Supermen Return

Lex Capacitor: Nicholas Hoult and David Corenswet are archenemies. (Jessica Miglio)

I have a piece in the Paper of Record today running down the sordid history of the first Superman movie franchise, the one that started with Richard Donner’s iiimperfect masterpiece. Is that a contradiction? Let us agree to disagree.

And here’s a deleted scene, of sorts, from the piece, addressing the 2006 “Donner cut” of Superman II, which was released on home video only once the rights issues around Marlon Brando’s footage were resolved so his voice and likeness as Jor-El could be used in Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns that same year:

When the contractual issues regarding Brando’s participation were settled so that director Bryan Singer could use the Brando footage from 1977 in 2006’s Superman Returns, film editor Michael Thau took the opportunity the assemble “The Donner Cut” of Superman II, a curio that draws upon unseen footage from the late-seventies production — and even, in one instance, a screen test of Kidder and a scrawny Reeve, who’d not yet bulked up into Kryptonian shape — to offer a rough approximation of what Donner had intended some 25 years earlier.

Fourth Time's the Charm: "The Fantastic Four: First Steps," reviewed.

When it comes to putting First Family of Marvel Comics in the movies, the fourth time’s the charm. My Washington Post review of Fantastic Four: First Steps is here.

Talking "Superman" '78 on The Next Picture Show

I’m on the marvelous podcast The Next Picture Show! I recorded my appearance last Wednesday night live from my parents’ kitchen, while my dad was in Fair Oaks hospital, and my brother, who’d just flown in from Tokyo, dozed on the sofa in the living room. Which prevented me from asking him to leave the TV off for three hours while NPS regulars Genevieve Koski, Keith Phipps, and Tasha Robinson and I discussed Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman and James Gunn’s 2025 Superman — the subject of the next Next Picture Show — in one marathon session. I was filling in for Scott Tobias, and not one of us thought to exclaim, “Great Scott!” That’s negligence, if not malpractice.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Superman"

David Corenswet is your new Last Son of Krypton. (Jessica Miglio)

One of my earliest Pop Culture Happy Hour appearances was to discuss 2013’s Man of Steel, a film I liked more than my pals Linda Holmes and Glen Weldon. My willingness to stick up for a movie that Looper, The Last Jedi and Knives Out writer/director Rian Johnson would later tell me was “the first film [he’d] ever paid to see in the theater,” became a big part of my identity on the show for several years thereafter. So it was only right that I’m back on this week to chop up the new Superman from writer/director James Gunn, which the three of us all liked a lot. But lest any opportunity for fake antagonism between Glen and me go untapped, let me say that my original greeting upon being introduced in this episode was “I like pink very much, Linda.” And so it would have stayed had Glen not ratted me out by pointing out that that line from Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman was in reference to… Lois Lanes underwear. (She invited Superman to look! Check the tape!)

And if that ain’t enough Glen-and-Chris-jaw-about-Kal action for you, FIimspotting just resurfaced our Top Five Batman/Superman Moments segment from nine years ago, tied to the release of 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice — the single film Gunn’s bright, buoyant new Superman is most intended to course-correct. My No. 1 was of course that selfsame pink-knickers balcony scene from Superman ‘78.

Hail to the Chiefs: Ranking the Ten Most Two-Fisted Action Movie Presidents

“A reunion of the blue-chip screenwriting-and-directing duo of Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg, and a showcare for the generational acting skills of Daniel Day-Lewis — sorry, that was 2012’s other Lincoln movie, which in focusing on the final three months of our most-revered president’s life omitted every one the Illinois statesman’s totally sick vampire kills.’”

So many jokes had to come out of my Washington Post ranking of the ten most two-fisted action-movie presidents.

Why, ay? "A Wrinkle in Time," reviewed.

TIme wrinkles in Arena Stage’s new musical. (T Charles Erickson)

It’s tough not to root for a new musical adaptation of Madeleine L’Engel’s seminal YA novel A Wrinkle in Time. I hope its creators will try, try again.

Stations of the Boss: "Tracks II: The Lost Albums," reviewed.

The only Boss I listen to. (Danny Clinch)

Bruce Springsteen’s curation of his own catalog has always been as beguiling as it is obsessive. Why, during the protracted sessions for his 1980 double album The River, did he pass over the many worthy songs that remained locked away until being compiled on the original Tracks almost 20 years later? While giving the nod to the turgid 8.5-minute ballad “Drive All Night”? And “Crush on You,” a D-list rocker I saw him introduce at a concert in Richmond in 2008 as “the worst song we ever wrote.” How did he decide to bury most of the 83 songs included on the new Tracks II: The Lost Albums for decades while determining that, say, clunkers from 2009’s Workin on a Dream like “Outlaw Pete" and “Queen of the Supermarket” needed to be delivered to his public immediately?

These questions are perhaps unanswerable, but Tracks II provides some clues. My Washington Post review is here.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "F1 the Movie"

Damson Idris and Brad Pitt are the hot young prospect and the grizzled old vet in F1. (Warner Bros.)

I was in Las Vegas in September and December of 2023 for U2’s Achtung Baby show at Sphere, and saw the infrastructure going up for the Vegas F1 race that was photographed for what I must evidently refer to at least once as F1® The Movie. In our Pop Culture Happy Hour dissection of it I likened it to Bull Durham, which does a far better version of the same old-dog-clashes-with-young-dog thing. I had a good time discussing this vroom-vroom flick with old friends Linda Holmes and Ronald Young, Jr., and new friend — and F1-the-tradmarked-racing-league expert — Maria Sherman.