Superman Review, Top 5 Superman Movie Moments

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Speaker 1: What kind of a show you guys.

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Speaker 2: Putting on here today?

00:00:06
Speaker 1: You're not interested in art?

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Speaker 3: Now?

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Speaker 1: No, Look, we're going to do this thing. We're going to have a.

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Speaker 2: Conversation from Chicago. This is Film Spotting celebrating our twentieth year. I'm Adam Kempinar and I'm Josh Larson.

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Speaker 4: Superman.

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Speaker 2: He's not a man, He's an it. Somehow become the focal point of the entire world's conversation.

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Speaker 1: I will not.

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Speaker 2: Except that Josh, will at least one of us get to play the superhero? Or will we both be villains? As we review James Guns Superman.

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Speaker 4: Well, I don't know about you, Adam, but I did just shave my head.

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Speaker 2: Looking forward to this conversation, that review, and our top five Superman movie moments.

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Speaker 5: Mazy miss, I've got you, You've got hey, who's got you?

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Speaker 2: Ahead on Film Spotting what I can't believe it?

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Speaker 6: I just can'not believe any gone.

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00:01:33
Speaker 2: Welcome to film Spotting. As far as movie superheroes go, Josh, we were the Superman seventy eight generation, born about right in between Batman sixty seven and Burton's eighty nine Batman.

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Speaker 4: That's right. Do you think this might come up in our top five? But do you think you saw seventy eight Superman in the theater?

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Speaker 2: No, definitely did.

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Speaker 4: Probably didn't either, Yeah, I.

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Speaker 2: Would have seen it on TV or maybe early HBO in the eighties.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it might have seen Superman two in the theater though, might have been able to pull that off.

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Speaker 2: I think that's true for me as well. Later in the show, our top five Superman movie moments that will hopefully not lean too heavily on Margot Kidder's lois. We're not making any promises. Plus Massacre Theater and more. But first, James Gunns Superman, which is currently in theaters. Gun is the super tour behind the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and twenty twenty one suicide squad who has been tasked with resurrecting not just one, but a universe of superheroes. His new Superman is the first of the rebranded DCU. So long and thanks for all the Aquaman dc EU. Let's check in at the Daily Planet. Shall we twenty three people in the hospital, over twenty million in property damage?

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Speaker 4: It does make you wonder, wonder.

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Speaker 7: What as great as he is, maybe Superman and completely thank through the ramifications of the Bravian thing.

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Speaker 2: Let this guys, even from Bravia.

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Speaker 4: What do you mean his name is the hand a Bravia.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I doubt his parents named in that, Jimmy. We have no clue what his actual goal was here. I think it's pretty obvious the bowl was kicking Superman's ask.

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Speaker 4: He didn't completely kick Superman's ask pretty thoroughly, Clark. When we review a movie here on the show Adam, sometimes we talk about the notion of being in good hands. It's this understanding that the filmmakers are in command of their story and how to tell it, and that we can feel that assurance as viewers. It can go the other way too, of course, the uneasy sense that the hands are unsteady or maybe even misguided. Let's apply this notion to the New Superman, written and directed by James Gunn with David Cornsweat as the Man of Steel, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Holt as Lex Luthor. We know this story well, so the real question going in was related to how it was going to be told. How did they do? Adam, If you're a fan of the film, was there a moment where you had that good hands feeling, the sense that Gone and his collaborators knew what they were doing, particularly with this iconic pop culture property. Or maybe you're not among the eighty three percent of critics and ninety three percent of audience members over at Rotten Tomatoes who did approve of the film. If not, can you point to a moment when this Superman's hands felt unsteady.

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Speaker 2: I'm sad to report that I think I'm among the seventeen percent with one Josh Larson, I'm still searching me.

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Speaker 4: Wow, Okay, now.

00:04:31
Speaker 2: I'm going to be the villain too. I'm still searching for that clarifying moment to some extent, because my experience with this movie would best be described as wobbly. Right from the beginning, there's an opening crawl setting up the story, relying on repetition with the number three and look as an occasional writer myself, I love me some repetition. It goes from three centuries ago, then do I think three decades? Eventually down to three minutes. I guess I forgot how many any possible units of time there were. I was half expecting it to continue down to three milliseconds. It felt so interminable. But at three minutes we hear the Superman has lost his first ever battle, and my ears perked up. And then Superman falls to the ice with a booming thud, and my eyes opened a little wider. Wait Superman can lose, and soon we see that there's Alex Luthor who is smart enough and diabolical enough to beat him. I'm intrigued. Not long after that we get this, We get this Superman's version of the Lowest Lane interviewing Superman scene that we got in Superman seventy eight. Right and later I saw on Instagram video with Brosnahan and Corn Sweat and they talked about how they approached it maybe gun as well. They approached it as a stage play, and you know, I wouldn't have pegged Gun for that, but it works. She's interrogating him about his decision to get involved in world affairs. The subtext of that scene, though, Josh, is we're in a relationship, but I don't really know who you are, and I'm not sure you're being totally honest with me or yourself. I really like the scene because it's a completely different take on the lowest Superman relationship. It's a different take on the dynamic of that interview from seventy eight, on the substance of the interview, in large part because this is a very different Superman than Reeves, who wasn't just perfectly gallant and respectful and charming and in control. He was perfect in every way the Superman, whereas Corn Sweat's Superman is supremely mortal. He isn't wearing the suit, but he is Superman in that scene, and he's flawed. He's completely disarmed. Rather than being disarming, this Superman might actually be more gallant and respectful and charming and in control in the scenes where he's pretending to be Clark Kent. Then you've got his adversaries referring to him as the Kryptonian or the alien, dehumanizing him the way illegals are being dehumanized right now in our country, establishing some real world relevance. Twenty to thirty minutes in, I mostly thought maybe Gun has got it, and by the end I mostly thought he didn't have it, which we will discuss. But first I want to know what you thought.

00:07:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, as you alluded to, you do already know I got a chance to see this early, and so you do already know that I had a very negative reaction to this movie, and I want to I want to work my way through that here, because honestly, I feel like I've missed out. I feel on the outs. Not only is it getting a good reception, that's fine. I can deal with being against the grain, but people have found this to be rousing and ennoble, and many critics have written about how this is them. I didn't know I needed this movie, and so I am saying what I'm about to say, even though I really don't want to. I don't want to squash anyone else's fun. And I do see a bit of what they're talking about there. It is in the performance that you were just describing this is a very interesting take on Superman that, despite those variations you mentioned which I'd agree with, I think still the character this movie wants to believe in this character's initial goodness, heroic sense of justice and what is right and wrong, his kindness. I think that's what those people have really gone for the movie respond to, and it's there. But to me, it was only there in Corn Sweat's performance and the depiction of Superman, and not only lacking elsewhere, but actively acted against elsewhere. And to go back to the prompt I offer is, I thought, I'm going to look back at my notes. I had a ton of notes on this movie and see if I could could detect like where things went wrong for me, and really just to reinforce to myself that I didn't come into this movie wanting to go after it at all. And sure enough, looking at my notes, there's nothing negative really for the first number of pages. There's some dialogue I jotted down, which I usually do when I'm taking notes, some appreciation for Crypto the super Dog. I did have a few complaints about the glaring sun in nearly ever, every shot as if Gunn wants us to he wants to blot out that dreary DCEU that no one enjoyed. But eventually I did see this this phrase jotted down selfie girl is lame, and I realized in looking back why that stood out to me, And this probably I wrote down one of the first shots of Sarah Sempio as eve Lex Luthor's image obsessed girlfriend. You know, little did I know after this shot of her taking selfie during the battle with Superman that we were going to get so many bits about her doing this at silly times, or saying dumb things, or being clingy. But even with that first appearance, something inside me just said, uh oh, It's where I started to doubt the hands that I was feeling positive about, as you were, with that interesting opening in the middle of the narrative and all these things that were intriguing me. And I think it was just this instinct to go for the easy, often mean jokes that I recognized, that's a cheapness that I've just has not worked for me. In Guns Guardians of the Galaxy movies, I've found them and again this is where I'm against the tide here. I've found those to be full of cheap violence. For humor's sake, cheap emotional manipulation that's often tied to endangering animals. I've made my peace with the fact that maybe the Guardian's sensibility is just not for me. Okay, this isn't something I carry around with me. I honestly forgot that gun had directed volume three of Guardians of the Galaxy.

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Speaker 2: Whill I kicked him off at one point, but he maybe that's why I was confused.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So, at any rate, the problem this time, Adam, is that this sensibility that I sensed coming from Guardians is not the sensibility for Superman, especially a superman like this one that wants to double down on the character's care and kindness. And as I said with corn Sweat, who I think is quite good, here we get a Superman who is, in addition to those things you described, I think quite corny and very earnest. But his movie to me so often is delighting and being callous and cruel. And there is just a disconnect there that audiences seemed to be able to get past, but for me, I couldn't. It kept piling on until this was a really, really rough watch for me. And I can talk a little bit more as we get into it about where I saw those distinctions, But overall that's what didn't work for me when it came to gun Superman.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, listeners, especially obviously those who really like this movie can completely discount our points of view if they want more than they might usually because you said it and I had the same thought. James Gunn's sensibility just doesn't seem to mesh very well with ours. I think you've been a little bit harder on some of his films, including Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three. But I look back at my ratings of his films and thought about our conversations, and I've never really hated a James Gunn film, but I've never come close to really liking a James Gunn film either. And here I am with Superman kind of right in the middle, but definitely leaning more towards the negative and one trap I definitely don't want to fall into, because I definitely don't like it when audience members do this with critics, which is you try to assign some kind of motivation to why a critic feels a certain way. But I almost do wonder, Josh, because I feel it myself. I almost do wonder if some critics it's just wishful thinking, or on some level there's just this element of wanting so badly, especially for me not enjoying something like Jurassic Park or Drassic World Rebirth. You want to go into Superman and as someone who loved Superman, and we're gonna get to our Superman moments and it's gonna be filled. It's just gonna be overloaded with nostalgia. I promise you. Not only did I not go into this movie wanting to dislike it, I wanted to love it. So I came in with wishful thinking and yet, to use your word, I was never roused, even in its clearest attempts to be rousing. And I was certainly never moved, even in its clearest attempts to be moving. And I did see it similarly to you, Josh, and I'm gonna use some of the same words maybe, and words that are synonyms perhaps, though the experience of watching the film may be different, or how it worked on us may be different. But like you, I never could quite reconcile. And this is a problem I've had with guns work as well. Overall, I never could quite reconcile guns glibness and goofiness with his sadistic streak. That's what you're referring to as the meanness, even just his attempts to be serious. I could never quite reconcile with the glibness and the goofiness. And it is things like you said it, the lameness of the recurring bit of selfie girl, right, it's the Daily Planet itself, and every cast member within the Daily Planet who felt to me, Josh like they probably had bigger parts on the page and then somehow just ended up being afterthoughts in the movie, like Wendel Pierce, why did he get cast in this film? Beck Bennett is essentially playing a version of the Steve Carell character from Anchorman. He's a cartoon like a cartoon sports writer or something.

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Speaker 4: And I like that You're making a good point. He's out of place with what the other characters are doing.

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Speaker 2: You know, he's out a place compared to them. I don't understand why any of them are in this film or what they're doing in this film. And you do have this this wonderful earnestness to Superman the first word out of his mouth. I believe in this film is golly yes, and I love it that I know, I know, And then we take all of this silliness, even including the fact that this Superman doesn't just save every single human being who's in any kind of peril whatsoever. He rescues a squirrel, right, that's about that. That's where Gun's going with this Superman's even going to save the life of a squirrel who's about to get crushed. But then we're also going to have Russian Roulette and have I mean, come on, persons of color Russian killed and then going to be a joke.

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Speaker 4: It's not just that it's in there, it's that it's there for a comic punchline.

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Speaker 2: It sort of feels that way. But then he's going to want a payoff, an emotional payoff late in the film when there's going to be a reference to him, and it feels totally unearned and actually, again I'll say maybe a little bit sadistic there, and everything about the sequence that follows that where I think we can say, without getting too heavily into any kind of spoilers, everything that follows in that world, which is truly its own universe, this proto universe Josh where you're using not just that person of color as a prop, but you're using this, this baby aly In as a prop.

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Speaker 4: Sir.

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Speaker 2: It's a baby. It's still a baby, and the movie wants you to regard it as a baby and use it and think of it as something that you're trying to protect as precious, and everything about it still feels at the same time like a cartoon. And so for me, it's not so much like it's a moral or ethical thing. It's more that it makes it so tonally and just dramatically kind of disconnected. Yeah, concrty, that's the Yeah, that's the lack of consistency or the thing that I couldn't reconcile. And if I'm constantly trying to reconcile that throughout the film, then I'm having a tough time getting on board with the film dramatically and narratively. I'm constantly just at conflict with myself and the movie.

00:17:47
Speaker 4: I completely agree with you on all those points. And again, defenders of the movie might be saying, come on, these are throwaway scenes, and in a sense they are, but they're they're building a framework that, again is antithetic to the framework of kindness that this movie is supposedly about, and I'm just going to add some more that are even more throwaways. But the joke about, you know, in the Fortress of Solitude, Superman has these robot assistants who we meet in a number of scenes and come to have some care for as characters. There's a throwaway I think it's meant to be funny after the Fortress Solitude has been I'll go around spoilers, but basically invaded, and there's a shot of one of these robots like repeatedly stabbing itself in the head. And maybe that's not meant to be funny. Maybe I'm misreading it. The point is I should not be confused. I should not in that moment. Know, am I supposed to feel bad for? I think number four it is because they've there's a conversation about how they want names, even like, am I supposed to feel bad here? Am I supposed to be laughing? Is this slapstick? And I don't know, because I don't know. I rarely know what is sincere in a mov by James Gunn And I don't want to accuse you know, when I wrote about this, I made you know, some reference about I wonder how he feels about pets. I wish I hadn't written that it was facetious. It's a parenthetical aside. I don't really think that this is someone who doesn't care about animals, and sure enough, reading some I think it was in the New York Times, an interesting piece about Crypto the CGI dog, and it's based on guns. You know, own rescue dog. So I'm not meaning to be personal in that, but it's the it's the inconsistency in tone that does make you wonder just based on what you're seeing on the screen. Let's stick with Crypto and I'll give you another example. In this black site prison world where we spend way too much time, Crypto has been kidnapped and Lex Luthor has forced him to run on a treadmill.

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Speaker 2: Okay, chasing imaginary squirrels.

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Speaker 4: This is it, Adam, this is it. Okay if you want to use Crypto as you know, to move our emotions and to say no, not Crypto, look what Lex Luthor is making him do. This is awful, this is cruel. It's not nice to do this to animals. Why does gun also include the punchline of the squirrel gag? It's separated. We see Crypto first, and then it's like a visual punchline that he's chasing squirrels. These like a screen projection of squirrels. The squirrels and dogs joke is like you know, from up and everywhere else is so common, and so this is a comic beat. And so why are we including both? I don't know that. Like you, I'm trying to make a moral equation with either choice. But why are we trying to do both? Why are we trying to rend our heart over Crypto's predicament and then make us laugh at what's happening to him at the same time. To me, I can't reconcile those and just one more thing because I want to go back to this idea that this is all supposed to stand apart from Superman, he is the beacon of kindness. Of course, this world him is going to be awful. There's even some hypocritical elements here because that sequence you are referencing where he's battling this ginormous Kaiju and you know, is trying to save the squirrel. I think they're also trying to save a dog. There's another animal from being squashed by this Kaiju's foot. The whole point of that sequence is that he's arguing with the Justice Gang about how he doesn't want to harm this Kaiju. He wants to capture it, like study it and study it, and we'll bring it to like a zoo somewhere, And he keeps reprimanding them for being too violent against this Kaiju. I don't know. Maybe ten to fifteen minutes later, there's a scene of Superman and Lois having a conversation in a high rise building. You can see outside the window and behind them the Justice Gang is in a battle with like a giant space squid, right, and they're hammering the thing. They're lasering the thing, whatever they do, they're screaming at it. Hawkgirl does a lot of screaming, I mean at this space squid. And I don't know what happened to Superman's concern because Lois points it out and he's just like, they got this. It's a joke. It's a gag. The Superman we're supposed to be rooting for just gave a speech about caring for these interstellars creatures. Again, this is a minor thing. It's a throwaway scene, but you add all of these on top of each other, Adam, and I kept sinking lower and lower in my seat.

00:22:24
Speaker 2: Now, let me push back just slightly on one aspect of this with regard to the meanness, and that is the lex Luthor that we get here is obviously, very clearly intended to be antithetical to the Superman that we get. And we've already painted the picture of this Superman, the guy who says golly and saves the squirrels and for the most part, seems to be interested in just wanting to preserve life and about every living creature, including I'll throw one other little touch I like in here that I feel like is a deliberate or intentional moment in the screenplay. Remember when he goes to the Fortress of Solitude after he's been beaten in that opening sequence, and the robot I think it's number four again does something to help him, and he says thank you, and the robot says, there's no need to thank me. You know, I can't feel gratitude or feel whatever emotion he should feel in that moment. And I think that that Superman probably knows that about the robot, but he can't help but think him anyway, right right, that's this Superman. That's what he's made of, this Luthor. And this is ultimately something I like about the movie. I think is a strength about the movie. And I alluded to this earlier. This Lex Luthor is someone who is defined by his meanness in contrast to the kindness of Superman. So you mention the joke potentially of chasing the squirrel, I see that a little bit more. I see it less as a joke, and I see it more about Lex Luthor being someone who is not a matter for him of just wanting to sort of physically hurt the dog Crypto or do anything else to him. He wants to traumatize that dog. He wants to hurt and traumatize everybody who is an enemy of him. And I guess I appreciate that the movie gave us a Luthor who is distinct in that way from others. Look. I love Gene Hackman, of course, right, But if you're going to find new spins on these characters in the mythology, that was a Gene Hackman who was in his own way an evil genius, and he was someone who certainly caused trouble and almost destroyed parts of the world. I'm not saying he didn't, but compared to this Lex Luthor, I mean he seems like a saint. This Luthor is someone who comes very close to doing the unthinkable and actually destroying Superman at multiple points in this film, and he relishes every moment of it. He has no qualms whatsoever about hurting anybody who gets in his way, and you don't ever really feel that about someone like Hackman's Luther.

00:25:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is a sadistic villain. Absolutely understand that. I think. You know, again, the crypto scene on the treadmill, I think is trying to have it both ways, emphasize that is definitely a part of it, but also gain us to laugh at the squirrels. I don't mean to say that the movie is on the side of this Lex Luthor or even has the spirit of this Lex Luthor. No, but I'm scene like, I know that might be what it sounds like. It's clearly able to make a distinction there. But you know what, Adam, there's a key scene here that I think muddies the waters even on this point, and this is when Lois Lane has teamed up with one of the Justice Gang, mister Terrific, who I think is quite good Eddie Gothagie playing the character I was unfamiliar with mister Terrific. Great character stand out for sure. I think Brosnahan is really good as Lowis Lane as well. I wish she and Corn Sweat had more scenes together. Maybe we'll set that aside and come back to it. But for this scene with Lois and mister Terrific, they're basically facing off against a squadron of mercenaries. Okay, so they're you know, outnumbered. It's it's tense. Mister Terrific is able to create these tea spheres they're called, so he essentially builds this bubble around Lois where she's protected, and then he goes on the attack, unleashing other t sphares or projectiles things that start taking out all these mercenaries and the scientists who are working alongside the mercenaries.

00:27:13
Speaker 2: This is a sequence everybody seems to love.

00:27:16
Speaker 4: By the way, of course, because Gunn is amping up the filmmaking, the camera stays in the sphere with Lois, and it's one of these single takes which is swerving following the action as she looks, and I would say it's impressive, except that he also pulls out this trick about fifteen times in the movie, sometimes even in conversation scenes. And you know, at what point does a brevera single take no longer become revera if you're using it this often put that aside to the point here. The experience we have, the experience that Lois has is she's in her own movie. It's like she's watching her own Imax movie, and it is putting a safety lens against the violence that is happening. The bubble pops and all she can say is like wow or something like we're expected to oh, let me add gun. Also, you know, loves putting in pop songs, So we get this five years time playing from Noah in the way. I'm not gonna try to sing it to you, but it's very exciting, very poppy. Adds to the excitement of this moment. And all I can look at is, you know, this field of bodies in front of us. Again, I understand it's a superhero movie. It's not real. I understand that people die in them. To me, it is the attitude about the dying. This is where things get fuzzy. This is not lex Luthor. This is one of the heroes. We have already been told about how much Superman values life. I'm not saying, mister Terrific can't kill people. What I'm saying it.

00:28:50
Speaker 2: Don't feel the same. They've made that clear.

00:28:53
Speaker 4: Why does it have to be Why does it have to be presented as the entertaining high point of the film.

00:29:00
Speaker 7: That is the disc Why does she seem to love it? Why does she kind because we're supposed to and we're in the rubble with her. I think that may have been the moment where where I was pretty much completely out.

00:29:12
Speaker 2: I'm with you. I had a similar reaction to it where I loved the song. You know, I understood why many people might find this exhilarating, and yet I was conflicted the entire time I was watching it, and I kind of just wanted to get back to Superman. I wanted to get back to the narrative. I wanted to get back to that character the entire time. And as good as Brosnahan is, she's clearly a really talented actress. I wanted more scenes. I'm not saying I wanted scenes exactly like the one in the apartment, but I wanted more scenes where I actually got a sense of her character and her agency. And that may seem like a weird word to use because she drives so much of the action in the second half of the film, But there again, Josh, I didn't I didn't buy a lot of it. There is so much made about entering this proto universe, which is we're told incredibly dangerous, and the fact that she just walks into this universe, right, I know that this here is one of those things you may just have to suspend disbelief on. It's not something I'm bringing up because she's a woman. It's something I'm bringing up because she's a human being, she's not a superhero. And the fact that the movie needs her to enter that space. And then when you really think about it, she does not actually do much of anything in the second half of this film. Even after she goes into that universe, she's actually not very involved because she can't be and as all the action is occurring, she's kind of flying around and doing some journalistic things, but she's not really involved in the action. I feel like she's a pretty hollow character as well, not as hollow as the other members or the other employees of the Daily Planet, but more hollow than I would have liked. And that brings me as well.

00:31:10
Speaker 4: Josh too.

00:31:11
Speaker 2: Something about Corn Sweat's Superman that I also struggle with, even though I did overall really like his performance, and there were aspects of his Superman that we've spoken to that I think really work, and that challenge, if you will, the conventional mythology of Superman in interesting ways. He's a little slow, right, and I think I'm okay with that. But here's the part I couldn't really forgive in that interview scene. The thing she keeps hammering him on is that and the thing the world and that Lex is trying to use against him, The thing the world is questioning is he's in a bunch of trouble because he stopped a war. He's stopped another country a very you know here again real world parallels, right like Russia invading Ukraine. These two fictional countries, one just deciding it's gonna invade. And his answer, because again he's all about saving human life, the sanctity of human life, his only answer is really, but people were gonna die, So I had no choice. People were gonna die. I had to step in and stop it. That's who I am, that's what I do. But the notion that this guy, who also is a reporter for the Daily Planet, has never thought about seems to have never thought about what is Superman's place in the world. I'm not saying, like Man of Steel or some of these other films, we needed to have trials, We needed to put him on trial and have these lengthy discussions about what Superman's political motivations should be, or what's right and wrong along those lines. But the fact that it seems as if Josh He's never thought whether or not it really is okay that he gets involved in these affairs, that he doesn't have conversations with our political leaders before he goes and does these kinds of things, It does seem like a bit of a screenplay miss to me.

00:33:19
Speaker 4: I get it. It's to me it's embedded in the conception of the character, which is, to a nicer way to put it, is maybe naive or maybe impulsive in his niceness above all that, maybe possibly so. Yeah, I think you're right to point it out, But it didn't bother me quite as much. I did want to go back once more, just quickly as you were describing Loess stuck in this. I don't think I wrote this down. Were you saying a proto world, this in between the universe?

00:33:46
Speaker 2: Isn't that what it's called?

00:33:47
Speaker 4: Something like that? Yeah, sounds we may be in trouble getting that wrong. But this dark world, the reason it doesn't resonate like what is going to happen to her here? Why it doesn't matter is because nothing matters, because this is another seed goop world.

00:34:01
Speaker 2: Oh that's it is. It is a hot mess.

00:34:04
Speaker 4: And I don't want to keep piling on this movie. But I also, you know, I had other problems than the mean streak, and one is that this thing looks pretty bad. I thought we'll get to our Superman moments. But I had a chance, obviously to watch many scenes from nineteen seventy eight Superman, which looks so much better in terms of special effects, different tools, of course. But then what we get here there is that entire sequence in that world is you don't know what is up or down or what happens if someone falls off this or if they what There's like a goop river that you know, maybe that is bad, the.

00:34:45
Speaker 2: Proton river, which is why I've been getting it wrong. It's called a pocket universe.

00:34:51
Speaker 4: Pocket universe that has a proton river that leads to a black hole that we all know none of it exists because it doesn't look like it. For a second, GHO.

00:35:00
Speaker 2: Stakes at all to any of it, because none of it matters, None of it feels remotely real, and you don't know what's going on anyway.

00:35:07
Speaker 4: And this happens later too, when a rift I mean, we'll leave it. Yeah, but the climactic sequence, let's just say, visually, is just as junkie. And you know what, here's a point, Adam where I sat up in my seat because I thought, oh, there's a climactic battle where we're punching and bludgeoning and flying and you know, not all that different from the Snyder stuff quite frankly. And then Superman in the person he's fighting land in a baseball field, and I saw that turf moved like actual it might have been grass or turf. It was something that either you know, was really well done with CGI or they actually were on physical material. And I shot to attention because I thought, oh, this is going to be good. I can actually tell where they are, what's around them, and how it affects the fight, and you know, they don't stay there too long, obviously they had they head back into the dark closet.

00:36:07
Speaker 2: There is also the fact that I was praising how I loved that and I like Holt's performance. I loved how they made Lex so ruthless, so repugnant, so evil, and then they make a choice at the end, or Holt makes a choice at the end with that character that seems so out of sync with the diabolical ness of that character, that attempts to give that character some humanity, And I think Josh, you and anyone who has seen the movie and has seen the end of the film should know what I'm referring to. And I kind of wanted to laugh watching it. Quite frankly, Yeah, it was.

00:36:51
Speaker 4: I had a rough time with his characterization, you know, even though I agree the interpretation is as this sadistic guy, but I don't think he got a lot of development beyond that until we're dumped with his villain speech, or a villain speech I should say, gets dumped on us. Before that, I think Holt was doing a lot of sweating trying to make trying to make this work.

00:37:16
Speaker 2: Well. The emails are going to come in a plund you.

00:37:19
Speaker 4: Have no idea. You have no idea.

00:37:23
Speaker 2: Superman is out in wide release if you see it. And how about we just say if you agree with us, email us feedback film spotting dot net.

00:37:32
Speaker 4: You know, listeners will our listeners are like Superman. If they disagree with us, I will be kind and they will not want to destroy us, and you know, rip our spines out. They'll just have thought full, intelligent, kind responses.

00:37:47
Speaker 2: I'm sure this conversation might be the one that puts them over the top. This turns them into Lex Luthor again. Feedback at film spotting dot net.

00:37:56
Speaker 4: Listening is the number one thing you can do to support an independently to show like film Spotting. A couple more things you can do. How about taking a minute to give us a rating or a review on Apple podcasts or on Spotify. You can do this if you're a new listener or if you've been listening for twenty years. Every new review does help us reach new listeners. Another way to support us join the film Spotting family at film spottingfamily dot com. We want to thank family member Luca Dukic here in Chicago. I just followed Luca on Letterbox today had a chance to meet him once in Chicago as well. Great guy. If you want to follow Luca on letterbox, here's his handle. I'm gonna spell it out for you. D eb E lice Va p.

00:38:40
Speaker 2: So here's Luca and I do just want to point out I've been a little behind this week, Josh. I did not pick this well, I never picked them. Sam does. But I haven't even read this until now, and Luca's got some very nice things to say. I was a very early listener of film Spotting back in two thousand and eight. A few years later, I was fortunate to cross paths professionally one Adam Kampanar. Adam in person and at work is exactly like he comes across in disembodied voice podcast form, easy to talk to, intelligent and thoughtful. Life took me away from movie fandom over the next few years, but last fall, my wife and I had our first child, and I found myself with a lot of new podcast time. Given how much time I spent holding slash feeding a sleepy child with headphones on at all hours of the night. Rediscovering film Spotting during this time has inspired me to get back to the movies and has helped me build letterbox watch lists to watch all the movies I missed during the past few years. Plus the calming and dulcet tones of Adam and Josh have helped me get through some very tired first time parent moments while sitting on the rocking chair in the nursery. Thanks fellas.

00:39:42
Speaker 4: Hang in there, Luca, It'll get better.

00:39:44
Speaker 2: Indeed, a favorite review or segment of Luca's racing to the Internet to figure out wtf happened at the end of Take Shelter and finding the best Internet explanation coming from Adam. Thank you, Luca.

00:39:55
Speaker 4: We're reviewed to get wrong.

00:39:57
Speaker 2: Luca, Yeah, I paid him. I seem to be the only only person that feels this way. But Hitman was awful. Glenn Powell playing dress up as different characters was fun, but couldn't get past the fact that the least believable character he played in the movie was his actual character. At no point did I buy him as a nerdy, lonely philosophy professor, and the whole pretense of the movie was that he just needs to wear a cool chain and comb his hair differently, and he becomes the suavest man on the planet. New Orleans was also wasted as a setting man. You know, Luca might be right about that part.

00:40:27
Speaker 4: He was doing so good kissing up too, and then had to go against him.

00:40:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, now we're done. Letterbox Top four Okay, I like this, well, I like this until the end Fury Road, Dazed and Confused, Lebowski and Face Off.

00:40:41
Speaker 4: Took a turn there.

00:40:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, a favorite movie he revisited recently, Three ten to Yuma. I'm gonna assume that's the Russell Crowe remake, but you never know. A random film or filmmaker he loves. I love Charliekaffman's adaptation, especially having read Orchid Thief shortly before. It's the perfect meta movie, a movie credits with becoming a cinophile of the Cones made me fall in love with movies. Oh Brother and Lebowski were formative movies for me. Inside Lewin Davis gets better every time I watch it. We're Back Baby. Finally, a book about movies or movie making that he appreciates. The film that changed my life. Thirty directors on their epiphanies in the Dark. So that's a book by Robert Elder, who I interviewed on the show. For that book, if you want to check that out in the Film Spotting archive. Thank you so much, Luca for your support and for your kind words, and we hope to hang out with you again sometime soon. If you would like to become a Film Spotting Family member and maybe get featured on the show like Luca, I swear you don't even have to say nice things about us to get featured. Just tell us about your relationship to the ship helps again Sam picked it. Learn more at film Spottingfamily dot com.

00:41:56
Speaker 8: Craft Mac and Cheese is better than nineties hip hop. Will remind you of your childhood without making you feel incredibly old. Kraft Mac and Cheese best thing ever.

00:42:10
Speaker 1: Where there? How can we get here? And even worse? Is it worth it? Or at the cost of being at war with your neighbors? Scranging That's why I'm running from there.

00:42:26
Speaker 6: And the guys are not.

00:42:31
Speaker 1: Thank you, super dupient very much.

00:42:34
Speaker 2: That's Joaquin Phoenix and the trailer for Eddington, the latest from the director of Hereditary and Midsummer ari Astor. His film is set in twenty twenty in small town New Mexico. Are we ready to go back to twenty twenty?

00:42:50
Speaker 1: Josh?

00:42:51
Speaker 4: Did we ever really leave.

00:42:53
Speaker 2: Good question. You are going back. I am conveniently taking a vacation at this time of vacation in twenty twenty. That's right for a week anyway, And Michael Phillips, the very capable Michael Phillips, will be sitting in my chair and going back to twenty twenty with you for this conversation about Eddington. We are going to or the two of you will be revisiting our top five Joaquin Phoenix performances. That's the top five we did back in twenty twenty three, which was a tie in with the previous ari Ast Joaquin Phoenix collaboration. But was afraid maybe we can get Michael to chime in with some of his.

00:43:35
Speaker 4: Favorite Phoenix performances.

00:43:36
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:43:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, it might not force him to do a full list, but I will definitely pick his brain on where he stands with the best of Joaquin Phoenix.

00:43:44
Speaker 2: Good. I do want to note, speaking of Michael Phillips, that well, we missed you this year again. Sadly, we got to get you back into the fold. I know you've been very busy. We for the tenth time, Josh and you were there for the first eight, but for the tenth year, not counting twenty twenty. We that's true, went to spring Green, Wisconsin this past weekend to visit the Van Halgrens take in some wonderful theater, including Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream at American Players Theater.

00:44:20
Speaker 4: Did you get it in? I know you were worried it was gonna get rained out.

00:44:23
Speaker 2: Michael Phillips came along with us this year, and we hoped to make him a regular part of our little troop. Venturing up to APT Josh for the first time in these ten years. We had rain, and it rained almost the entire day, and it rained the entire first half of the play, but they went on, but it was light enough that they did go on, and we had raincoats and ponchos, And it was a case where at some point in that first act it got enough that if it continued like that for maybe another ten or twenty minutes, or certainly if it continued raining through the intermission, they might have had to call it. But right around intermission it stopped, and in the second act there was no rain at all. So it was not the usual gorgeous atmosphere that you get when we visit APT. So niceing outdoor plays there. But it was still a good time, still a wonderful production of that play. The next night we saw a production of Picnic, and that was classic apt wonderful summer, you know, seventy five ish or seventy and sunny with the sun going down, a nice breeze. Michael was there. As I said, and here's the thing about Sam. People who follow the film spotting Instagram might have seen this on the Instagram story. You really do just kind of have to keep your wives or significant others away from Sam and his house. And here's what I mean by that. Here's what I mean by that, Josh okay, because you show up and of course he's like the perfect host, and he's got dinner prepared. He's like made the brisket and everything.

00:46:20
Speaker 4: Production meeting because he was making the brisket.

00:46:22
Speaker 2: That's right. The brisket's prepared, it's delightful, all sorts of other food. And then after dinner, he busts out a homemade peach and pretzel ice cream cake and he's over there, he's putting the finishing touches on it with this whipped homemade cream and he's drizzling the peach on top and adding peaches to it and I don't know, crushed up pecans or something. This thing looks like a work of art. And I don't even like peaches much, and it tasted like a work of art. Now what I was saying about your significant other? You know Sarah's over there going Are you watching this at him?

00:47:09
Speaker 4: Good question?

00:47:10
Speaker 2: You watching?

00:47:10
Speaker 5: Yes?

00:47:10
Speaker 4: She should wear? Is it in her life? Why is this not happening for her?

00:47:14
Speaker 2: It's it's completely absent and he just sets the bar too damn high all the time. So maybe we have to start going to Spring Green.

00:47:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm sorry, we couldn't make it. Maybe next year we'll get back. We'll see, I'm gonna see what's on the menu. We'll put it that way. See what's saying has planned for twenty twenty six.

00:47:32
Speaker 2: I'm sure it will be a delight whatever it is. Next week we will also have poll results. The current deeply flawed film Spotting poll asks you to choose one and only one Jack Nicholson performance will share our top five Nicholson scenes in a couple of weeks. You can vote in that poll and leave a comment at film spotting dot net. For our schedule of future shows. Visit film Spotting dot net slash episodes.

00:47:54
Speaker 4: Adam Cinema interrupt Us is less than a month away. I know we have a good core group who has already signed up for all four days. They've committed to the project. Adam getting through Robert Altman's The Player from Beginning to end, which you know sounds easy. We are going to watch it and it's entirely on day one, but then we'll come back start at the beginning and anyone can stop it, make a comment, ask a question until we get to the end. This is all happening at Chicago's Gene Cisco Film Center August eleven through fourteen, So yeah, join us. Get one of those four day packages if you want to commit, but if you can only pop in for a day or two, single day tickets will also be available. Those are all at Ciscofilmcenter dot org. Slash interrupt Us This week on our sister podcast, The Next Picture Show, looking at Cinema's present via its past, they are moving on to part two of their Kings of the Road pairing It is f one the movie. They'll be comparing this to Adam McKay's Talladega Nights the Ballad of Ricky Bobby, which they discussed on the previous episode. New episodes of The Next Picture Show drop every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes of The Laser Age Adam will also be available now. This is from Keith Phipps, one of our Next Picture Show friends. This is kind of a It's based on a column he had at The Dissolve back when The Dissolve was around exploring science fiction films the last half of the twentieth century is what he's focusing on. I listened to the first episode today on Silent Running, a movie I have not seen but am fascinated by. And he had a guest, John Hodgman, Right, who's you know, just hilarious and well nerdy enough to have a discussion with Keith about Silent Running. So I really enjoyed this first episode of The Laser Age And yeah, we encourage you to check that out.

00:49:57
Speaker 2: Silent Running part of our seventies five marathon back before you joined the show.

00:50:03
Speaker 4: Josh, sounds like quite a doozy, Yes, it was, so Yeah, check out The laser Age and listen as well to the Next Picture Show. You can find both wherever you get your podcasts all right. Time now for massacre Theater, where we perform a scene and you get a chance to win a film spotting prize. Last time we masacred this scene.

00:50:22
Speaker 2: Okay, here's the thought.

00:50:23
Speaker 9: I see an empty stage, I see drums, I see a drummer, I see a microphone, and I see a singer.

00:50:31
Speaker 4: Come on, what we gave that stuff up?

00:50:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, we don't do that.

00:50:34
Speaker 4: Listen, listen to me. Dale.

00:50:35
Speaker 10: Look when I was a kid, when I was a little boy, I always wanted to be a dinosaur.

00:50:40
Speaker 6: I wanted to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex more than anything in the world.

00:50:43
Speaker 10: I made my arms short, and I roam in the backyard and I chased the neighborhood cats and I growled, and I or everybody knew me and was afraid of me.

00:50:52
Speaker 2: And then one day my dad said, Bobby, you're seventeen. It's time to throw childish things aside.

00:50:58
Speaker 1: And I said, okay, Pop, what.

00:50:59
Speaker 9: Do you do?

00:51:00
Speaker 1: Really say that?

00:51:00
Speaker 4: He said, stop being a dinosaur and get a job.

00:51:03
Speaker 10: But you know, I thought to myself, I'll go to.

00:51:06
Speaker 1: Medical school, I'll practice for a little while. I'm gonna come back to it. Yeah, how's that other skill, but I forgot how to do it.

00:51:14
Speaker 2: You're human, you could never be a dinosaur.

00:51:20
Speaker 10: I lost it.

00:51:22
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, what's the point. Yeah, the point is don't lose your dinosaur. Pretty obvious why we chose that scene from Step Brothers. But let's hear from some listeners about the connections they made. Here's Brian Chudnow from Columbus, Indiana. This was probably the first Masacar theater. I had guessed well before the first lines were spoken, and as soon as the mention of Josh doing hand gestures was made, I knew that my guess was correct. The movie is, of course, the fantastic two thousand and eight comedy Step Brothers. As far as connections go, I would guess the main one is just the Richard Jenkins speech is about acting like a dinosaur, and you reviewed two dinosaur movies on the episode. Additionally, use the name's cal And to reference the names of Farrell and Riley's characters from Talladega Nights. Probably a better choice than the other Farrell and Riley collaboration, Holmes and Watson. The only other connection that came to mind for me was that Samuel L. Jackson does have a relatively brief but notable role in the Farrell film The Other Guys, One Last One. Jeff Goldblum and Farrell have at least collaborated once, when Goldblum hosted SNL while Farrell was still a cast member. If you have never seen Ferrell and Goldblum's skit with Farrell acting as Harry Carey talking about space, I highly recommend you find the clip on YouTube, as it's worth the watch.

00:52:36
Speaker 2: Hi, let me ask, what's your favorite planet? Well?

00:52:42
Speaker 1: I don't have a favorite.

00:52:44
Speaker 4: I find them all fascinating. They're all part of a Mine's the sun? Wow? How about that? Adam Our? Listeners like don't They're not just satisfied with the dinosaur connection. Brian went deep, He.

00:52:57
Speaker 2: Went deep, and that Harry Carey clip is absolutely worth the watch. Here's Jake Meltzer in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the quickest I've known a massacre theater in a long time. Shout out to the effing Catalina wine mixer. We got a lot of those. I'm not going to stretch for connections beyond the obvious invocation of the dinosaur, but I will say this, this may not be my favorite comedy of all time. But I don't know if there's a movie that makes me laugh harder every.

00:53:22
Speaker 4: Time I watch it.

00:53:23
Speaker 2: Fair enough, Josh, reach in to the film Spotting hat and pick out this week's winner.

00:53:28
Speaker 4: Our winner is John Bond from Haddonfield, New Jersey.

00:53:32
Speaker 2: Congratulations John, email feedback at filmspotting dot net and we will set you up with your very own film Spotting t shirt, or a film Spotting tote bag, or a trial membership to the Film Spotting Family Broadsheet.

00:53:46
Speaker 8: Journalists have described my impressions as stunningly accurate.

00:53:50
Speaker 1: Well, they're wrong.

00:53:51
Speaker 2: I've not heard you, Michael Kaye, but I assume it would be something along the lines of on i'ms Barkokai. That is where you are so wrong. We move on out to this week's edition of Massacre Theater and producer Sam must be a little disappointed with the number of entries because he's made this one. I think a little obvious.

00:54:13
Speaker 4: Josh. Yeah, it's it's being served right up there on a platter.

00:54:17
Speaker 2: At least the tie in, that's for sure. You started off. I'm going to give you the action. This is going to require some voice work, at least by you. Are you ready, let's do it and action sub soups. Wow, it's Batman and he's in my house right now. What are you doing here?

00:54:36
Speaker 4: Don't worry about a dog not to you here to throw down or anything.

00:54:39
Speaker 2: Ah No, I would crush you.

00:54:42
Speaker 4: Sure, for sure. Hey listen, thank me later. But I just happened to be in the hood and I figured you could probably use the company. Wait a minute, are you? Are you having the fifty seventh Annual Justice League Anniversary party without me?

00:54:58
Speaker 2: No? No, no, no, no no, no, oh no. There must have been some mistake with the email. That's crazy man, all right, Well, that clears everything up right. Enjoy the party, bro, hit it, DJ, well, wonder Dog and scenes.

00:55:17
Speaker 4: I was just waiting to see how you were going to do that last bit congratulation.

00:55:22
Speaker 2: I hope I delivered. If you know what film we just massacred, email the movie's title and your name and location to feedback at filmspotting dot net. The deadline is Monday, July twenty eighth. We will select the winner randomly from all the correct entries and announce it in a couple of weeks. Ohmar, her name is Color.

00:55:45
Speaker 6: You are the only survivor of the planet Quipplum. Even though you've been raised as a human being who are not one of them.

00:55:55
Speaker 3: You have great balls, only some of which you.

00:55:58
Speaker 2: Have as yet discover. That's Marlon Brando's Jorel, father of kal El in nineteen seventy eight Superman col in the movie, a heartfelt scene that James Gun offers a little twist on in his film. We are sharing our top five Superman movie moments, and this is a little twist on a top five we've already done way back on episode five seventy nine, I had on a couple of guests, Chris Klemick and Glenn Weldon from pop Culture Happy Hour, and if you'd like to hear them talk about this Superman twenty twenty five, James Guns and have way more positive things to say. As I understand, Josh. They are on pop Culture Happy Hour reviewing the film with Linda Holmes, and you can get that wherever you get your podcasts. They shared their favorite Batman Superman moment, so it was a combination some Batman scenes, some Superman scenes. We're devoting this top five entirely to Superman. Now, you weren't there for that list. That's why I had on Chris and Glenn, So we're gonna get your favorite Superman moments, and I got to expand on my list. I decided to set aside the two Superman scenes. It's kind of crazy, actually that I picked three Batman moments, considering I'm more of a Superman kind of kid. But I put those two in the honorable mentions, found five more that I'm a big fan of, and let's jump in.

00:57:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know if I was a Superman kid. I was a Superman young kid, because, as you said up top, you know, seventy eight and then eighty for Superman two. Probably eighty is right when I was really into these sorts of movies and so liked Superman then, but quickly, I think, in my head out grew him. So by the time you know, middle school or so came around and it was Tim Burton's Batman, I was like totally all in on Batman. But then years later came back around to Superman and appreciating once more what they pulled off with the seventy eight version. All that's to say, Adam, I really don't know much Superman beyond those two Christopher Reeve films. And the recent ones, which I haven't really enjoyed much at all. So I did some research for this list. I wanted to learn more about the Superman that came before my time and see, you know, just see what pops up as essential about this character over the decades. So going all the way back, you know, being somewhat familiar with the original thirty eight comic, but then animated versions that came shortly thereafter, and yes, even the George Reeves TV series. So let's start with Reeves. Can I start with George Reeves here at number five?

00:58:48
Speaker 2: Absolutely?

00:58:48
Speaker 4: Okay? So the interesting thing didn't realize this. I knew about the TV series, but there was a feature film that was used to promote that, to kick it off, and it was called Superman and the Molemen. This is nineteen fifty one. Now I hear it speak in my language, right, I need come on. I was like, I'm watching this thing. I gotta watch this thing. It helps that it's fifty eight minutes. But yeah, the manimal quotient, the manimal material wasn't great. Out of these molemen, they basically have bald caps. You can see they put a little fur on their hands. That's about it. That's about all you get. That was not a highlight overall. This was a little rough, it's stiff, it's very slow. But Reeves, George Reeves, gets a couple of great scenes that are particularly interesting given all the right wing hand ringing that's going on about this new Superman. The basic plot here involves a deep earth oil drill that breaks into the realm of the Moleman. Okay, now, a few of these Molemen come out of the whole to investigate what's going on, and the town's folk go nuts. They're paranoid, they're trigger happy. They turn into a lynch mob. And you've got Superman here, Georgie of Superman, trying to keep the peace. So here he is. When the armed mob shows up at the hospital where one of the wounded mole men is being treated for a gunshot, you're gonna.

01:00:18
Speaker 6: Step aside, and we have to make trouble watch some lag nim. Look, mister Benson tried that once already, it didn't work. Now I'm going to give you one last chance to stop acting like Nazi stormtroopers. Who are you to tell us what to do? All I'm telling you is that little creature in there has as much right to live as you do. Don't forget you invaded his world. You sank a pipe six miles into the ground when he climbed up, you set dogs on it. Shine.

01:00:45
Speaker 4: So I've got a credit. Amy Nicholson, Ellie Times Film critic, because she was posting about Superman in the Mollman on Blue Sky. This is what alerted me to it, and regarding that clip in particular, she said, this had to mention this scene in my Superman review because it's still startling. In twenty twenty five, A rural mob wants to lynch the outsider molemet Superman confiscates their guns and calls them Nazis. So you know what, Adam, maybe we should make America great again. Okay, we are a long way from the sort of level headed communal common sense that Superman displayed here in nineteen fifty one, so I think we should do it. I wouldn't advise watching the Superman and the Molemen in whole, but you can find that scene in our show notes. And I did choose it because I think it does speak to an essential quality, that the pacifist nature of Superman, that not every iteration has quite gotten right, this one did, Okay.

01:01:48
Speaker 2: I did not dig into any George Reeves or other TV Superman unlike you, though I have seen and have to admit as a kid, I quite like Superman three with Richard Pryor, and I even liked, I even like for a spell Superman four The Quest for Peace. But no, I will not be picking any great Superman moments from either of those installments, nor will I be picking any great moments from Batman v. Superman or Justice League. That doesn't mean Zack Snyder may not appear anywhere on my list, Josh, She's not coming in at number five though. My number five is from Superman two and it's the diner revenge scene.

01:02:37
Speaker 1: Yeah.

01:02:37
Speaker 2: Now, keep in mind, I am watching this movie. That's it. I'm watching this movie as a grade schooler, and it's so satisfying, right, it's satisfying now, but especially satisfying then. It's set up by one of the worst Superman moments to watch, right, Clark Kent absent his Superman powers trying to defend his wife's honor at a diner, and he's just beaten senseless by this vulgar trucker. What I said in our Superman twenty twenty five review that this Superman was perfect. Well, I actually don't think Corn Sweat's Superman would do this, would come back at the end of the film to get revenge. He wouldn't believe in revenge.

01:03:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, it kinda goes against.

01:03:34
Speaker 2: It, does the ethos of Yes.

01:03:36
Speaker 4: The Reeve Superman. It's an interesting scene.

01:03:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, but Henry Cavill Superman does something like this, and certainly Christopher Reeves wasn't above this. His Superman wasn't above this because he gets his revenge here. He comes back to the diner after regaining his powers and finds this trucker.

01:04:00
Speaker 4: Excuse me, sir, I think you're sitting in my favorite seat.

01:04:04
Speaker 1: Come and get it for us.

01:04:06
Speaker 2: Donner's just so good with the camera the way once he gets the trucker's attention, he starts to walk, and just as he starts to walk, the camera starts to pull back track backwards as he walks, which builds a little tension as he moves forward. And here's the thing about being a kid. The whole sequence is a bit cartoonish, right. He takes the trucker and he spins him like a thousand miles an hour on the seat. Then he slides him down the counter, and what does he say, disorders to go. And when everyone looks at him, like, wait a second, aren't you the loser that he beat up? How do you explain this? He says, oh, I've been.

01:04:52
Speaker 4: Working out.

01:04:53
Speaker 2: And the guy's face after he gets slid down the counter and he ends up in the pinball machine and he makes that face, you know, like his eyes are rolling back out like tunes looney tunes. There's some kind of bird on the pinball machine that's then like pecking him right, this cuckoo like effect. It's just what we all dream of, especially as a little kind of powerless kid, being the boy or being the man who stands up and takes down the bad guy. You want to be the guy who does it the first time. But if for some reason you can't be that guy, you get to come back and even the score. And as the kid rooting for Superman, you don't want Superman to lose. Ever, whether he's Superman or Clark Kent, you don't want him to lose. And getting that revenge watching that scene, you were kind of waiting the whole movie for it to happen.

01:05:51
Speaker 4: It's that's the word, the word you use, satisfying. It was just so satisfying in the moment. And now that i'm thinking, probably right around the time I saw this might have been when I was dealing with the neighborhood bully who waited for me between the bus stop and the house. You know, uh huh. I think a lot of people have had that kid in their life, and maybe this is just about then when I saw this scene and I just loved it so much. I had my own Superman, an older kid in the neighborhood who would you know, be on the bus too, and he would walk with me sometimes. Okay, but yeah, if he wasn't there, I had to run pretty quick, right in a.

01:06:30
Speaker 2: Body guard instead of gaining your own powers.

01:06:33
Speaker 4: Exactly, exactly, okay, all right, So for my number four, let's get to the gold standard nineteen seventy eight Superman with Christopher raeven Margo Kidder, and my pick here is faster than a speeding bullet. This is a relatively early scene, and like my number five pick from Moleman, it presents a decidedly pacifist version of the hero, especially when it comes to guns. Actually, So this is Lois and Clark getting held up at gunpoint by a mugger. Clark tries to be reasonable at first, just.

01:07:06
Speaker 9: A minutestor just a minute. Now. I realized, of course, that times are tough for some of these days. But this isn't the answer. You can't solve a society's problems with a gun.

01:07:16
Speaker 4: You know, somebody.

01:07:17
Speaker 6: You're right, I'm going to turn over.

01:07:19
Speaker 4: Newly good for you, sir, that's the spirit.

01:07:21
Speaker 9: See, he doesn't really want to hurt anybody. U h.

01:07:24
Speaker 6: Right after I rip off this lady's purse, of course, Now come on, lady, hand it over.

01:07:30
Speaker 4: But Lois gets feisty, what are you doing? The mugger shoots and Clark catches the bullet. Then the aftermath of this is where it gets really good from a character standpoint, because Clark has to downplay the heroism of Superman that he just displayed and lean into the wimpiness of his alter ego. I just mister sainted, he was fay sorry. I love in the Reeve films when we get a little moment when Superman peeks out from behind Clark's glasses and you won't be able to hear that here but you can see it in the clip. This is when he drops the charade just to himself. Here we get a quick touch of it when Lois walks away and we see Clark look down at the bullet in his hand and just allows himself a little grin of satisfaction. So so many scenes you could pick to show why Reeve was so brilliant in this part, and this is one of them that I had to include. Faster than a speeding.

01:08:35
Speaker 2: Bullet, it's really good. And speaking of Lois being feisty, in that first diner scene, after he's beaten the hell out of Clark, Lois like jumps on his back.

01:08:50
Speaker 4: She's just attack.

01:08:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, she is not going down without a fight, which is why we love Margot Kidder's Lois Lane. My number four is where I'm going to give Zack Snyder's Man of Steel a little love. I don't think there's much there's much right about any of the Zack Snyder Superman's, but I am choosing the pretty famous and rightfully so first flight scene because if you think about at least all the Superman's, I can recall we have never before witnessed Superman figuring out how to fly Superman failing at flying.

01:09:36
Speaker 4: That was the Great spider An. This is yeah, Peter Parker.

01:09:41
Speaker 2: Yes, bouncing off the ground repeatedly, and other parts of the landscape and the way Snyder. Then once he does kind of finally get really airborne, he keeps the camera on his face for a little bit of time. It's not manic editing, and you see Cavell really gritting his teeth. You see that Superman's really struggling to stay in the air as he is pushing upward, and it's as if he's having to will himself forward, which is something we don't think about with Superman. We do see him in Superman twenty twenty five and in other films we see that he can be quite aggressive as a flyer. That's actually something I like in this film. I like watching in the New One when corn Sweat really you know, does take off like a bullet, but here he really has to work at it, and there is a moment then when he finally feels like he's got the hang of it and he thrusts forward and laughs. And of course the moment he gets cocky, that's when he crashes down into a mountain. But then he pauses, the movie pauses. He's got a little of that voice over in his head from his father.

01:10:51
Speaker 3: Oh am so different from them, A son that's younger and broad out them.

01:10:56
Speaker 2: Crept On swells.

01:10:58
Speaker 3: The cell is a drunken that's right, strengthening and muscles, no skin, no senses, beths gravity is weaker, Yeah, it's atmosphere is more nourishing. You've grown stronger here than I ever could have imagined. The only way to know how strong is to keep testing your limits.

01:11:20
Speaker 2: He collects himself and he feels that sun that empowers him, and that's when, like a rocket ship, he takes off and you watch him speeding across all those different terrains and then finally into space. And it's really I don't know if we say this often about Zack Snyder films, but it's a very elegantly cut together sequence with a great score by Hans Zimmer accompanying it. And from an action point of view, even though it's just Superman, it's a genuinely thrilling scene.

01:11:56
Speaker 4: All right, Man of Steel getting some attention. I might have an honorable mention from Man of Steel. We'll get to in just a little bit. But at number three. I'm going in a different direction because you know, I was familiarizing myself with more Superman for this list. I did ask the folks who've subscribed to my Larson on Film email newsletter for their Superman picks. And so I want to thank Ben Page for reminding me of the series of theatrical animated shorts that Fleischer Studios made in the early nineteen forties. Now these are all on YouTube. I think they were about like eight minutes each. So I went into a bit of a rabbit hole watching a bunch of these. They look great. I mean, you've got vibrant technicolor. The imagery is very Art Deco influenced, even though it's, you know, a little time after that period sharp sound design, It's almost like these were you could tell this was the age of Radio two because the sound effects and the sound design is very sophisticated. Now, rather than just one scene from these the ones that I watched, my pick is actually going to be the opening introductory narration for each short. It's it's repeated each time because it really cemented the Superman character as we'd come to know him, the basics.

01:13:14
Speaker 6: Faster than a speeding bullet more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings at a single bound.

01:13:22
Speaker 1: The inter the scriptomb is now the Man of Steel.

01:13:26
Speaker 4: So yeah, these Fleischer shorts were fascinating little time capsules. I would absolutely encourage listeners to check one or two out if you haven't seen them before. They're quite good.

01:13:36
Speaker 2: Wow, you're just showing off now all the whole it was.

01:13:40
Speaker 4: So much fun. And you know, eight minutes for these fifty eight minutes for mole Man.

01:13:45
Speaker 2: Come on, I could fit that in, all right, my number three. I think it's possible that I've never maybe someone who's been through the archives a couple of times, and there are crazy listeners who've done that, I mean in the most positive way. Maybe they can recall whether or not I've ever brought this up before. I don't think I have brought up this scene, even though it is, honestly, Josh, one of the scenes in movie history that looms the largest in my imagination in my memory. It's from Superman the movie, and it's the death of Paw Kent Glenn Ford near the beginning of the film, when a teenage Clark Kent has come home and he's getting some fatherly advice.

01:14:40
Speaker 10: When you first came to us, we thought that people would come and take you away because when they found out you know the things you could do, and I'd worried us a lot. But then the man gets old or anything's very differently and things get very clear. And there's one thing I do no son, and that is you are here for reason. I don't know whose reason, whatever the reason is, you know, maybe it's because.

01:15:09
Speaker 5: I don't know much, but I.

01:15:13
Speaker 10: Do know anything. It's not to score touchdowns.

01:15:21
Speaker 2: Wonderful portrayal of Paw Kent by Glenn Ford. You know this, Hollywood, I call that who just brings all the gravitas that you need that role to bring, and just instantly gives you a sense of compassion and love for his son. And as they walk up the driveway, he gives him some advice and then Superman runs off with his dog into the garage, and as Pacent heads up the driveway, we see him clutch his left arm and he's having a heart attack. He's having those early signs of a heart atta and he collapses. Everything about this whole sequence, the heart attack itself, The next few moments, the discovery ma Kent seeing that he's down on the ground, and some of the other shots and then into the funeral, which is how the movie transitions. These are the moments, Josh, the use of the camera here and Donner's staging of it that when you rewatch it, it just supports any case for this movie as still and maybe always the definitive Superman movie. The scale of it, the authenticity of it. He's using a lot of deep focus, so you really get these rich landscapes. I don't know if it was actually shot in Kansas or not, but it certainly feels like it was. And the moment Josh f Ample when Makent yells Jonathan when she sees him down on the ground and it cuts to Clark in the garage with the dog. It's this silhouetted moment where they are in front of the doorway of the barn, you know, and you see the light coming through the barn and they're in shadow, and it's almost like one of those John Wayne in the Searchers like shots. It feels mythic that shot does. And something about that moment again, I'm watching this as a very young kid, and I'll say my dad had a heart attack his dad had a heart attack. And I don't know that I ever got the whole story now that I think about it, about how it happened. But as a kid hearing the story of my grandfather, who I never met, he died before I was born, hearing the story of how he had a heart attack, whatever I heard, because I didn't get a lot of details, I filled in the blank. Sure sure with Superman the movie, I envisioned my grandfather again who I never met, going down like clutching his arm, and surely he was outside his house, like in the driveway, and he went down exactly like Glenn Ford does this film. That's how I envisioned it. How else could it be. So this scene, as I said, has always been one that's been kind of important to me. It wasn't until later that I realized that my version of a heart attack, or what I imagined that looked like a man, a fifty sixty seventy year old man having a heart attack, What that looked like was something that was just fictional, was out of a movie. And like I said, when it goes to the cemetery, when it then goes to the funeral, it's this wonderful dissolve, and then it starts on a pan with the camera panning left and here again the shots, the compositions as you see Clark and his mother standing sort of in the side of the frame and another couple in the other corner. It's just so beautifully rendered. And the line too, talk about the emotion of this scene, emotion that I surely never felt. Unfortunately, watching Superman twenty twenty five, the line Clark says to his mother, all those powers and I couldn't even save him.

01:19:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, Donner manages just some incredible imagery in a movie that I think at first memory we just think of as a lot of bright reds and blues. But it's much more than that. And as far as pa Kens go, and a little more Man of Steel price here, Kevin Costner really good in that role in Man of Steel maybe for me one of the highlights there. So all right, so we are at our number two picks, and this is where I'm going to go to Superman two, my childhood Superman movie. As we were saying, you know, probably too young to have seen the first film in theater. Pretty sure I saw this one in theaters and certainly rewatched this over and over again when I was I don't know, maybe ten or so. I mean, watching clips today preparing for this list, so deeply nostalgic, I realize, oh my goodness, I just put these on repeat when I was a kid, one of them that I loved, and I'm picking here. I definitely remember being giddy over the soap opera drama of the moment in Superman two when Margo kidders Lois finally forces Christopher Reeve as Clark to admit that he's Superman.

01:20:37
Speaker 1: Are Superman?

01:20:38
Speaker 3: Oh?

01:20:39
Speaker 9: Loss, come on TVIY.

01:20:41
Speaker 4: Part of the magic in this scene is the slow transition Reeve makes from Clark to Superman. And it's like one step Superman, two steps back to Clark. We've got his flustered denial. You can hear that's his instinct. That's all Clark, right. But then what follows it almost a half second later, a soft punch of the pillow That Superman. Then he walks away from her, turns his back to her. That's Clark. And then he commits, turns around, not only takes off his glasses, but if you watch this scene, watch how he changes his posture. His whole body morphs when he decides he's going to drop the charade.

01:21:26
Speaker 9: I don't know why I did that.

01:21:28
Speaker 6: Maybe you wanted to.

01:21:31
Speaker 9: I don't think I did.

01:21:33
Speaker 6: Well. Maybe you didn't want to with your mind, but maybe you wanted.

01:21:39
Speaker 9: To with your heart.

01:21:42
Speaker 4: Just a note here on the John Williams score, which applies pretty much to both Superman and Superman two. It's often remembered for its triumphant blasts, which are a lot of fun, but the real genius in watching a lot of these scenes is how it's employed in the soft moments, so you barely notice it in the background. It's a variation on the same theme, but it's there quietly, softly, almost as if the score is gently holding the movie in its hands. And this is what happens in this wonderful scene. You are Superman from Superman two, which is where I'm going with my number two.

01:22:22
Speaker 2: It's not only that his entire posture changes, which it does. You watch that scene and you see how as he turns, he fills his entire chest his lungs with air, and it could be a case that that was Reeve showing Superman. It's almost the opposite of a sigh. You know, where he's finally like, Okay, I'm accepting that I'm finally going to do this, and he's kind of mustering the courage. But it also seems like it's just that in keeping with that idea of his posture and assuming the role of Superman, it is if he's broadening his entire chest.

01:23:03
Speaker 4: To who he really is.

01:23:04
Speaker 2: That's right that moment. Yeah, yeah, And I'm glad you mentioned the score because that's another element, of course of that death of Pop Kent scene, is the way the John Williams score just subtly turns and becomes more sorrowful there when Jonathan starts to feel those symptoms the signs of the heart attack. My number two is also from Superman two, and I'm going to call this another very satisfying scene. It is the end of Superman two. It is the climactic ending anyway. It is defeating Zod at the Fortress of Solitude, the entire sequence where we see Superman turn the table, deceive General Zod his his two minion and take away their power. And what I love about it, there's two things I really love about it. Well, there's three. One is just again you're watching that and Superman reeve as Superman tricks you as an audience member, at least as a kid certainly, and you believe that they've beat him. You believe, even though it's a Superman movie, that they're taking his powers away. You don't notice that the color is changed outside the room and that he's really tricked them and taken their powers away. You're sure that he's lost, he can't beat them, and it's over, Just like Lois Lane in that scene, who's covering her eyes. She can't even watch as it's happening, right, and your heartbroken, And so then we get the twist and we love that, But beyond that, it really is just a masterclass of Reeve from an acting standpoint, the fun he's had having the little devious fun he's having with Hackman, who's also having such devious fun, like the way he tricks him.

01:25:08
Speaker 9: Trying to get them all into this molecule chamber. It takes away their powers, see and turns them into ordinary human beings. Now, if you could, they'll.

01:25:21
Speaker 6: Go in there general as a trapped, you, poisonous snake.

01:25:25
Speaker 4: That's a molecule chamber. It makes people like you into people like me.

01:25:30
Speaker 2: You can't believe for a second that Superman seems to trust him, of course, all part of the ruse.

01:25:37
Speaker 9: Hake my hand.

01:25:40
Speaker 1: And sweary tourn loyalty to sort.

01:25:45
Speaker 2: I said there were two or three things I loved about it, There's so many more. The way he crushes his hand, the way Hackman points out what really happened he switched it.

01:25:58
Speaker 9: He did it to them, I mean the lights were on out here, well, he was safe in there.

01:26:05
Speaker 2: And then of course, hey, you know something, Lewis Lane puts it all together, a real pain in the neck, gives her the fist to the face, versa is that her name? And just so many great moments they're defeating Zod.

01:26:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm trying to remember now again having rewatched it so many times. Like, was I onto the plan? You know, because when you talked about the light definitely wasn't like the lights switching. That's such like a great clue to give to kids in the audience too, right, Yeah, And you do wonder as Donner and collaborators were thinking about who they're making this movie for, right, because it works on both levels and obviously worked for us at a young age, but I think you know it works for adults too, So yeah, that's a great pick, all right, number one, no brainer, no brainer, number one for me, one of those that as soon as we talked about this, I knew it was going to be there. The helicopter rescue from nineteen seventy eight Superman, and I'm picking officially the whole sequence here, but honestly, it could just be that delightful Quippi exchange mid rescue between Superman and Lukas easy.

01:27:19
Speaker 1: Wiz, I've got you, You've got me, both got you.

01:27:24
Speaker 4: As a Superman sequence, though, this this really has it all. First, you get the phone booth gag. It's not a booth. He runs up to the phone, but it's like an open phone stand, so he doesn't know where to go. He's got to do that speed change in the revolving door again like as a kid, something that's funny but also how cool. Look how fast the door is going. We were easily entertained as kids at him. But you get such clean, clear effects work throughout this sequence that is paired with practical stunts, clearly rooted in the real world. That is a helicopter. You know, we can touch these things, and I think that you know, it's probably a fair amount of rear projection. But whatever combination, it all looks really good. And yeah, as we touched on, it's it's better than just about anything in the new twenty twenty five Superman in terms of effects. All of this, to the points you've been making about Richard Donner as director, just economically staged, smartly staged, composed in a way that isn't calling attention to itself, but is rather letting the excitement emerge on its own. There's something that a filmmaker who's not pushing the pedal down too hard but knows how to push the pedal. That's what you see Donner doing. And there's a distinction there that can be overlooked. And maybe some people can dismiss Superman as not being you know, quite as flashy or as exciting. But a sequence like this, it's all there. Everything you need is there. Yeah, And here's here's the main thing. This scene is all about rescue and doing this list watching all sorts of Superman. That that's the heart of the character for me. That's what I probably people will say, duh, but again, not a Superman guy. That's what I realized is Superman exists not to defeat, not to conquer, not to bludgeon, simply to save and rescue. And it's interesting because that is not that's a very simple concept that can be difficult to sustain. I do think maybe that's why his sequels peter out. Maybe it's why we don't need other variations beyond Donners is this is a simple idea. This is a guy who's here to save and rescue. Audiences have not been content with that. We crave more conflict, we crave more villains. I mean, we got to a point where it was Superman v. Batman. Nobody needed that. That has nothing to do with Superman Man. You know, at his best, Superman's just he's just a hero scooping up a helicopter falling from the sky. It's all we get here, and it's more than enough. I wasn't alone in this pick. To other subscribers to that LARSONNAFIL newsletter singled it out. So I just want to give them a little time here. Ed Redman said, it just set the tone for what a fun movie it was going to be, and how Christopher Reeve brought his charm and enthusiasm to the role, and then Jeremy Kennis when it's capped off with the score as he catches the helicopter. It's perfect. So yeah, for me, maybe the perfect Superman moment. It's at my number one, the helicopter rescue.

01:30:39
Speaker 2: You know who else was smart enough to have it at number one, Josh me back on episode five seventy nine.

01:30:46
Speaker 4: Seriously, all right, but now come on, you can bring it back.

01:30:50
Speaker 2: No, I thought about it, believe me, especially as I was rushing to prepare. I thought, hey, joint number one, I'll just look for my notes from last time and repeat my But I thought, no, you know what, there are so many good scenes from the Superman movies, but especially just from Superman the Movie, that I don't need to repeat myself. And I decided. I decided to go with a different scene from Superman the movie involving Superman and Lois, and I had one first flight scene here in this top five. Of course, my number four from Man of Steel. I'm going at number one for this list, with the first flight that Lois and Superman have that culminates the interview scene that they have ready.

01:31:43
Speaker 5: Clark said that you're just a figment of somebody's imagination.

01:31:49
Speaker 9: Like Peter pamp Lark who's that your boyfriend Clark?

01:31:55
Speaker 1: Oh, Clark, No, he's nothing. He's just.

01:32:00
Speaker 9: Peter pan flu his children loves in fairy Tale.

01:32:12
Speaker 2: This is another great example of the John Williams score doing a lot of the heavy lifting, right. It's so good this flying sequence. The music that's what it's called on the soundtrack, and what has to work here, Josh, And it's just a very small thing, but with the filmmaking. As he as Superman starts to lift her off the ground, the shot is he's talking to her, and it's a two shot in medium close up, and he's been talking to her in that two shot for something like twenty or thirty seconds. I think, as I'm kind of scanning through it, they are held in that shot, and then I think they walk into it, and so they're in close up and they're talking to each other and then they start to lift off. And at the beginning of the shot, rather than when they start to fly, they've already cut to the wide shot, they start to take off in that close up, so it feels we feel like, oh, this is real. You know, Superman's starting to fly already as they're in that shot. Even though it was probably more practical for him to start moving right in that close up because he's not really needing to lift off the ground necessarily, it feels to us like he's starting to fly. Then we get the wide shot where he does come off that balcony, and the wire work or whatever effects they're using their Josh is just so seamless, you know, you know, there's real projection there or anything, and we have to believe it. We have to think in that moment that he really has somehow just lifted off that balcony with her, and we do now as they fly through the sky here in complete opposition to the scene. Very different scene obviously, but a very different type of editing and overall kind of staging this compared to the Man of Steel scene. This is all about the romance and they're bonding in this moment and it is so elegant and graceful and what I really appreciate about it the most, Josh, even though it still has that awe to it because you see them fly around the Statue of Liberty and around all the skyscrapers at night, right, it does have that especially if you were watching it on a big screen, you get a little bit of the spectacle. But it goes back to something we were talking about in relation to that great scene in Jurassic Park where they first see the dinosaurs. Watch this scene and notice how much of the time is spent not looking at long shots of them flying and the surroundings their environment. How much of it is spent on their faces. It is all about the experience that they're having together, but especially the experience that Lois Lane is having in the air with Superman. And I don't really want to undersell it, like how many different variations credit to Margo Kidder. How many variations on first fear can you come up with as an actress? She has to come up with quite a few. And then that sense of wonder, that sense of awe that she has. We see a lot of variations from her and they all work in this three minute ish sequence. It is all about her experience and the experience we're having through her as she flies through the sky with him.

01:36:05
Speaker 4: Thus concludes our top five Margot Kidder scenes. Yes, she's so great.

01:36:10
Speaker 2: There you have it. Those are our top five Margot Kitder and Superman moments. Josh, do you have any honorable mentions?

01:36:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mentioned the Man of Steel pick here and it doesn't actually come from me, but I want to give Man of Steel a little more credit. Here the Zack Snyder film from twenty thirteen. This is from reader Jeff van Vikel, who talks about the moment where a Superman is surrendering to the authorities Henry Cavill's Superman. He basically restrains his own powers. Jeff wrote, he does a little thing with his eyebrows that shows vulnerability. The best Superman moments are the ones that highlight his humanity and in a movie otherwise painting him as an emotionless hunk, this brief exchange gives us a tiny glimpse into what Cavill could have done with a character had he been given the opportunity for a few moments. Visually desaturated though the image, maybe Superman is warm, quiet and kind, sacrificing his ego and comfort for the sake of others. That's what I want to see out of this particular man in tights. So yeah, thank you Jeff for that. And then an honorable mention of my own. Maybe the scene, Adam that gripped me the most from Superman two is the Niagara Falls rescue. Yeah, watching it again today, and it's not really all that great of a sequence, but as a kid, and being a kid who was always just tempted to hang on the wrong side of a railing over a precipice, the thought crossed my mind, you know, to see that that boy do it fall and Superman rescue him. Yeah, that one stuck with me.

01:37:47
Speaker 2: So obviously my number one from last time, the helicopter rescue your number one honorable mention this time the other Superman scene I had on that list, I'll throw in as an honorable mention from Man of Steel. Actually, it's I think a flashback that Superman is having where he's in a classroom as a young boy, like in grade school. The scene is called or when you find it online, the World's too Big. He's talking to his mom and he's saying the world's too big. He can't handle all the noise because of course he experiences everything. He feels everything on a level that normal kids don't feel an experience. And I really like that scene. And you mentioned Kevin Costner. I did find a reddit I didn't read it, but I did see a Reddit thread as I was googling something where there are some people shocking. There's some people out there who I guess hate this scene, or at least hate the whole plot line or this moment itself, the decision to have this character go out this way. But Jonathan's sacrifice, Kevin Costner's paw kent that scene. I actually really liked that whole scene and that moment he makes for his son, as misguided of course as it is, and as it maybe even seems in the moment, you believe. I believe that character believes it's the only thing he can do.

01:39:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, Costner's good.

01:39:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's really good. Chris's number one from last time. I'll mention here, especially as it's the lead up to my number one from this time, the interview with Superman. And I know we're not supposed to talk about Brian Singer at all, and I don't really want to talk about Superman Returns because I didn't like the movie much at all. But Chris and Glenn Superman officionados did have multiple picks from Superman Returns, and the scene where Superman saves the airplane is pretty exciting. When I rewatched it today, it's.

01:39:46
Speaker 4: Closer in spirit, I think actually to seventy eight Superman than in a lot of ways, this latest version is so it's it's that one's a curiosity for sure.

01:39:55
Speaker 2: Again, those are our top five Superman movie moments. You can find those choices and links to watch those scenes at film spotting dot net slash list. We would love to hear your thoughts, your picks, and any of the thoughts about the show. You can email feedback at film spotting dot net. Josh that is our show.

01:40:13
Speaker 4: You can connect with Adam and the show on Instagram, Facebook, and letterboxed at film Spotting. I'm at those places as well as Blue Sky as Larson on film. We are independently produced and listeners supported. You can support the show by joining the film Spotting Family at film spottingfamily dot com. You can listen early and ad free, get a weekly newsletter, monthly bonus episodes, and access to the entire show archive. If you want show t shirts or other merch go to film spotting dot net slash shop.

01:40:43
Speaker 2: In that film Spotting archive, you can find the show we've mentioned multiple times with Chris Klemik and Glenn Weldon. We reviewed Batman Visuperman dot of Justice. You can probably skip that part go right to the Batman Superman movie moments. We actually drop that in our podcast feed earlier this week. That's episode seventy nine. Man of Steel was reviewed on episode four fifty and Superman Returns was reviewed way back on episode one twelve with Sam Van Halgren, big big fan of that film. In limited release, you can see Don't Let's Go to the Dogs tonight. This is actress and Beth David's making her directing debut with an adaptation of Alexander Fuller's memoir about growing up during the Zimbabwean War for Independence. You can also see To a Land Unknown. This is about Palestinine refugees trying to score fake passports to get out of Athens. Our friend, Isaac Feldberg says, crafted with the same flavor of rough, vivid street poetry that flowed through Ramin Barani's chop Shop and its forefather, Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves. That's some heady company, Josh. In wide release, I know what you did last summer. We're we're just reheating it, recycling it.

01:41:53
Speaker 6: Why not?

01:41:53
Speaker 2: What reterm do you want to use? The ninety seven film with the same name.

01:41:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, just as reheat. Reheat covers it all smurfs?

01:42:00
Speaker 2: Is this another reheat?

01:42:02
Speaker 4: And there's a note here that smurfs sing?

01:42:04
Speaker 2: So they're singing this time?

01:42:05
Speaker 4: Did they not sing before? Didn't they sing in the cartoon you and I grew up on along Site they did Superman? They always sang. Yeah, this is not the New Kids and.

01:42:15
Speaker 2: Eddington Sheriff Joaquin Phoenix and Mayor Pedro Pascal come to blows in small town New Mexico and the latest from ari Astor. I somehow lucked out and got out of duty on this duty.

01:42:29
Speaker 4: Wow, the Addington disinterest.

01:42:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, I am not a big ari Astor guy.

01:42:37
Speaker 4: As this is true.

01:42:38
Speaker 2: We have already commented on how going back to twenty twenty does seem a little dispiriting at the moment, but you will be making that trip along with the Chicago Tribunes. Michael Phillips will also share our top five Joaquin Phoenix performances. There may be a couple of other quick reviews thrown in there as well.

01:42:55
Speaker 4: Film Spotting is produced by Golden Joe Desso and Sam Van Haggren. Without Sam Golden Joe, this show wouldn't go Our production assistant is Sophiekempinar. Special thanks to everyone at wbeazy Chicago. More information is available at wbeazy dot org. For film Spotting, I'm Josh Larson.

01:43:12
Speaker 2: And I'm Adam Kempinar. Thanks for listening.

01:43:15
Speaker 9: This conversation can serve no purpose anymore. The fine.

01:43:36
Speaker 2: Film spotting is listeners supported. Join the film Spotting Family at film spottingfamily dot com and get access to ad free episodes, monthly bonus shows, our weekly newsletter, and, for the first time, all into one place, the entire film spotting archive going back to two thousand and five. That's a film Spotting Family dot com

01:43:55
Speaker 6: Panically