Christopher Reeve Superman Movies Retrospect Minisode

[00:00:00] This podcast is a production of Unfiltered Studios. If you would like to know more about joining Unfiltered Studios, please visit our website at unfpod.com for more information. Easy, miss. I've got you. You've got me? Who's got you? Bring home the ultimate superhero with these spectacular Superman films on DVD.

[00:00:31] Superman. Superman. General, would you care to step outside? It's open. Come in. I believe this is your floor. Old Superman the Movie Special Edition. Who are you? A friend. Superman 2 Special Edition. And look for Superman 3 and Superman 4 Deluxe Editions. All digitally remastered for ultimate picture and sound. Any more at home like you?

[00:01:00] Uh, not really, no. Loaded with bonus features, including director commentaries, documentaries, deleted scenes, and more. There you go. Only one ride to a customer. And now you can own them all. In one box set with the Christopher Reeves Superman Collection. This order's to go. Includes all four Christopher Reeves Superman films. Uh, watch the trees. Oh!

[00:01:29] On eight discs, exploding with hours of extra features. Way to go, Superman! And now, yours for the first time ever on DVD. Director Richard Donner's cut of Superman 2. As it was originally intended to be seen. My son. With never-before-seen footage. You are Superman, aren't you? And hours of bonus features. Including director commentary. It was quite emotional. Quite exciting. Something I never thought would happen.

[00:01:58] Your secret's safe with me. Look for these definitive editions of Christopher Reeves' Superman Adventures on DVD. What are you standing around about for? Move! We met. We loaded it. We edited it.

[00:02:23] Sometimes we get so deep into conversation that we have separate segments worthy of their own place in the sun. It's a reshuffled mini-episode.

[00:02:53] I've actually thought about the idea of all of us trying to do, riff a movie. Yes! Oh, yeah. We gotta find, even if we don't all agree on the input of it, it's gotta be like that perfect kind of movie where it's like, it's a party film, it's a debatable film, it's a bizarre, weird film, it's a horror, weird film. Oh, there's a couple I would love to do. A couple I would be like. Do you know what they'd be?

[00:03:21] Anything that's like really bad horror. Like... Oh, jeez. You gotta be a little more specific. Alright, there's a movie that came out in the 1970s called Nocturna, Daughter of Dracula. I've heard of it. Oh, yeah. It is Yvonne DeCarlo, John Carradine, Brother Theodore. God, 78. 78, okay.

[00:03:50] There's another Dracula movie that has like Louise Fletcher in it, I think. Oh, well there's... There's Old Dracula with David Niven, which was... I kind of go boo about when I watch that. It's gotta be something where it's like, we can agree, didn't break us, but has like some kind of camp about it, you know? It's like... I was thinking something like Superman 4, the quest for peace or something. Oh, God, we could do that.

[00:04:19] That'd be perfect. Oh, God, yes. Like, it's painful, but not in a way, like, it's not torture porn. It's not something where you're like, I'm just... Like, it's not like when we see a more recent movie and we're like, that's boring, but not really... It's not trashy fun. It's not so bad, it's good. It's just dull, you know? I just want to say something about Superman and his repair the Great Wall of China vision that he has. Oh, God.

[00:04:51] I think you're right, yeah. It's like he fights literally over, like, a UN meeting or something like that, where you're like, what the hell? He comes into the UN and he's like, from now on, I'm going to destroy all nuclear weapons. And he's like, you're like, yay, okay. Ha, ha, ha. Yeah, ha, ha, ha. And Nuclear Man is like a... Nuclear Man.

[00:05:19] You want to know, he's still alive, but he's like, ahead of like a apartment. Not an apartment, like a legal firm that repairs vehicles. Mark Pillow. Yeah, Mark Pillow, I follow online, yeah. Previously, he was like a fashion model and like, Jesus. Yeah, and the thing is, when they had the premiere in London, everybody's stressed up except for him. He's got his Nuclear Man costume on.

[00:05:47] You know, he's like, there I am. He's like, there I am. There's me. You know, there's Meryl Hemingway and Margot Kidder. And there I am. You know, he's like, he's just like, you can tell he's got a smile on his face. Like, yeah, I was in a Superman movie, you know. But the funny thing I love about that is John Cryer being in that movie, being like maybe a year or two removed from doing Pretty in Pink as Ducky. Yeah.

[00:06:10] And then you find out later when they did the Arrow universe and they were doing the Crisis, he played Lex Luthor. Yeah, he's Lex Luthor in like Supergirl and stuff too. Yeah. Yeah. That was him making up for it. He's like, nope, I get my final say. Yeah, so the cousin got to, or the nephew got to grow up and be Lex Luthor. Yeah. You grew up to become the villain.

[00:06:37] And that's why Gene Hackman, who is J-No, needed the morning. Just so you know, when you were snoring, at first we thought you were doing a take on Older Grunch. No, no, no. I got it. It's just the way work has been and everything I do. Oh, no, that's fine. But we were just like, at first we were confused. We were like, is he doing Older Grunch? We were going back and forth. Is he sleeping? Oh, yeah. It's not you. I just, I just, I was just, I've been so tired.

[00:07:06] And I'm trying to, I've been so tired, like with way, work, you know, because I get up at like four o'clock in the morning. And I got to get to bed in a little bit. Shit. Yeah. Well, so. But man, dudes, this was, this was dynamite. This was. I haven't seen it. Trust me. Next week, I'll be a little bit more awake. I'll drink. I'll take some Vibrant and drink some coffee.

[00:07:29] You know, and like I mentioned, the Great Wall of China Vision, there's a scene where he, I don't remember which Superman it was, where he's pulling his ass off his chest and he's using it to capture. Superman 2. Superman 2. Superman 2. Superman 2. Right. It's like, where are these powers coming from? Well, like. Where has that ever been a part of his suit? You know? Did you ever see Family Guy when they did that? And he goes, he goes, he takes it and he says, what the hell was that? Huh? Huh?

[00:07:59] Like that? Like that? Huh? Huh? It's like, yeah, it was not. That didn't do anything. You know? He's like, yeah, big plastic ass wraps you up, huh? Good idea, huh? You know? That's, that's what got me. That's what got me about Superman 2. When they redid the Donner cut, they cut a lot of that out. Thank God they did. Yeah. You know. Kind of dragged. You know, I want to, you know, I want him to beat the shit out of the villains. I didn't want him to, you know, you know, they do the, you know.

[00:08:29] No, the triplet, you know, he does the one where he's like, you know, he makes himself an illusion, you know. Or, you know, he takes the big, the big cellophane acid and throws it at non. I was like, what the fuck is this shit? You know? Well, you know, stuff like that, Equestral Peace is still the worst one of the group. I, uh, so fun fact, uh, uh, that the other Gil, Gil Palmer, the Tales from the Crypt guy, actually had Brandon Ruth on their show recently.

[00:08:59] And they admitted that when, when they were making that movie up in Australia, their, their intent all along was to have Superman Returns be the Donner-esque intended part free. Yeah, that's what, that's the way I look at it. Time Magazine says Superman Returns is beyond super. It's superb. Newsweek says it soars. Its imagery is breathtaking.

[00:09:29] It's Superman. You won't believe your eyes. People Magazine calls Superman Returns the first big film this summer. Bring it on! To live up to its hype. An absolute must-see. Superman Returns. Rated PG-13. Special late-night Tuesday screenings everywhere Wednesday. Three and four. I was glad to actually hear it from them because I, I just figured, oh, their influence. I didn't know they, in their minds, it was cinematically part of the same. It is.

[00:09:57] The Salkinds, when they took over, was that Quest for Peace or was that before that with Richard Pryor? Before. Before. The Salkinds did, yeah. The Salkinds did one, two, and three. Then they let the property go. And Canon films. Canon films. Canon gets the money from Warner Brothers and all of a sudden they're like, well, we're going to cut the budget. That's why when you watch Superman Returns, a lot of it is just like.

[00:10:24] You look at the comic book adaptation and there's more stuff there and you're like. There's more stuff in the comic book than there is in the movie. Like he takes Marilyn Hemingway into outer space. Gene Hagman literally looks so bored to be doing a walk-on cameo. You're just like. He's just like, he's like, I'm here to make up for, I'm here for, I'm here because I wasn't here in three because I hate the Salkinds. They all hated the Salkinds. They all hated them for what they did to Dick Donner.

[00:10:49] Because supposedly the deal is Dick Donner got fired halfway through because he had Superman to almost complete. Because they were shooting it back to back. And one day he, one day he's like, he's in the bathroom. He gets the paper and it says, it says on the paper, Richard Donner fired from Superman. He didn't even know about it. And they replaced him with Richard Lester who had done the three Musketeers. Right. But he was known for being more of a workman versus, you know.

[00:11:20] Yeah. He was known for, you know, he'd done the Beatles movies too. So. He was known for doing fun popcorn while Donner wanted both popcorn and a compelling drama, you know. Yeah. Compelling drama. And. I do like the director's cut, even though some people don't like that version. I'm like, eh. It's just fun. I love the Donner cut. It's amazing. I think he got the final say, you know. Like, I think other people get all wigged out about director's cuts and like, at least you have two versions to choose from, you know. Jim. Well, who was it? I have the Donner cut.

[00:11:51] The Donner cut's amazing, you know. It's like. They don't. They don't. They don't overdo it with him being discovered as Superman. Even with the CGI, you know. At least there's cutting out what was intended versus how it's made, you know. Yeah. Side note, I will tell you guys. Avoid the Donner party cut. Yeah, that'll leave you hungry for a while. You'll be in their crosshairs. You don't want to do that.

[00:12:19] Not to mention the cats get smaller and smaller as the movie goes on. There's a capitalism joke, kids. There's going to be some cool one-liners. Pioneer this. Yes. And then, like, were there's all kinds behind Supergirl? Yes, they were. I didn't know. Wow. They had the rights to it from Warner Brothers.

[00:12:47] Because to them, it was going to be a goldmine. Because everybody loves Superman. And they had. I love Superman. They all love Superman. They had the original script of Superman. It was basically just Superman with a bunch of cameos from different famous people in it. And, like, Kelly Sipolsky would turn around and say, hey, Superman, who loves you, baby? You know, like that. Yes, I remember hearing about that. Donald with the script said, no, we're not going to have that.

[00:13:16] So, he brought in Tom Mankiewicz to come in. And Mankiewicz just frigging, like, did, you know, Krypton, Smallville. The minute we get to Metropolis, it's like, it's a comedy. You know? Yeah. There's a lot of comedy scenes in there. It doesn't make any sense. And you're just like, what?

[00:13:36] But the thing was, is that when you watch Superman 2, the Donner cut, the scene with him and Brando is amazing to look at. Totally. You know? Because that's how it was going to be. Because if you watch just the theatrical, it's like, okay, you see him, and then he's gone. You know? He's just basically leftover footage. And it was so cool to have that other just interaction. Where it has Suzanne York.

[00:14:06] Oh, that's right. He has his mother. Yeah. And, you know, it's like, I kind of sat there and I was like, okay, this makes more sense. You know? Jor-El sacrifices himself to make. She's really good, if anyone's seen it, in A Man for All Seasons. Oh, yeah. In The Silent Partner. Yeah. She's good. Oh, I like the first Superman movie. Okay. Even if the Salkines were behind that, it looked like Donner had more control over that. Yeah. I think. He did. I can't remember.

[00:14:36] Why did they take him away? Was he run behind? He wasn't. He wasn't getting. He was. From what I understand, there were a lot. He wasn't talking to them because they wanted this and they wanted. And he's like, no, no, no, no. This is how it should be. So what they would have is they had Dick Lester come in and become a go-between between the two of them. What they were doing was they were seasoning Lester to be the director because they wanted, from what I've heard, they wanted Richard Lester all along.

[00:15:04] And then what happened was that Donner got fired. He makes a movie called Inside Moves and he makes The Goonies and he makes all these other, you know, Lethal Weapon and all these other movies. Richard Lester is stuck. He has to shoot 60% of the movie, reshoot it to get director credit on it. Yeah. So at some point you can tell what's Richard Lester and what's Dick Donner. Right.

[00:15:30] Growing up, I didn't notice, but now you can definitely tell you like, okay, Donner's, the dramatic moments are definitely Donner. The effects shot, that's a Lester shot. You know. Or the cellophane S that he throws. Yeah. Yeah. That was all, that was all Richard Donner and. Well, the cellophane S was. Yep. That was all, that was not, no, that was Lester. That was Lester. Donner just, Donner was like, take that out.

[00:15:59] When they read, when they read the cut, he was like, take that out. Take it out. Just have him, have him go back to the Fortress of Solitude. He fools the villains. And then that's it. You know. Nice. End of story. That almost felt like what happened with Justice League. Yeah. History repeats itself. It didn't even rhyme.

[00:16:26] And I'll tell you this, I like the Joss Whedon version of Justice League more than the Zack Snyder version. Hmm. Fair enough. I'm kind of. I thought they fixed some stuff in the new one, but it didn't need to be that long. No. It was awful long. Yeah. But I, I had some problems with the Justice League as it was released in the theaters. So I guess I, I don't really know. I was kind of like. There needs to be a third cut. We got to pull a heaven's gate here. Oh, God.

[00:16:58] I, I just kind of, I kind of look at Justice League and I go, no, no, this is not the Avengers. The Avengers is fun. This is fun, but it's not fun, fun, you know? Mm-hmm. Because they, they took, Snyder was like, you know what, I'm going to take the scene from, I'm going to take the part from Dark Knight Returns when he's fighting him.

[00:17:28] And then we'll just put that in there, you know? Well, and the other issue, I love political fillers. I mean, I, I watch the Daily Show anytime it's on, but like the political shit has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Yeah. Take it out. Yeah. Nothing changes. And, and they're just talking people. Like it's, you know, I get shit for liking the, uh, political stuff in Babylon five and

[00:17:57] Star Wars, but I'm like, you know, at least I know why it's there. It's building the world, showing how the empires are run. But, you know, here I'm like, what are these guys matter to the rest of the thing? Like, they're all going to be blown up. They almost make it like we should care about them. I'm like, no, I really don't, I don't have anything to relate to. Like, they're just, they're just killing time. They're taking up space. Although it did like Ben Affleck as Batman. He was pretty good.

[00:18:24] I think that was what was made to read on was people dug him, his fight scene, laden persona, uh, the, the docs is named Nicholson. Yeah. Well, we got, we got a taste of him again in the flash movie. Yeah. That was pretty close. Yeah. And that, that's another kettle of fish that I don't think should be ever discussed with it out,

[00:18:50] out in the open because that whole movie was just like, I wanted to see Keaton. Director. Well, and the problem is he was used because they're like, oh, our actors misbehaved me on the scene. And well, no one's going to, that there might be people who won't go to see it just because the actors on professional off screen. So we got to just force him in there just to get people to go out.

[00:19:15] And like, but again, they're going out there because of nostalgia and not necessarily because the movie they want to see. I'm like, well, I can only hope that again, as we're talking about repeating history, just people just look and say, Hey, people went out and saw this, but it wasn't because they were good. You know? Well, I mean the flash movie, I didn't like the flash movie, but I did like Keaton in it. And I did like the girl who played Supergirl. Yeah. She was great.

[00:19:45] I, uh, uh, yeah, I, I, I want to interview her. Like I looked up her resume. She's done a bunch of TV, including soap operas and everything. I'm like, she was intense. She was captivating. I'm like, she should have her own movie instead of being tertiary to the whole craziness going on. Blame, blame, blame, blame Jeffrey Zaslow because what he's done to Warner brothers is basically, okay, I'm happy James Gunn is taking over.

[00:20:13] Cause now it's his mess instead of. Yeah. He's got to fix this shit. It's like, uh, it's kind of like how Capitol Hill's run. It's your problem. But, but I'm going to say this and I'm going to go to, I got to, I got to, I got to go to bed after this. I promise. I promise. I'm going to say this. If he does a good job with Superman and he's bringing in all these characters, like, you know, booster gold and green Lantern and Hawkgirl and shit like that. I think we're going to have a good Superman movie.

[00:20:42] You know, let's hold our breath. You know, you know, do you think he should up the, up the violence? Like he did for suicide squad for these movies too. No, like you can be grim, but don't be like, let's, let's have some fun with what we're fighting here. Well, and let's also let him breathe. Like, let him breathe for a little bit. You know, like, you know, you know, you know, the scene in Ultron where Hawkeye goes back to his farm. I want to seem kind of like that for Superman.

[00:21:11] Just like, how is he adjusted to, from becoming a Martian to, you know, being accepted by mankind? Just something showing that he's not comfortable in his own skin, but he's got a man up and he's got to become the unusual hero to earth. He did some good stuff with Guardians of the Galaxy and that wasn't rated on. You know, so I'm thinking he, I think he can make it work. Oh yeah.

[00:21:40] Oh, if he's going to try to up the violence, like he did for suicide squad. He's also got a, in fact, I think he'd be better off just not even doing interviews. It's just like, let it speak for itself. People will go in. They won't. Obviously there's always going to be someone who bitches, but just like, just go in. That version of Suicide Squad had a lot of comedy in it. And I think the one guy who stood out the most, not only Idris Elba. Yes. But John Cena did a really good job as the Peacemaker.

[00:22:10] You would love the Peacemaker show if you haven't seen it. And the series is phenomenal. And I think John Cena, if he, you know, I know he's going to be retiring from wrestling. If he, he's a, he's a funny, he's a fun guy. And, you know. I want him to return to psych. Oh, yeah. It's so funny how Jules's dad is Bill Shatner and her brother is Mr. Spy John Cena.

[00:22:38] Well, you know, it's kind of fun because John Cena doesn't look like, I mean, he doesn't, he has no problem making fun of himself. He took a while, but like The Rock, he finally just shedded the ego a bit and just said. Well, I mean, what's that movie with, what's that movie with the, what's that movie with that actress or that comedian girl? Oh, Amy Schumer. Yeah. Amy Schumer. And, you know, he's in that scene and he doesn't paint a very good picture of himself, but he was hilarious. Yeah, Trainwreck. Yeah.

[00:23:09] That's what it was called, Trainwreck. I loved him in Cockwalkers where he played the dad. I thought he was great in that. That was fun. I know he even had his own comedy franchise for a bit with Lil' Ray Howery, Best Friends or something. They did a sequel that wasn't as good, but same deal. Everyone's like, okay, we accept you as the comedic physical comedy guy now instead of Mr. Wrestler turned action star. Yeah. Which he really leans into the comedy more. He's way more comfortable in it. That is for sure.

[00:23:38] He's, you know. But, hey, guys, that was awesome. All right. We did free chats here. That was awesome. That was an epic night. Not bad. Not bad. Tell them I'm going to sleep. I will see you next week. All right. See you later. Get some great show, guys. See you later, guys. And everyone, stay out of the heat. Yep. Okay. Always a blast. Yep. Always fun. Talk to you later. Promise. Yep. We'll return after these messages.

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