Showing 1 - 10 of 260 posts found matching: superman

Before you ask, no, I do not intend to play the new Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League video game. I have no desire to play a villain who kills heroes like Superman, and, frankly, I'm a little disturbed that Warner Bros thinks there is enough money to be made by people who do have such a desire that they allowed such a game to be made.

I am willing to concede that there are some people the world would be better without. I recognize there is a role in human society for people who are willing to execute those people. Although I believe a strong ethical argument can be made against it and a perfect world wouldn't need it, capital punishment has its place in what passes for modern "civilization."

As a fan of crime movies and video games, I am also willing to admit that watching a nefarious ne'er-do-well pay the ultimate price for his misdeeds can sometimes be a thrill in a story well told. But that's not because I enjoy seeing people die; it's because I believe in justice. Crime doesn't pay, and villains should never win.

I shouldn't need to say this, but Superman isn't a villain.

Maybe Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has some great gameplay mechanics and stunning graphics. But any story that warps the Man of Steel into a selfish monster deserving of execution is not one that I want to read, much less play. That's not a game; that's a tragedy.

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66/2232. Something's Gonna Live (2009)
This documentary follows Robert Boyle and his friends reminiscing about the highs and lows of their Hollywood careers. There's a lot of grumpy-old-men complaining about how things have changed since their heydays in the 1950s through 70s (such as working for Hitchcock), but there's also a lot of open admission that the "good" old days weren't always so good (especially for minorities and the disenfranchised). A good documentary for cinephiles.

67/2233. The Dancing Detective: A Deadly Tango (2023)
Not so many years ago, Lacey Chabert was Hallmark's crossword-puzzle writing mystery solver. Now she's an undercover American agent on Interpol assignment in the ballroom of a corporate murderer. The crossword-writer was more believable. It's all very contrived, but I'll take what I can get after The Pandemic reduced the flow of new made-for-tv mystery movies to a trickle.

68/2234. Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
Much has been said in reviews about the third act's bad CGI and extended Skittles product placement, but the real problem with this sequel is Shazam himself. Zachary Levi plays the Big Red Cheese like a complete moron. What can I say other than he's not MY Captain Marvel.

69/2235. Deep Valley (1947)
This movie made so little impression on me that I just had to look it up on IMDB to remind myself what it was: poor little Ida Lupino is a socially deprived mountain girl who falls for an escaped criminal good-for-nothing. Spoiler alert: It doesn't work out.

70/2236. Inside Moves (1980)
For a movie that begins with a very graphic suicide attempt, this movie about a cast of characters struggling through physical disabilities that put them on the margins of society is surprisingly uplifting. Directed by Richard Donner, there's even a running sight gag of a Superman: The Movie pinball machine inside the local hangout at the center of the film. It's all very good.

Drink Coke! (Inside Moves)
A cripple walks into a bar... and orders a Coke!

71/2237. Thief (1981)
James Caan really inhabits the role of an ex-con who gets squeezed by some very stupid, stupid men. Like most Michael Mann films, I didn't love it, but I respect it.

More to come.

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Mom spent most of the past month touring the Western and Midwestern United States, visiting sites like Rocky Mountain National Park, Devil's Tower, Yellowstone, Deadwood, Mount Rushmore, and my personal favorite, Metropolis, Illinois.

It's a bird.... It's a plane.... It's Mom!

Yes, she is wearing gold shoes. She always dresses up when meeting famous people.

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Let me guess: your hang-ups have something to do with spandex?

Something tells me that three dollars' worth of hang-ups aren't as super as they used to be.

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Last week, TCM ran a documentary on early 20th-century filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. I've seen at least parts of a few of Micheaux's films, including his response to Birth of a Nation earlier this year. I didn't include the documentary in my most recent movie reviews because I typically like to work my way through what I watch chronologically. However, we are running out of June, and I really should cover this one before the calendar turns to July.

59/2225. Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking (2021)

As you can see from the title, documentarian Francesco Zippel really plays up the superhuman efforts that Micheaux had to perform to get his films about Black American life and starring Black Americans shown to (mostly Black) audiences. The film focuses on Micheaux's works and achievements but is light on actual biographical details of the man himself, admitting that many aspects of the man's personal life are unclear.

But what motivates me to post this during Superman Month is that Micheaux was born to a freed former slave in Metropolis, Illinois! That was 1884, about 90 years before the city embraced its tenuous connection to the Superman mythos.

The documentary concludes with a lamentation that Metropolitans would choose to erect a giant statue to a fictional hero instead of a true native son. But to be entirely fair, Micheaux was public about the social struggles of his early life in Metropolis, and he left town for good at the age of 17. On the other hand, everyone knows that once Superman moved to Metropolis, he stayed there.

A statue might be a bit much, but at the very least, you'd think they'd give him a plaque. Or a star on the sidewalk. If it's good enough for D.W. Griffith....

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39/2205. Barely Lethal (2015)
Pay television likes to show this movie late at night, probably for nostalgic 20-somethings. I think this is a rare case of a script (and cast) being better than the final execution. I only watched it all the way to the end because it was filmed in Georgia, and I wondered if I would recognize anything. I didn't.

40/2206. Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936)
I liked this somewhat more than Gold Diggers of 1935. (Of the three numeric "Gold Diggers" films, I'd still only recommend Gold Diggers of 1933.) There are just too many horrible doing horrible things to one another to enjoy too much time in their company when they aren't singing and dancing.

41/2207. Black Adam (2022)
I said I'd never watch it... then on a Sunday afternoon with nothing better to do, I did. It's... okay. The plot is too thin, many of the characters are too poorly developed, the third act grafts on a zombie subplot... and it's just so damn violent for a superhero movie! Honestly, as a DC comic book guy, I have real problems with the presentation of well-established Justice Society members as morons and pawns, but my biggest gripe is that Black Adam kills everyone, and he's supposed to be the idea of the kind of hero the world needs? #MakeMineSuperman

42/2208. Atlantis: The Lost Continent (1961)
Sadly, this has nothing to do with Aquaman. It is, however, the 60s equivalent of a super-hero action film, as the inhabitants of a scientifically advanced society pay for their hubris with the destruction of their world. You know, like what happened to the planet Krypton.

43/2209. A Walk in the Sun (1945)
"Nobody dies" is Private Rivera's mantra in this "Day In The Life" approach to World War II. The enemy is always present but never clearly seen, and most of the run time is taken up by bits of conversation as the soldiers try to keep the horrors of war out of their minds. The influence on Saving Private Ryan is obvious. It's really very, very good.

More to come.

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My air conditioner has died, and the house is hot. It could be worse, I suppose. It could be August.

Of course, if I was Superman, this wouldn't be a problem. For one thing, I'd be invulnerable to heat, but I'd also have Super-Breath, which I could use to cool the house.

You may recall that Superman used his freeze breath to turn a lake to ice so that he could put out a fire at a chemical plant in Superman III. He first used that power decades earlier in Superman #129, May 1959:

'Not again'? Maybe they should have called you Streaker-Man

You'll note that Superman debuts this power twenty years into his career only because his own previous Space Souvenirs are threatened. What, Jimmy Olsen never deserved a popsicle?

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Back in February, an image was posted to Facebook along with the news that high winds had blown the head off the Superman statue in downtown Metropolis, Illinois.

Always be concerned about the phrase 'it is confirmed'

In fact, the Photoshopped image and accompanying story had originally been the April Fools' Day prank for SupermanHomepage.com... in 2017.

But that didn't stop a lot of people thinking it was true. The Metropolis Super Museum had to publicly refute the claim being repeated by "news" sites far and wide. What hope do we have against Deep Fake AIs when people can't even spot amateur use of Photoshop's clone tool?

In any event, we can all rest safe knowing that the statue will still be standing complete when the annual Superman Celebration kicks off this weekend. Better than ever, actually. The big guy just got a new coat of (lighter blue) paint in time for a rededication ceremony at 9AM on Friday.

Take that, high winds!

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Welcome to June, the 17th annual Wriphe.com Superman Month, this year with 300% more Superman!

You may remember that this time last year, Superman was "dead" (again). As often happens in comic books, he got better. And in recent issues of Action Comics, he's been hanging out in Metropolis with three other characters who also call themselves Superman: his son, Jon; his clone, Connor; and the "New" Super-Man of China, Kong Kenan. It's Superman meets The Real World (where no one is an asshole to their gay roommate).

A little less conversation

At this rate, 2023 might be the year we finally get an answer to the age-old question "Can you ever have too much Superman?"

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As previously mentioned, I recently had to replace my telephone. A new device calls for new backgrounds, and these are what I am using for my locked/unlocked screens respectively:

World's Finest: José Luis García-López Batman and Robin

 
World's Finest: Doc Shaner Superman

For the record, Batman & Robin are by José Luis García-López, and Superman is by Evan "Doc" Shaner. Together, they make the World's Finest pair of Pixel 7 phone backgrounds!

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To be continued...

 

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