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Richard Donner’s original SUPERMAN movie was long considered the pinnacle of superheroes on screen until the more recent string of adult-leaning superhero tales flew into theaters. Christopher Reeve established himself as a star, and like other men who donned the blue and red tights had a hard time living down the iconic role. Big stars — Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman — were cast in supporting roles. The epic production was nominated for three Academy Awards and was bestowed a Special Achievement Award for visual effects.

The story begins on Krypton were Jor-El (Brando) tries to warn others that their planet is doomed. Acting against the ruling consul, he decides to send his baby son to Earth, where he will possess superpowers, but can live among the humans safely. The child is found on the side of the road by Jonathan and Martha Kent (Glenn Ford, 3:10 TO YUMA, & Phyllis Thaxter, TV’s ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS), who raise him as their own son. Now going by Clark Kent, the young Kryptonian has a hard time dealing with keeping his special powers secret. But Jonathan warns him that his was sent to Earth to accomplish great things and that keeping his amenity will help protect those close to him. After college, Clark, now playing the part of a bumbling nerd, gets a job at the Daily Planet where he falls for plucky reporter Lois Lane (Margot Kidder, SISTERS). Clark first emerges as Superman when Lois gets in danger.

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M. Night Shyamalan followed up his monster success on THE SIXTH SENSE with this moody take on the superhero origin story. How many days were you sick last year? How many sick days have you taken in the past three years? After walking away from a train crash without a scratch, David Dunn (Bruce Willis, DIE HARD) starts asking these questions. Is there something special about him that he has never noticed?

Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson, PULP FICTION) thinks so. Price has a disease that makes his bones extremely fragile. Breaks happen often. As a child the other kids teased him with the name Mr. Glass. He has been looking for someone like David his whole life. His mirror opposite. David doubts that he is anything more than a security guard. His marriage to his high school sweetheart Audrey (Robin Wright Penn, THE PRINCESS BRIDE) is nearing its end. He was on the train coming back from another failed interview in New York. He’s feeling anything but special. But his son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark, GLADIATOR) becomes obsessed with the idea that his dad might be a real life “superman.”

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To list the many accolades of Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece would take up the entire review. Well established as one of the greatest movies ever made, the tale of family and crime is an epic, yet intimate portrait of the corrupting nature of power and the value of family versus business. Besides being a grand drama, the film is effortlessly entertaining, driven by iconic performances and a gripping storyline. To call the film a genre picture would be accurate, but it’s one of those wonderfully rare films that is firmly part of its genre, but finds a way to rise above it as well.

Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando, ON THE WATERFRONT) is the don of one of the top New York crime families. It’s the wedding day of his daughter Connie (Talia Shire, ROCKY). His whole family has gathered for the event, as well as some of the other heads of other families including Emilio Barzini (Richard Conte, THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD). Guests come to him and ask for favors, which is an old Sicilian custom that he cannot refuse. He eagerly awaits the arrival of his youngest son Michael (Al Pacino, HEAT), who is a celebrated war hero, who tells his girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton, ANNIE HALL) that he wants nothing to do with his family’s business. But when Don Corleone rejects an offer from up-and-coming gangster Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) to help with the drug trade, a war breaks out between the families and Michael is drawn into the world of crime.

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Wedding Wish #1: May your spouse’s love be as unconditional as your parents’.

So my little baby sister is getting married. It’s time to celebrate at Rick’s Flicks Picks. So weddings and love are the themes of This Weekend’s Film Festival. Some are satirical. Some are romantic. We get looks at love and marriage from the U.S., Australia, U.K. and India. This is a lineup for romantics and cynics alike. It celebrates all the ups and downs of making it to that Big Day. And for each film I’ll send out wishes for every bride.

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For those who may be too old or too young, SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK was a series of interstitial shorts during the early part of the 1970s, which aired during Saturday morning cartoon blocks on TV. For the even younger viewers, the major network channels actually aired cartoons all Saturday morning. The SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK shorts were educational lessons on various subjects about the U.S. government or grammar. The most famous and successful of the shorts was I’M JUST A BILL.

A little bill chronicles the long and tiring road to becoming a law. Jack Sheldon lends his wonderful New Orleans-twinged voice to The Bill, who is introduced leaning back on the steps of the Senate. With its simple, appealing design work, the look is uncluttered. A great example of less is better than more. Mixing funny dry asides with an unforgettable song, the short is an exemplary example of how to make an educational film that melds information with entertainment. I still remember how a bill is made from watching this short as a kid. Unlike some of the other SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK shorts, the music isn’t hampered by dated trends, so kids can enjoy it equally today as when it was first produced.

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While the original SCOOBY-DOO series has to be looked upon with nostalgia to really enjoy, there is still a charm to Scooby-Doo that people relate to. The series has been remade endless number of times, whether on film, TV or direct-to-video. I must admit that the first DTV, SCOOBY-DOO ON ZOMBIE ISLAND, had a satirical that I enjoyed. But productions like this latest, GOBLIN KING, just harkens back to so many of the bad, cheapo 1980s theatrical 2D animated releases like TOM & JERRY THE MOVIE and THE CHIPMUNKS ADVENTURE. You take established characters stick them in a random string of adventures and throw in some songs to fill up time.

This time Scooby and the gang are at the Coolsville Halloween carnival where they go to see the second-rate magician Amazing Krudsky (Wayne Knight, TV’s SEINFELD). To get back at the dog-hating snob, Scooby and Shaggy reveal Krudsky as a fraud — a magician with no real magic powers. Does anyone over five really think they’ll find real magic at a Halloween carnival? But I digress. Later Krudsky captures the Princess Fairy Willow (Hayden Panettiere, TV’s HEROES) and steals her power in an effort to con the Goblin King (Tim Curry, LEGEND) out of his scepter, which would give him unbelievable magical power. So Scooby and Shaggy have to venture into the spirit world to stop Krudsky and save Halloween. Along the way they’ll run into ghosts, goblins, fairies, witches, the headless horsemen, and a talking Jack O’Lantern, who sounds just like Jay Leno.

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For those who do not know the work of Italian horror master Dario Argento, one could describe it as a cross between Alfred Hitchcock and George A. Romero. He was a chief architect in the giallo film movement in Italy. Thrillers with a penchant for blood. (Giallo is yellow in Italian and refers to the yellow covers of pulp novels.) In 1977, he began a trilogy of horror films about three powerful black witches confined in buildings in Germany, the U.S. and Italy. The first film, SUSPIRIA, with its dark fairy tale quality, is considered by many Argento’s best film. It was liked by me, not loved. He followed that film with INFERNO in 1980, which is not very good at all. Now thirty years later, Argento has a chance to complete his Mother trilogy.

Sarah Mandy (Asia Argento, XXX) works at a museum in Italy where an ancient urn has been brought in for examination. That evening, the assistant curator is brutally murdered by four black-cloaked men and Sarah must flee for her life. In the urn was a talisman that will awaken the power of Mater Lachrymarum, the Mother of Tears (Moran Atias, TV’s CRASH). Soon suicides and murder start plaguing the streets of Rome. Sarah, with the help of her lover, the museum curator Michael Pierce (Adam James, TV’s BAND OF BROTHERS), begins to look into the legend of the Three Mothers, discovering that she’s involved more than she might have known. However, police investigator Enzo Marchi (Cristian Solimeno, HIGHLANDER: THE SOURCE) is keeping a close eye on Sarah, thinking she might be mad when she claimed that while escaping from the museum a voice came to her and unlocked the doors.

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Kate and Leo - The Revolutionary Adult Renditon

Less new buzz this week now that the big fall festivals are over. Eagerly awaiting trailers for CROSSING OVER, THE WRESTLER and THE ROAD. Two buzzed about films could be losing steam in a week. The #1 film is charging ahead full speed to the top slots of my fall must see list. Tell me what you think.
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Exodus Film Group has unveiled its first animated feature production, distributed by MGM. It puts a twist on the classic horror movie tale, giving the hunchbacked Igor a starring role and painting the mad scientists as frauds. The story satirizes classic horror films, Hollywood and politics, but doesn’t do so in an organic way. Each theme is full of wonderful chances for nice satirical jabs and the film hits on some of them, but it often makes the film seem like its changing gears abruptly.

In the world of Malaria, the skies are always cloudy and the denizens are encouraged to act evil. Each year the Evil Science Fair becomes the focal point of the community. Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard, OCEAN’S THIRTEEN) has won the contest every year and King Malbert (Jay Leno, TV’s TONIGHT SHOW) wants the arrogant showboat to get knocked down a few pegs so he won’t threaten the ruler’s hold on power. Each mad scientist has their own Igor, a hunchbacked assistant who slurs their speech and pulls the switch. Dr. Glickenstein (John Cleese, A FISH CALLED WANDA) is preparing his next monster for the science fair. Last year’s evil lasagna was not that scary. Turns out his Igor (John Cusack, HIGH FIDELITY) is a good inventor, but as an Igor he must keep his inventions under wraps. Already he has created a living Brain (Sean Hayes, TV’s WILL & GRACE), the name doesn’t match his IQ, and reanimated road kill who he named Scamper, a now suicidal talking rabbit who has been cursed with ever lasting life. Igor’s next experiment is to discover the evil scientist holy grail — creating life. However, his creature Eva (Molly Shannon, TV’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE) turns out to be far from an evil monster.

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Jane Austen has inspired many film and TV productions from straight adaptations to contemporary reinterpretations. When Emma Thompson adapted the scribe, she won an Oscar for her work. In bringing the story to the screen, she found an unlikely partner — Ang Lee, a Chinese director who had never done an English language film before. Along with a stellar cast, the production contains a spark of magic that only comes when we witness well-observed humanity on the screen.

Upon the death of the patriarch of the Dashwood family, the estate goes to the son John (James Fleet, FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL), who was the product of an earlier marriage. His second wife (Gemma Jones, BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY) and her three daughters are left with nearly nothing. As the eldest and most sensible of the daughters, Elinor (Thompson), says they’re not even allowed to earn their money. They are forced by John and his conniving wife Fanny (Harriet Walter, BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS) to move out of their home and move into the drab cottage of a relative. The passionate romantic Marianne (Kate Winslet, TITANIC) shoots cruel looks at Fanny, while the youngest daughter Margaret (Emile Francois) runs and hides.

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