whenever he is trying to be funny in a scene, it just comes out painful to see. When he’s telling the millionaire family he is working with to take down Superman how the Man of Steel stopped a hurricane, nothing about it is funny. When the family is looking at him as if they weren’t the least bit entertained as well, he says, “Superman’s bad.” No Richard, you’re bad in this. Even when he dresses up like the army guy when Superman is at that public appearance of his it’s just overacting at its worse. Did the director suck all the funny out of him? I wouldn’t even be surprised if Richard Lester did that. When Gus says at the beginning, “Don’t call me a bum, I’m not a bum,” I have to say, regretfully, “Yes, you are a bum.”

Even the opening credits are saying this film is doomed from the start. Instead of the classic openings with the opening credits zooming in the front of the screen with the famous John Williams Superman theme playing, it’s instead looking like the Star Wars opening with so many Three Stooges stunts going on in the city. Just watch the opening of this film, if you want to know what I mean.

So the plot to this film involves Gus Gorman working with millionaire Webster (played by Robert Vaughn), his sister Vera (played by Annie Ross), and his mistress Lorelei Ambrosia (played by Pamela Stephenson). When Gus finds out that he is a computer genius, he helps them build a computer to take over the world financially. Meanwhile, Clark Kent convinces his boss, Perry White, played by Jackie Cooper, to return to his hometown of Smallville for his high school reunion, while Lois goes to Bermuda for vacation. Thank goodness Margot Kidder got out of this one. Jimmy Olsen, played by Marc McClure, goes with Clark. At the high school reunion, Clark meets up with his old friend Lana Lang, played by Annette O'Toole, who now is a divorcee and has a son, Ricky, played by Paul Kaethler. So it looks like they are getting back together when Clark’s old bully and now an alcoholic, Brad, played by Gavan O'Herlihy, still wants her attention. On the other side, Gus and Webster find kryptonite, which is Superman’s weakness, in order to turn him evil, and become infatuated with Lorelei. Superman also becomes an alcoholic. What is going on here? Why is there so much emphasis on comedy? Superman is not supposed to be a comedy! I know that Superman is more light-hearted compared to Batman, but he did have some serious tones to the comics. They just completely forgot about that, as if they never read a Superman comic! And you want to know what tops off this atrocious film? Vera gets taken over by the computer and becomes a cyborg. That moment is the scariest moment in film history. It can alone give you nightmares for weeks.

Even though this film was a success, fans were extremely upset with the film, particularly Richard Pryor’s performance. If you were a Richard Pryor fan, wouldn’t you be as well? The last two had a serious tone to it; this was just not funny to begin with. There was also controversy over evil Superman as well. Actually, now that I mention it, the only good part of this film that you should watch is the junkyard scene when evil Superman fights good Clark Kent. That is the only part of this film that I would watch again out of this two hour pain. Trust me when I say this is one of the worst superhero films ever made. It’s in the top 10.

Thank goodness I’m done with that film. Will the Salkinds learn and not do the same thing in future Superman films? Well, believe it or not, they actually made a spin-off of the Christopher Reeve films. Find out tomorrow if it’s any good, which I think you will not be happy with that one at all. Not one bit, but we’ll see. Up, up, and away!

Superman Week Part 2

Now it's time to look at the sequel to Superman: the Movie, which came out in 1981, "Superman II." By shooting these two films, Richard Donner's relationship with the Salkinds started to turn sour, and Richard Lester was the mediator. Because the film went over budget, the filmmakers decided to temporarily stop production on "Superman II" and move that film's climax to the first film. Even though the first film was successful, Richard Donner did not return because the Salkinds kicked him off, and Lester was replaced as director. When Lester finished off the second film, he gave it a more humorous tone. Donner had completed about 75% of the film in 1977 before being replaced by Lester. Not only was Donner removed, Marlon Brando was cut for financial reasons and John Williams quit as the composer because he went off to pursue other stuff. Despite all of this, "Superman II" was both financially and critically successful, even though it faced competition with Raiders of the Lost Ark that same year.

For those that remember in the beginning of the first film, Jor-El sentenced General Zod (played by Terence Stamp), Ursa (played by Sarah Douglas), and Non (played by Jack O'Halloran) for insurrection and other crimes. For that, they are banished to the Phantom Zone. Traveling through the galaxy for thirty years, the Phantom Zone is shattered near Earth thanks to hydrogen bombs that Superman threw into space after stopping a terrorist attack to blow up Paris. Now these three are on the move to conquer Earth. Boy, do I have to say these villains are just great. Zod is enjoyably over-the-top, especially with his famous, "Kneel before Zod!" line. Ursa is just as diabolical as Zod, and Non doesn't speak, but trades all of his talk for his strength, which says much.

By going to Niagara Falls and Clark Kent having to tell Lois that he is Superman is probably one of the hardest things for a superhero to do with his love interest. Like I had said in my The Dark Knight Rises review, Superman gives up his powers to be with Lois forever. This is showing that he is admitting defeat, but doesn't know about Zod yet. However, when he learns about Zod and goes back to get his powers back, he comes back stronger than ever. Maybe he should have listened to his Kryptonian mother, Lara, played by Susannah York, when she pleaded to him not to give up his powers.

Of course, Lex Luthor is back and he has to form an alliance with Zod, Ursa, and Non in order to take down Superman. Now he has to put up with four villains, which is a lot of work for Superman, but he can do it since he's not stupid.

The dumbest moments in the movie are here and there. The first one is that kid at Niagara Falls. His mom finds that he is playing on the edge of the railing, grabs him and hits him, which should have made the kid learn not to play there. But no, instead he decides to play there again, his mother doesn't notice, and he falls off. Superman has to come and save the kid, so hopefully he learns not to do that again. Another is that idiotic mother who is walking on the street when Zod is taking over Metropolis. A tower is going to fall on her, and instead of running with her baby in the carriage, she instead throws herself on top of that baby. That's not going to save you or the baby from being killed from a falling tower. Superman again comes and saves that stupid mother, which she thanks him (probably so that she didn't have to run in heels). I think these parents need to have licenses if they want kids. Next comes the powers in the Fortress of Solitude when Superman is fighting Zod, Ursa, and Non. He multiples himself, and they do not know which one is the real him, which was weird. Superman even touches the S on his outfit, throws it at Non, which wraps him in a S symbol saran wrap. At one point when Superman gives up his powers and he becomes just plain old Clark Kent, he gets beat up by a guy in a bar. Before the end of the film, he comes back, throws that guy down the table, and when the bartender looks at him weird, he says, "I've been lifting weights." Couldn't you have let bygones be bygones Clark? Lastly, the mind erasing kiss. To make sure that Lois doesn't remember Clark is Superman, he kisses her, which erases all memory that he is Superman. How does that work? Did you look into her memory bank and made sure to erase the memories of her finding out you're Superman? Once again, Superman had weird powers back then, so I guess I'll let this slide.

In 2006, Richard Donner had received many requests from his fans to do his own cut of Superman II, which he and producer Michael Thau finally released on November 28, 2006. This version received positive reception from critics and stars of the original film. According to Wikipedia, "Many of the scenes were shot by second director Richard Lester, who had been an uncredited producer on the first film. However, in order to receive full director's credit, Lester had to shoot up to 51% of the film which included refilming several sequences originally filmed by Donner. According to statements made by Donner, roughly 25% of the theatrical cut of Superman II contains footage he shot, including all of Gene Hackman's scenes. In 2006, a re-cut of the film was released titled Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. The new version restores as much of Donner's original conception as possible, with approximately 83% of his footage included. Some of Lester's theatrical footage was retained to fill-in gaps in the story line that Donner had not been able to film before his firing."

Well, if you loved the first film, then you should watch the second one. It's not as good as the first, but it's thoroughly enjoyable despite being more comedic than the first one. What will happen now with the Superman franchise? Will they follow a parallel history with the Batman films? Find out tomorrow. Up, up, and away!

Superman Week Part 1

Alright, I haven’t done a week-long marathon since the Batman week, so now I’m going to do another one. This time, it’s on another very famous DC Superhero that is probably not quite as famous, or just as famous as Batman. If you haven’t been able to guess, it’s none other than Batman’s polar opposite, the Man of Steel himself: Superman! Who wouldn’t want to be Superman? Of course Batman’s brains and Superman is brawn, but he’s not a dummy. Batman himself says that Superman is his perfect opposite, who trades his brain for his super strength, but once again, Superman is not dumb. With Superman, he’s got all these superpowers that any kid would want to have: flight, super strength, lazer eyes, x-ray vision, running faster than the speed of light, etc. For this entire week, I will be looking at the feature films that have come out about the last son of Krypton, since I recently went to see “Man of Steel.” Don't worry, I will get back to my Lethal Weapon reviews next week, but for right now, I want to review the Superman films.

Before I begin, I would just like to say that I will not be looking at the serials from 1948 and 1950 with Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill, or the 1951 feature film with George Reeves and Phyllis Coates. Instead, let’s jump straight ahead to 1978 and look at one of the best, if not, the best superhero film to ever come out, “Superman: The Movie.” This is another one of my favorite comic book adaptations. In 1973, producer Ilya Salkind had convinced his father, Alexander, to buy the rights for Superman. Guess who wrote the movie? The Godfather author himself, Mario Puzo, for a two-film script. Finding the director was the difficult part. First they tried to negotiate with Steven Spielberg, but Alexander Salkind rejected him after Jaws went over budget. Next they tried Guy Hamilton, but he would be unable to shoot the film in England since he violated tax payments. Now that’s funny. Finally, the Salkinds came to Richard Donner to direct the film. Donner wanted to convince his audience that the man they were seeing on the big screen was actually flying, since the tagline to this film is, "You'll Believe A Man Can Fly." Donner hired Tom Mankiewicz to polish the script, and he added a lot of Christ-like seriousness to it. Of course, anyone who knows about Superman’s origin knows it’s basically (according to the Nostalgia Critic) “Moses with aliens.”

Now comes the casting. When they casted one of the greatest actors of all time, Marlon Brando, to play Superman’s Kryptonian father, Jor-El, Brando was faced with a lawsuit in Italy over Last Tango in Paris. Even though Brando spent less than two weeks on shooting the film, he didn’t even read the script until then. Despite that, he earned $3.7 million up front, plus 11.75% of the gross profits from the film. Imagine that? Susannah York plays Jor-El's wife, Lara, and Glenn Ford and Phyllis Thaxter plays Superman's Earth parents. The late Christopher Reeves was casted to play Superman, but the Salkinds were not impressed by him. That is, until he worked out and came back looking the part. Margot Kidder was casted as Lois Lane, Superman’s love interest.

Gene Hackman was casted to play Superman’s arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor. Now here’s a funny story that I found out not so long ago: We all know Gene Hackman has a mustache. Richard Donner said that he needed to shave the mustache in order to play Lex Luthor. However, Gene Hackman had denied. A few months later, Donner called in a makeup artist to give him the most convincing looking mustache ever. Then Donner made a bet with Gene Hackman saying, “You have to at least shave your mustache. If you shave yours, I'll shave mine.” So Gene Hackman goes, shaves his mustache off, and came back clean-shaved, saying it was Donner’s turn. Once Donner removed the fake mustache, Gene realized he was tricked, and laughed it off.

When the film was released on Christmas of 1978, it was a critical and commercial success, since it did not have much competition. The producers felt this was one factor in the film's success.

However, as great as the movie is, it has the reigning king of the most stupid moments that has ever happened in a Superman movie. It’s at the end when Superman could only stop one missile, and Lois dies. After Superman is very sad because of Lois dying, he flies into space and spins the Earth backwards, turning back time, and stopping the other missile. I understand that back in those days, Superman had weird superpowers, but this is really pushing it. First off, if you spun the Earth backwards, you wouldn’t time travel, you would probably fall off Earth. Second, if he could spin the Earth backwards to turn back time he could simply stop both missiles that he passes in like a nanosecond. Third, if he spun the Earth backwards, is there another Superman flying around stopping the other missile if he’s stopping the one missile that killed Lois? And if he didn’t flip out over Lois dying, would he not have a reason to spin the Earth backwards? Fourth, if he had this power all along, why didn’t he use it that one time he came in late to work for the Daily Planet?

Another problem I have had with Superman all along (not only in the films, but in anything, like the cartoon) is that when he wears glasses to hide his identity. How can someone not see through those glasses? Is it really that convincing? Maybe it’s there just to be funny, but who knows.

Anyways, if you haven’t seen this movie, then what are you waiting for? You’re really missing out, go out and watch it, you’ll love it. If you can get past the fact that it was made in 1978, then that’s perfect. Well, stay tuned for the rest of the week, when I continue to look at the other Superman movies. Up, up, and away!

Lethal Weapon

Hi everyone! Since I have looked at The Indiana Jones Series, now it will be fun to look at another classic action series: The Lethal Weapon Series. Lethal Weapon (which is a Christmas action movie) came out in 1987 and it was written by Shane Black, who came up with deep characters about a suicidal cop and a partner who thinks he fakes it. He made it action packed, gave it a thick plot and deep themes, and although he was a new writer, the studio was willing to take risks and buy his script, as it seemed good, as studios did that at the time. They paid him 1 million dollars. Imagine how that must have felt being a new writer and making a million overnight. Joel Silver became the producer, and he was an active action producer that would produce all 3 Matrix Films, as well as the 2 original Predator films, and the first 2 Die Hard Films. He had Shane Black make some rewrites, deepening character development and working action into the story. And then they got Richard Donner as director, a great director who had already directed Superman: the Movie and The Goonies. He wasn`t just a director for hire. He had Shane Black add humor to the script, better action, made Riggs even deeper, and strengthened the plot and themes. He got a low budget of 15 million dollars, but he was such a detailed director on the camera work and special visual effects, it barely showed. He got Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the lead roles, he is a detailed director on actors also, and helped them act the character parts, but also let them improvise lines when he thought it worked. This is how Lethal Weapon came to be a truly brilliant film.

The film has a thick plot, with a mystery of how the drug dealers tie into the police and how to find them. It is a more sophisticated action film, and it has deep characters. Riggs is suicidal, and also violent, yet he’s also scared and lonely. He is a caring person, and he grows more relaxed and happy when Murtaugh is supportive and understanding of him, Murtaugh grows to be more open to people outside his family, and to be more proactive when needed. They both grow as a team, and this is all well developed. Murtaugh is more cautious, and calm, yet controlling, and also a loving father. Then we have the villains. Joshua is loyal, yet violent, and extreme, and his boss (played by Mitchell Ryan) is abusive, threatening, and manipulative. All of the characters are deep, the film has great heart and emotion, and all the actors portraying them are great. Mel Gibson is intense, and can really get the sadness across. Danny Glover has the calm and wisdom, and Gary Busey is menacing, and very violent.

Also the film has great themes. It really comments on the dangers of getting in a corrupt business, as Murtaugh’s old Vietnam War acquaintance, Michael Hunsaker, played by Tom Atkins, tried to protect his daughter, Amanda’s (played by Jackie Swanson) reputation, but she got murdered, and he later on also gets murdered. They even kidnap Riggs and Murtaugh, there is no way out, and also Riggs finds the importance of family and support in them, and they risk their lives for them, as they are what give them purpose. The criminals used them as hostages, it made them vulnerable, but it also gave them their strength. The film also has funny and deep dialogue, and it has great action with shooting but also grenades and cars crashing against buses, and shooting through cars and shooting through glass, with fast fluent direction and editing. It has detailed special visual effects, realistic glass, explosion, and crashing suits, the film has really emotional and exciting music, and dramatic direction that focuses on the characters moving with them in a fluent fashion. It has great production values and acting, and a great script.

This is a classic, it was a big box office hit and critically acclaimed, and has a huge fan base to this day. I give it a 10, go see it, it's another one of my favorite films.

Danny Glover told James Lipton when he was interviewed on Inside the Actors Studio that Roger Murtaugh was 50 and was White in the original script, but when they read the script at Richard Donner's house and there was some chemistry going on at the time between the two of them. Danny even remembers one of the Warner Bros. executives asking, "When do we shoot?" Danny said, "It's so special. Certainly African Americans have middle-class aspirations: the idea of having a house, a boat, there are not always aspirations which find themselves mired in a inter-city setting or a rural southern setting. So this is an opportunity to use this as a vehicle to talk about or highlight those aspirations. Then you have this other wacko White guy. It has perfect sense where this African American humanizes this White guy in a different way." The roles were really reversed and the central love story is between Murtaugh and Riggs. Danny has said, "Mel has such a generous heart, it is generous as an actor and very accessible as an actor, and you can feel vulnerable around him. Most of the time we play with vulnerability, like in real life. But to feel vulnerable around someone, and to really care about someone is something that you don't often get to do as an actor. There's a great deal of real vulnerability that is happening between the two of us" (Glover). Danny says that the racial factor in casting never goes away, but if it did, then we would embark on new territory, but because we begin to have another dialogue, let's talk about the racism in a real sense and what we feel. We begin to talk about that instead of something we keep as a distance, but realize it becomes a part of who we are, our understanding, our healing, then we would embark on whole new level, a whole other place.

If you liked this review, stay tuned for next week in the "Lethal Weapon Month" review, where I will review Lethal Weapon 2. Also, watch reviewreviewer1's YouTube videos, since he helped write this blog.

Indepedence Day

Happy Independence Day everybody! Let’s celebrate by looking at Robert Emmerich’s 1996 film, “Independence Day.” Have you noticed that the opening to this film looks exactly like “A New Hope,” except for the spaceships firing at one another? Well on July 2, this mothership sends out huge daughterships, which look like flying saucers (which I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if they were), and they fly over some of Washington, D.C.’s most well-known places, like the Washington Monument and the White House. Like how all aliens might be well-known of doing, they even communicate by messing up the TV signals. Who may you ask that knows if these aliens are good or bad? Why Jeff Golblum of course, playing David Levinson, an MIT-graduate, who says these aliens are playing a “chess” game. I am not kidding, he even explains to his boss, Marty Gilbert, played by Harvey Fierstein, “It's like in chess: First, you strategically position your pieces and when the timing is right you strike. They're using this signal to synchronize their efforts and in 5 hours the countdown will be over.” When his boss asks, “And then what?” David’s response is, “Checkmate.” Really, I’ve never heard of anyone who has explained an alien attack like a game of chess. This is just bizarre. David, just because you play chess with your father, Julius, played by Judd Hirsch, doesn’t mean everything that happens is similar to a game of chess.

He does manage to warn President Thomas J. Whitmore, played by Bill Pullman, who you might remember as Lone Starr from Mel Brooks’ funniest work (in my opinion), “Spaceballs.” David gives this warning through a phone number that his ex-wife Constance Spano, played by Margaret Colin, who is a White House employee, apparently listed for emergencies. They gain entrance, warn the president, and escape through an Air Force One plane in time before the aliens blow everything up.

While the aliens are about to blow everything up, we see Captain Steven Hiller, played by Will Smith, getting jiggy with it with his girlfriend and exotic dancer, Jasmine Dubrow, played by rapper 50 Cent’s ex, Vivica A. Fox. He’s helping her raise her son, Dylan, played by Nicky Banks from that great 90’s sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Ross Bagley. Will Smith knows how to bring cool into every single one of his roles, doesn’t he? He flies with his fighter pilots to stop the aliens, but his friend Jimmy Widler, played by Harry Connick, Jr., gets killed. Why did Harry sign on for this movie, just because he had a role that he could die in? Did he not like the movie at all, that he decided to just sign on and get out as quick as possible? Hiller does manage to capture an alien when he crashes in the Grand Canyon. I do have to say, he greets the alien with one of the coolest lines he’s ever said in his films: “Welcome to Earth! Now that’s what I call a close encounter.”

On July 3, Air Force One lands at Area 51, where Major Mitchell, played by Adam Baldwin, is the commanding officer at. There Jasmine sees the President’s wife, First Lady Marilyn Whitmore, played by Mary McDonnell, who is seriously injured and she helps rush her to a hospital. Hiller drags the alien in his parachute, finds a bunch of RVs coming in his direction, and is picked up by Russell Casse, played by Randy Quaid, who says that he was abducted by aliens before, and is a drunk who isn’t loved by his children. When Hiller and the President meet and he tells him that he’s got an alien, they take that alien to Dr. Brackish Okun, played by Data from Star Trek The Next Generation, Brent Spiner. The alien mind controls him, but Major Mitchell kills him. Now an attack is planned. Also, the First Lady dies, which he only tells his daughter, Patricia, played by Mae Whitman. Does anyone find it insulting that she is called “Munchkin?” I understand that it’s her nickname, but she’s just a kid, there’s no need to say something like that to her regarding her height. Maybe it’s because she’s an adorable little kid that everyone calls her Munchkin with how sweet she is.

Finally comes July 4, where David is drunk until his dad comes in and has a talk with him, before saying to him to get off the floor or he’ll catch a cold. That gives David the idea to implant the infamous “Trojan Horse” virus on the ship and says they have to do that in order to blow up the ship. This looks like a job for Mr. Cool and a geeky computer scientist. General William Grey, who is the head of U.S. Space Command, played by Robert Loggia, tells them how long they have and what they need to do. Loggia modeled the character after generals of World War II, particularly George S. Patton. Also, the scientist fires the Secretary of Defense, Albert Nimzicki, played by James Rebhorn. The president gives a motivational speech, goes out to fight with his men along with Russell Casse, while his eldest son, Miguel, played by James Duval, watches on. Russell’s daughter, Alicia, is played by Lisa Jakub.

If you want to know if they win against the aliens, watch the film, I already gave too much of a synopsis. Final verdict: try watching this film, if you want, on Independence Day each year. It’s a fun popcorn movie, but doesn’t hold up today as well. There are obvious CG effects that you can point out in the film, the bright flashes between shots are annoying, and this is just human stereotypes fighting alien stereotypes. The characters are clichéd, and I guess you could say that there are a lot of plotholes, but there are some redeeming factors to this film. The explosions, spaceships, and Will Smith are cool.

Will Smith stated to James Lipton, "I love science fiction and a conspiracy theorist to no end. You see I get real good at acting to an X. There's a big X, and the monster's face is going to be right there. No, no, higher. A little lower than that. Ok, don't move! Don't move! And action. 'You monster!' It is light-years away from any type of performance, interaction, I mean, it is grueling. Special effects, because, there is no rhythm at all. And then the worst thing is that there is someone talking to you the entire time when you're doing special effects. 'And he moves to the left! Now he flew away fast!'"

Emmerich has announced that there will be two more films, making this a trilogy, calling them ID Forever Part I and ID Forever Part II, taking place 20 years after the original. Last month, it has been confirmed that Will Smith will not return because, according to Emmerich, “he’s too expensive.” Instead, Smith’s step-son will take over. However, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum will return. Well, enjoy your Independence Day everybody, and make sure to go out and see some fireworks.