Reviews

Superman The Movie was the blockbuster of its time, an allstar cast, and a fresh new line of Special Effects, and awesome Storwriters. It is the best in the series, and has stood the test of time. Superman II was also very good, it lives up to the first one, and the new Richard Donner cut coming in November should be even better than the one we're all accustomed to! After the first seqel though, is where things began to change...

At the end of the 2nd movie, "COMING SOON SUPERMAN III!" was the first sentence in the credits. Lets get our hopes up for the next one the First two were great! Audiences soon found that was not the case for the 1983 film starring Christopher Reeve and...Richard Pryor?!

WHAT WAS WRONG?

After I, and II Gene Hackman and Margot Kidder were openly angry at the Producers Ilya and Alexander Salkind for firing Richard Donner off the 2nd movie, he had filmed the 1st film, and most of the 2nd when this happened. So Hackman refused to show up in III. And Margot talked about the Salkinds or something publicly about the Salkinds firing Donner.

So...They kept her pretty low profile in Superman III, saying she took a Vacation to Bermuda. This kinda killed off Clark Kent's original love life for the movie. The Salkinds also made some other choices that killed the movie. They decided to go with a campier movie this time. Completely diminishing the seriousness of Superman I and II. Richard Pryor wasn't too bad for the style of movie, but...he doesn't really seem like the best computer genius.

Now to the point, Superman III suffered deeply from the aspects above. Being the only movie to fail to have Lex Luthor, and Lois Lane. It was a poor sequel to the 1st two. And I rate it a 3/10. The special effects as far as Superman flying, and using heat vision were at their best here, but still this wasn't enough to save the movie. The script was also way too Campy. Poor Job here Salkinds. So this movie failed to get good reviews, and lost popularity. The new November DVD Should be great though! The Best part of Superman III was the battle between Clark and Evil Superman. Christopher Reeve was a great actor, and showed a whole new role for himself in that small part of the movie where he is evil. But this was indeed a good performance by Reeve. (But without Lois Lane he had to start over again with the Lana in Smallvill, and Pryor also made too much of a competetor of all the attention)

Duel is one of the many Spielberg films that really deserve respect. First of all, for those who DON'T care for Duel, remember that without it, Spielberg would most likely not have been asked to do Jaws. This movie captured attention for its suspenseful camera angles, and great visual storytelling, what Spielberg has become known for in the years. Without this movie, Spielberg may not have had enough attention to do JAWS... So show some respect for the film.

With that out of the way...Duel is really a great low-budget made for TV film, everyone can relate to long trips in the car, and David Mann in some way or another(PLAYED BY DENNIS WEAVER). Which is really a reality boost. But then there's also the mystery, and suspense involved in the movie. The Director did a great job with the long opening, a peaceful boring drive out of the city. But then, about 20 minutes in, this dirty, spooky, and polluting tanker comes along.

Then Mann, and the Truck driver begin to stage out the plot. The music during the first chase is well fitted. These fast, crazy camera-angled chases and encounters are what keeps you interested in the movie until the climax, where MANN finally defeats the truck driver by crashing his own car, and forcing the truck down a cliff.

DUEL works very well, in the picture you NEVER see more than the Arms and Boots of the trucker. And not much of them either. The Music is also very fitting, and the plot is just realistic enough to make you believe it could happen to you. Spielberg showed his magic in this film, especially filming it without green-screens ON LOCATION, and only in 10 DAYS. Thats impressive for any movie.

A GREAT START FOR SPIELBERG!

The first time you watch Die Another Day it is really cool, and you think you've just left having seen a great new James Bond movie. But when you watch it over again, you realize how un-James Bond it really is. We've seen giant lasers, and space battles enough, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, Moonraker, and Goldeneye all had something to do with space, but were all unique. World War III, Ransom, a New Human Race, and crash the stock market! All original, and very cool. But this one, Halle was not at all the best Bond Girl. Shes hot an all, but she competes too much with the Star, Pierce. Another boring aspect, we've seen a giant space laser before, and it was cooler when it wasn't all in fakey CGI. Most of the action here was in CGI, which is very distinct. Like when Bond is surfing the title wave in Iceland using a Parachute. The sword fight in the London fencing house was the best part of the movie. AWESOME PART! It is the best BOND-LIKE aspect in this movie. But overall, this movie can only capture your imagination believably after one viewing. The other times, you notice the fakey CGI, and the far-From-Original Bond like action. OVERALL: Not A good Bond Film

Superman II is really one of the best Superhero Sequels of all time. It fits perfectly into place with the original, the opening scenes act as reminders from the first film, showing how the 3 villains were sent away just as Superman had been by his father, and also shows how Superman had gotten a reputation in the first film. The film gives its impact because Lois Lane discovers what is true about Clark Kent. And Clark becomes vulnerable against 3 who are just like him. Christopher Reeve did great in the movie, and Gene Hackman brought back his substantial role also. A good movie for Superman or Superhero movie fans. If you've seen Superman Returns, watch the first 2! It will be put all together, 2 really great movies!