Superman III (1983)

You didn’t see the man come flying out of the clouds? It was him! Metropolis. The Webscoe conglomerate hires bumbling computer programmer Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) who embezzles through salami slicing. This brings him to the attention of CEO Ross ‘Bubba’ Webster (Robert Vaughn). Megalomaniacal Webster, his sister Vera (Annie Ross) and his assistant and girlfriend Lorelei Ambrosia (Pamela Stephenson) blackmail Gus into helping him. At the Daily Planet newspaper, reporter Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) convinces editor Perry White (Jackie Cooper) to let him and photographer Jimmy Olsen (Marc McClure) visit Smallville for Clark’s high school reunion. Fellow reporter, Clark’s unrequited romantic interest Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) goes to Bermuda on holiday. En route, to Smallville, in his Superman guise, Clark extinguishes a fire in a chemical factory containing unstable beltric acid, which produces a corrosive vapour when it overheats. At the reunion, Clark reunites with childhood friend Lana Lang (Annette O’Toole) a divorcée with a young son named Ricky (Paul Kaethler). Clark is harassed by Lana’s ex, alcoholic security guard Brad Wilson (Gavan O’Herlihy) who was his former school rival and bully. While having a picnic with Lana, Superman saves an unconscious Ricky from being killed by a combine harvester. Angered by Colombia’s refusal to do business Webster orders Gus to command Vulcan, an American weather satellite, to create a tornado to destroy Colombia’s coffee crop, allowing Webster to corner the market. Gus travels to Smallville to use a Webscoe subsidiary to reprogramme the satellite. Although Vulcan creates a storm, Superman neutralizes it. Seeing Superman as a threat to his plans, Webster orders Gus to fabricate Kryptonite. Gus uses Vulcan to analyse Krypton’s debris. As one of the elements of Kryptonite is unknown, he substitutes tar. Lana convinces Superman to appear at Ricky’s birthday party but Smallville turns it into a town celebration. Gus and Vera, disguised as Army officers, give Superman the flawed Kryptonite as an award. Instead of weakening him, he becomes selfish and commits petty acts of vandalism such as straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa and blowing out the Olympic flame. Gus asks Webster to build the world’s most sophisticated supercomputer and he does so in exchange for Gus creating an energy crisis by directing all oil tankers to the middle of the Atlantic. Lorelei seduces Superman, persuading him to waylay one of the tankers and cause an oil spill. Superman suffers a nervous breakdown and splits into two – the immoral, corrupted dark Superman and the moral, mild-mannered Clark Kent. The two fight, with Clark defeating his evil self. Finally regaining his sanity, Superman repairs the damage of the oil spill … Today – coffee. Tomorrow – the oil! The perception that this series was paying decreasing returns arose when Richard Donner was replaced by Richard Lester for the second iteration. Lester is back in the director’s chair for the third which commences with a breezy Tati-esque slapstick ballet and proceeds towards a sequence of action setpieces both visually and comically pleasing. Gene Hackman’s charismatic Lex Luthor is replaced by a less colourful Robert Vaughn while Kidder’s Lois Lane is sidelined for childhood sweetheart Lana Lang, the latter for story reasons (and allegedly a punishment), the former presumably because along with Kidder, Hackman was reportedly angered over the Salkinds’ treatment of Donner and washed his hands of the whole enterprise. Superman you’re just in a slump – you’ll be great again. Husband and wife screenwriting team David & Leslie Newman are back writing the screenplay (along with uncredited contributions by Mario Puzo) adapting the characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, which takes the trope of dual identity a step further and this could easily have been subtitled Man/Superman, Shavian style. You’re a genius – you’ve invented a machine that can find anybody’s weak spots. Pryor is both a problem and a draw – his shtick is artfully applied to his essentially comical anti-hero role but the risk to the narrative is making him a character as significant as our ostensible protagonist. The film itself struggles to maintain its narrative balance while it performs this tripwire act. Meanwhile, Superman himself not only has to deal with a bifurcate identity as Clark Kent, he has to handle being Bad Superman too. You’re going to go down in history as the man who killed Superman! Effectively operating as a genre satire as much as being a sequel, this doesn’t have the magical resonance of the first film or even the pizzazz of the second but it’s never boring. There’s some splendid costume design from Evangeline Harrison (she did TV’s Love for Lydia: respect) other than the obvious, there’s a wonderfully expressive wardrobe for ditzy peroxide galpal Stephenson who spends her time reading Kant when she thinks no one’s looking. Nowadays the effects look fairly shonky but there’s a lot to love here, from the gorgeously shot wheat fields to the relationship between Clark and Lana and the running jokes including one concerning that tower in Pisa. And of course the John Williams theme over the credits is for the ages. Thank the Lord for Superman

The Journey Ahead (2022) (TVM)

You are becoming a woman of a certain age and maybe that’s something to think about. Unmarried fiftysomething actress Madeline Ellis (Holly Robinson Peete) needs to get out of Los Angeles. She’s being hassled by her boyfriend Richard (Lochlyn Munro), she doesn’t want to deal with her agent Randall (Dean Marshall) and she’s just had a blow – she needs to have a lumpectomy. If she has it performed in LA everyone will know about it so just as she’s making the decision to somehow get to New York – she has a fear of flying – another call floors her: the daughter she secretly gave up for adoption in 1984 when she was 19 wants to meet her and lives in New Jersey. Madeline’s assistant Katie (Chanelle Harquail-Ivsak) can’t stop her trying to drive cross-country – until wilderness expert Sarah (Kaylee Bryant) shows up. Sarah trained Madeline to dive for a movie role even though she hates to swim. Sarah is travelling to the mountains for a client to test out a kayak for a corporate client and she has a station wagon. Madeline is bad tempered, rude and hates the music Sarah plays on the car radio. They trundle off through the desert and the mountains and are forced to stop a few nights in a small town whose only accommodation is a bed and breakfast. Madeline makes nice with artist Carl (Mark Humphrey) after knocking down part of the wall outside his gallery and Sarah starts to talk about her own problems and they start to open up to each other … You need me more than I need you. We have been here before – that old road movie = emotional journey territory. Here the frenemies are two women of very different dispositions who however have worked together before. Somehow, Sarah got Madeline to dive despite her fear of water. After these two un-bosom buddies bristle along together this reveals itself as a maternal comedy drama, with two characters in need of reassurance. You said you wanted to take the scenic route. Erin Engman’s screenplay isn’t afraid to tackled the cliched situation with barbs: From what I’ve seen being rich and famous hasn’t made you a fantastic human being. This is a tale of female empowerment that still has a little room for potential romance so enter Carl, the artist who welds and isn’t afraid to challenge a woman in charge. Simplicity. That is a term I am unfamiliar with. That small town stopover is a revelation – not only can the car be fixed, there’s space and time to breathe and a little old cinema for sale. Sarah has her own issues – being unable to handle being dumped by a girlfriend, a chilly relationship with her mother since she dropped out. Both women miss their mothers in different ways. That’s your story not mine/You think you have forever but you don’t. There’s smart writing here even if the story beats feel like they are a little worked over. You seem like the real deal to me. Life lessons are learned in a pleasingly breezy fashion. When Madeline confronts herself about the loss of her daughter she admits to Sarah: I’m scared, guiltridden, heartbroken. It’s like it happened yesterday. At the same time, Sarah hasn’t put things right with her own mother who is good and mad about her quitting college the previous year. A detour to Columbus, Ohio is in order. The story’s charm is mitigated by the occasionally abrasive exchanges and Peete’s performance which is just as gritty as is necessary. A Hallmark Channel and Mysteries movie. Directed stylishly by Linda-Lisa Hayter. Let’s see some women like you – women your age and experience and knowledge.

The Blackening (2022)

In your predicament, the black character is always the first to die. Ten years after graduating, friends Morgan (Yvonne Orji) and Shawn (Jay Pharoah) arrive at a cabin in the woods where they plan on celebrating Juneteenth on a weekend getaway with their group from college. In the game room, they find a board game called ‘The Blackening’ which features a racist Little Black Sambo caricature. The lights go out and a mysterious voice demands that the couple play. Shawn answers a question incorrectly and is promptly killed with an arrow to the neck. Morgan attempts to escape but is captured. The next day, Lisa (Antoinette Robinson), Allison (Grace Byers) and Dewayne (Dewayne Perkins) make their way to the cabin and discuss King (Melvin Gregg) bringing Lisa’s unfaithful ex-boyfriend Nnamdi (Sinqua Walls) for the weekend’s festivities. On her way to the cabin, Shanika runs into a former schoolmate named Clifton (Jermaine Fowler) while shopping at the gas station and he tells her he is also joining the party but she can’t figure out who might have invited him. Before leaving, Shanika is unnerved by the facially disfigured clerk Clive Connor (James Preston Rogers) who stands watching her menacingly. Once the group is all together at the cabin, they find Park Ranger White (Diedrich Bader) querying their right to be there and not allowing them entry until they produce evidence they’ve booked in. After settling the disagreement – the Connors usually let the property to white families – the friends prepare for a night of partying. White people scare me. After drinks, drugs, and games ensue, the group questions who specifically invited Clifton. After the lights go out again, the friends go to find a power box, only to come across The Blackening with game pieces which correlate to their personalities. The voice speaks to them, revealing that he is keeping Morgan prisoner. The voice forces the friends to play the game to save Morgan, and begins by asking trivia questions about black American culture. This game is impossible to win. Unfortunately, the friends fail to sufficiently answer a question about all the black actors that guest-starred on the TV show Friends and Morgan is attacked. They are ordered to sacrifice one of their own based on whom they deem to be the blackest – the most black person among them will be sacrificed. Each then comes up with their own defence of why it cannot be them. After Clifton admits he voted for Donald Trump in both elections everyone chooses him out of spite. Clifton goes outside and is shot in the chest with an arrow by the killer. The rules are simple – survive. When the friends are freed from the room, they attempt to go look for Morgan and find help. Despite knowing better, they agree with Allison’s idea to split up. She goes off with King and Shanika (X Mayo). Dewayne has to go with Lisa and Nnamdi who end up running into Ranger White who is willing to help them until the killer shoots him in the neck with an arrow. Then Allison, King and Shanika encounter the killer … Time to die! If Get Out and Us played with horror tropes in the realm of political allegory, this is more akin to Scary Movie and its satirical relationship to the Scream franchise – which itself was founded on a fond homage to the legendary slashers Halloween, Friday the 13th et al. Written by Tracy Oliver and DeWayne Perkins of the comedy troupe 3Peat and based on their 2018 short film of the same name, this is both resonant in terms of stereotypes and smart with its targets, the cabin in the woods being just the first trope utilised, skewered and trussed up, and a masked killer concealing a dual identity – who isn’t really the culprit at all which means there are three of him. The one game I could never get a handle on was Spades. It may be a reunion of college friends but Return of the Secaucus Seven it is not. Taking its subject as the genre itself and making it from a black perspective pushes the parameters because once the first person killed is black – who do you kill next? More black characters. What about the characters who have sex? How long will they last? I’ve never been so happy to see a white saviour! And so it proceeds, wittily batting away the tropes with a mix of finely tuned wit and a deal of slapstick. What about a final girl? Well, the girl who knows the black anthem has a white father and she’s the one who has the courage to go after the killer. Who won’t stay dead. And he suggests that the colourist scenario he proposes is a black Sophie’s Choice. Lucky they can all do that handy ‘mind talking’ thang – which is all very well until the killer can too. More funny than scary, this makes no concession to anyone who doesn’t understand the references and simply hurtles through an action-packed narrative with verve and sociopolitical swipes. Directed by Tim Story. We are all alone in a cabin in the woods!