#137 - "Superman III" (1983) with Laramy Wells - 80s Flick Flashback

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Is it a bird? Is it a plane?
No, it's Richard Pryor with a supercomputer.
On this episode of the 80s flickFlashback, I'm joined by guest
Co host Laramie Wells to discussthe 80s flick sequel that all
but torpedoed the Superman franchise with its focus on
silly sight gags instead of Man of Steel mythos.
Will we defend the choice to replace arch nemesis Lex Luthor

(00:22):
with the billionaire? Ross Webster would be able to
make sense of a synthetic kryptonite and that epic
junkyard brawl. Stay tuned as we kick off our
brand new Summer of Sequels 2 series with our nostalgic views
and rad review of Superman 3 from 1983 on this episode of the
80s Flick Flashback Podcast. Today I'm so excited to have

(01:23):
this returning Co host back on the show.
He's a man who can break down a flick better than, well, better
than Gus's computer broke down global coffee bean supplies and
he's also the only person I knowwhose Fortress of Solitude is a
Superman memorabilia laden basement.
It's Laramie Wells from moving panels podcast.
How you doing Laramie? I am good.

(01:43):
My wife has proclaimed that thismovie has the single greatest
quote in movie history. I don't want to go to jail.
They have robbers and rapist andrapist who rape robbers.
Yeah, I had that down on some ofmy favorite lines too.
So, which I'm sure was completely ad libbed by Richard
Pryor, I have no doubt. To be Yeah, had to be.

(02:05):
Had no doubt. Writers of this movie could not
have come up with something thatgood.
No, not even close. So yeah, we'll get into favorite
lines and we'll get into lots ofscenes that I'm sure we'll want
to discuss why this is in the movie and why they decide to do
things, and we'll get into that as well.
Why is this in the movie? Is the question for the entire
movie. Why is this movie?
That is the that is the real question.

(02:27):
And let everybody know I'm a huge Superman fan.
But this movie, Wow. Yeah, yeah.
Let's get ready. Let's get.
Let's get into it. All right, Laramie, you know the
drill. When did you see When did you
see Superman 3 for the first time on television?
On television, yes. I can't pinpoint an exact
daytime year or anything. And again, I know I had to have

(02:48):
seen it on television when I wasa kid, probably on Channel 36
here in Atlanta. WATL, because that was a lot of
what they did was just show movies because they weren't
really an official network. They later became Fox, but but
until then, it was just, you know, that was the place to
watch movies, most of the movies.
You asked me about that. That's the answer as I saw it on

(03:09):
WATL. Yeah, in the 90s, it was the 80s
channel, right? As far as 80s, absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
I tried to remember if I saw this in the theater.
I don't really have a distinct memory of seeing this in the
theater, but I know I've seen ita lot.
So it had to been one that we either rented and I watched a
bunch of times, checked out at the library or it was just on

(03:31):
cable all the time. Like I remember Superman 2 being
on HBO like on repeat when they came out.
And this is probably kind of thesame thing.
It probably ran on HBO a lot as well.
So I think it's just one of those movies like in the summer,
it was probably on like every day and we would just, you know,
come in from the heat, tired of playing baseball or, you know,
kickball or whatever. We were playing outside and
wanted to have enjoy the air conditioning for a couple hours

(03:53):
and it was on so we'd watch it. But how long has it been since
you rewatched it before rewatching it for the podcast?
A year or two. I, I know that you and I covered
it for my podcast, I think two years ago.
Yeah. I'm not 100% sure if I've
watched it since then, but yeah.But definitely two years ago
when we covered it for my podcast, because yeah, this

(04:15):
isn't, isn't one that I'm, I'm jumping the gun to go see, but
uh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, if you, if you didn't
know, but you know, if you're a fan of the show, you know,
Laramie has covered all of them at this point because we just
did the Superman 4 episode that is already out on his on his
podcast. So but we did Superman 3 a
couple years ago. I was also his first guest for
his very first episode, which was 1978 Superman.

(04:38):
Then we did a crossover Superman2 episode for both of our shows
where one of us talked about theLester cut.
I think you did. And then I talked about the
Donner cut. So we kind of put that into two
episodes. So definitely go check those
out. So but yeah, so so I have not
covered the original Superman because it came out in 78, but
we redid Superman again for your100th episode.
So lots of Superman content, of course, on moving panels, which

(05:02):
with as you can tell by by Laramie's background, he's a
huge fan of Superman. So that's why he's covered them
all. And I believe the plan next is
to go to Superman Returns, whichwas the next Superman live
action movie that we'll. Cover Yeah, Stay in Chronic
Superman Returns, even though there's a nice big gap.
But that wouldn't be next. Although we did talk about maybe

(05:24):
going back a little bit and doing the TV movie musical.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that that aired.
Yeah. And you know what?
Yeah. And, you know, every time we do
one of these Superman movies, wealways talk about Smallville.
And I'm just going to have to breakdown and go back and watch
it because I watched the first couple of seasons, but I never

(05:45):
watched the full run of the show.
And whenever we talk about it, it brings up some nostalgia
about it. So I'm going to have to at some
point, maybe this summer will, you know, a lot of stuff is, you
know, reruns and reality shows. I can binge that over the
summer. So I'd be a fun, I know.
And I'm. You're going to currently.
Rewatching. Yeah, because you're going to
cover down something here prettysoon.
Yeah, and well, my daughter has finally decided to sit and watch

(06:07):
it. And so she and I have been
watching, watching it episode byepisode.
She has finished Season 1 and weactually covered it and her
reaction to Season 1 and now we're in Season 2 and we should
be wrapping that one up pretty soon too.
Yeah, but I mean, she's got 10. Seasons to get through yeah,
that's the thing with like showsthat have that longevity it's

(06:28):
like OK I've got to commit that if I start it I'm going to
finish it so yeah all right welllet's talk about story origin
and pre production so we've kindof covered some of this in the
other episodes as well, but justfor a recap for everyone.
Richard Donner confirmed that hehad been interested in writing
at least two more Superman films, which he intended Tom
Mike Mankiewicz to direct and use Brainiac as the villain of

(06:51):
the third film. Donner but a part of the series
during the production of Superman Two.
Well documented. Go back to Superman 2 episode to
hear that. In December of 1980, producer
Ilya Salkind wrote a treatment for this film that included
Brainiac. Mr. Mix, you say you gotta say
it, I can't say it. Mix.
Shit, Pitlik. Yeah, We'll just call it Mr.
Mixy going forward. There you go.

(07:12):
So, yeah, so included Brainiac, Mr. Mixy and Supergirl.
The treatment was finally released online in 2007.
If you dare go read it. But here's a synopsis Mr. Mixy
was portrayed in. The outline varies from his
comic counterpart as he uses hisabilities to cause chaos.
Dudley Moore was the first choice to play the role for
1980. That's 100% not bad.

(07:33):
Yeah. That that that would that would
land very well in the treatment.Brainiac was from Kolu Kalu.
Kalu Kalu, sure yeah, and had discovered Supergirl in the same
way that Superman was found by the Kent's.
Brainiac is portrayed as a surrogate father to Supergirl
and eventually fell in love withhis quote UN quote daughter
Cringe who did not reciprocate his feelings as she had fallen

(07:56):
in love with Superman, which still sounds weird.
Brainiac retaliates by using a personality machine to corrupt
and manipulate Superman. The climax of the film would
have seen Superman, Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen, Lana Lang, and
Brainiac time travel to the Middle Ages for a final battle
against Brainiac. After defeating him and leaving

(08:17):
Brainiac behind, Superman and Supergirl would have married at
the end of Superman 3 or in Superman 4.
The treatment was rejected as being too complex and expensive
to shoot, and also for being terrible because of the high
budgets required. The series of Sal kinds
considered selling the rights tothe series to Dina De
Laurentiis, but he passed. The significance of computers,
the corruption of Superman and the splitting of Superman into

(08:39):
good and evil would be used in this final version of the film.
It was originally intended to betitled Superman versus Superman,
which I think is a pretty cool title, but was retitled after
the producers of Kramer versus Kramer threatened A lawsuit.
Why? I have no idea.
Yeah, Like, these are two totally different movies.
Why would you feel like they're trying to, you know, steal your

(09:00):
Thunder for some? Reason.
Yeah, I mean, not as stupid as making Superman and Supergirl
fall in love. Yes.
Did anybody read a comic? Right.
Right. Because they're cousins in the
comics, right? Yes.
Yeah. Cousins.
They're their dads or brothers. They are cousins.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm just weird.
I love. Yeah.

(09:21):
Give us Brainiac. I think Mick would be a great.
And it's kind of funny that Dudley Moore was considered
because there's a lot of similarity you could probably
put into Dudley Moore's character in Santa Claus.
Yeah, yeah. Which we've covered.
Over the podcast, yeah. And it's also a salt kind, yeah.

(09:42):
There you go. Yeah, wanting to duplicate the
success of Superman by making a Santa Claus.
Movie Santa Claus the movie The.Movie.
Yeah, man, but man, that would have been a bad movie.
Not that this is that much better, but it definitely.
Was better than that would have.Been.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It went in a different
direction, that's for sure. All right, well, let's jump into
casting. So I'll read this little blurb

(10:05):
and then we'll kind of get into some of the cast.
Like most of the movies for the our summer sequel series,
because they're sequels, we're not going to cover everyone in
as detail as we would during regular episodes because we've
covered them in previous episodes that you can go back
and listen to their filmography and that kind of stuff.
So. But both Gene Hagman and Margot
Kidder are said to have been angry with the way the Salkinds
treated Superman director Richard Donner, with Hackman

(10:27):
retaliating by refusing to reprise his role of Lex Luther.
After Margot Kidder publicly criticized criticized the
Salkinds for their treatment of Donner, their producers
reportedly punished Kidder by reducing her role in Superman 3
to a brief appearance. Ackman later denied such claims,
saying that he had been busy with other movies and that
making Luther a constant villainwould be similar to horror movie

(10:50):
sequels where a serial killer just keeps coming back.
Hagman would eventually reprise his role as Lex Luther and
Superman 4, which the Salkinds had no involvement in, and the
commentary for the 2006 DVD DVD release of Superman 3.
Salkind denied any negative feelings towards Margot Kidder
and his production team had denied the claim that her part
was cut for retaliation. Instead, the creative team said

(11:12):
they decided to pursue a different direction for love
interest or Superman, believing the Lois and Clark relationship
had been overdone in the first two films.
With the choice to give a more prominent role to Lana Lang, the
role of Lois was reduced for story reasons.
Salkind also denied the reports about Hackman being upset with
him, stating that he was unable to return because of other film
commitments. Believe what you want.

(11:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's hard to to tell what is
actually is the truth in all of that.
But I do agree with Hackman is is that having having Lex is the
villain in every movie does get a little redundant.
I mean, at least in two you bring in Zod, right, right.
And that that kind of Lex just is kind of trying to play apart

(11:58):
in all of that. But at least Zod is the main
villain. And then they do that again in 4
by having like create nuclear man's nuclear man's more.
And, you know, it could have worked in this one almost in the
same way that they end up doing with Webster is, you know, he
they could have done a brainiac thing, which clearly, clearly
where this one was inspired. So they could have done a

(12:18):
brainiac thing still maybe had Lex be a part of it.
But I totally do agree that Lex doesn't need to be the villain
in every movie. I also have absolutely no
problem with Lana Lang in this. I agree.
Yeah, I know we'll talk about her in a minute, but I love
Annette O'Toole. Yep.
Yep. And so absolutely.
But yeah, I mean, it it, it doesfeel kind of weird that Lois is

(12:39):
there and then she was like, allright, I'm off.
And then yeah. And then just shows up at the
end. It does feel a little weird,
but. With her heavy tan makeup to
make her look she's been in Bermuda for a month or whatever.
Yeah, if you want to do something different than Lex,
why create Ross Webster, which is kind of a lesser version of

(13:00):
Lex Luthor, but they who they eventually made more, they made
the Lex Luthor character more like him late after this.
Yes, yeah, because before Lex was just the criminal
mastermind. You know, you go back to the
first movie. I mean, his layer is an
abandoned, you know, subway station underground.
And then of course, that continues in the second one.

(13:20):
And so it was really the character of Ross Webster that
that really gave the idea of well, what if Lex was more
powerful, right, right. As a as a person, Like what if
he had more more stout and more a clout, I guess is more of the
word I'm looking for, right. You know, so to making him this

(13:42):
businessman, this, that is what I think is one of the best
things to come out of this movieis it gave us the Lex Luthor
that we are more familiar. With right, right.
I mean, when Lex was introduced in the comics, he was more of
just a mad scientist. And so that's actually one of
the things I like about Superman4 is it merges all of the

(14:03):
different versions of Lex together.
But then, yeah, we get more of the the billionaire,
millionaire, whatever he actually is businessman that we
got more of in in the 90s with the Lois and Clark TV show, of
course, the Michael Rosenbaum version in Smallville.
And then I, you know, apparentlynow we're oh, and even the I

(14:25):
almost forgot Jesse Eisenberg and.
Well, there's a reason that you want to forget that one.
And then that we're about to getwith Nicholas Holt in the new
Superman movie, right? I will say, obviously Kevin
Spacey's has a twist to that, but he is a continuation of the
Lex Luthor from Superman 2, right?
Right. So he doesn't quite have the

(14:47):
business aspect. He's more just looking for that
real estate con that Lex came upwith, right?
Right. All right, well, let's talk
about the goat. The Superman goat.
That will always be our Superman, the late, great
Christopher Reeve. He had been contracted for seven
films as Superman. He engaged a lawyer to

(15:08):
renegotiate the contract. Yeah.
Prior to production, producer Pierre Spingler described the
process of securing Reeves return as contentious, though
Ilya Salkind recalls that Reeve approved of the Superman 3
script and was more than willingto reprise his role.
Believe what you want. They cast another Superman,
right? Right.

(15:28):
And that I don't know if you have.
That No, I I don't. But yeah, let's talk about it.
They had. They had already planned to to
start casting other Superman. They were already looking at
other people. Man, just to think that there
was there was almost. And this was for both Superman 3
and Superman 4. Like they were so close to
casting various people. The worst offense would been

(15:52):
Tony Danza. Hey, yo, away.
Yeah, that was. No, no, thank you.
He's no longer a reporter. He's driving a cab in
Metropolis. Yeah, yeah.
No, thank you. Yeah, yeah.
Not not the best. Yeah, who might be the boss?
Tony Danza. Who might be Superman Not?
Tony Danza. No offense to Tony Danza, if

(16:13):
you're listening. No, I I we love you.
Yeah, I love Tony Dan. I love who's the boss, Love
Taxi. But.
Yeah, you're, you're not Superman, right?
You're not, You're not Superman.I can probably, we can probably
think of some other superhero players, superhero characters
you could have played in the 80s, but Superman ain't one of
them. I'm.
Sorry. Yep.
So yeah. And this is also the first time

(16:33):
Christopher Reeve had top billing in a Superman movie.
In the 78 Superman, he was behind Marlon Brando and Gene
Hackman. And then it's Superman 2 in
1980, he was behind Hackman. So this was his first time and
I'm. Surprised he's not behind
Richard. Pryor exactly.
In this one, because when this movie starts, you don't know
it's a Superman. You don't.

(16:53):
I have no clue, you know. Well, yeah, let's.
Oh, gosh, the opening is terrible.
We were not there yet, but yeah,it's just.
But I'm not even talking about the opening credits.
Yeah, but it but it starts with yeah, it starts with Gus.
Like it feels like it's Gus's movie from the beginning.
Yes, it feels like you're watching a clip out of, you
know, silver bullet or. Busting one of the other or the

(17:16):
toy or any of the other Richard Pryor movies that, yeah, had
already come out at that point. No indication it's the Superman
movie when this movie starts. No, no, Yeah.
OK. All right, moving on.
So we won't talk about Christopher Lee, Christopher
Reeve's filmography. We've covered it already.
We also already talked about Margot Kidder as Lois Lane.
We talked about Gene Hackman. We talked about Gene Hackman's.

(17:37):
Not in this one. We talked about, that's right,
Jackie, Jackie Cooper as Perry White, Martin McClure as Jimmy
Olsen. So we'll kind of move.
Who they who they also get rid of by having him break?
His leg. Break his leg.
Yeah. So we'll talk about Richard
Pryor, even though we've coveredRichard Pryor in Brewster's
Millions. So you can go back and listen
that first filmography, but are you aware of how he got this
role? Like why was Richard Pryor in

(17:59):
this movie? Because of Johnny Carson.
That's right, that's right. After an appearance on The
Tonight Show, he told Johnny Carson how much he enjoyed
seeing Superman and Superman 2, and Pryor jokingly stated his
desire to appear in a future Superman installment.
The Sal kinds were eager to casthim in a prominent role in the
third film, using the success ofhis movies Silver Streak, Stir

(18:20):
Crazy and The Toy. His casting would also help them
attract Richard Lester back to return and direct because Lester
was eager to work with Pryor, who appealed to his comedic
sensibilities. And boy, oh boy, did he ramp
that up. I call this, you know, they
don't they didn't give subtitlesto this when we didn't get the
subtitle until Superman for the Quest for Peace.

(18:41):
But if I gave this one a subtitle, The Superman 3 the
Comedy, because it leans so heavy into trying to be so funny
and like a comedy, it almost at time becomes a parody of a
Superman movie. Yes, absolutely.
I mean, and I know we'll probably talk about it more,
more and more throughout the episode.

(19:02):
That's the opening credits scene.
Just feel like you're watching, you know, a Three Stooges tight
bit or you're watching. I don't know.
I know that this is a little before the time, but you know
some well, not necessarily because you got movies like
Airplane, you know, or even someof the Mel Brooks stuff like.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's.
Or or even going back to movies like it's a mad, mad, mad, mad

(19:25):
world. Like that's what the opening of
this movie feels like. Yeah.
By the way, I want to point out,I want to correct myself.
I said silver bullet earlier forRichard.
I meant Silver Street. Phil St.
Yeah, I was like, yeah, I knew Silver was right, but I didn't
think the other part was yeah, so.
A Silver Bullet is a totally different movie.
It's a Stephen King werewolf movie.
All right, well, let's continue with casting.

(19:45):
Then. We've got the lovely Annette
O'Toole as Lana Lang. A little bit about her
filmography. She is known for playing Lisa
Bridges in the TV series Nash Bridges, adult Beverly Marsh in
the 1990 television miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's
epic horror novel It. She was Kathy in the romantic
comedy film Crossed My Heart, and she also was Martha Kent on

(20:07):
the television series Smallville.
Which she also just is amazing. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I, I, it's funny becauseeven when I saw her on this and
forgot that she was in it until I was rewatching it and I was
like, I feel like she's been in so much.
Like to feel like her filmography is much bigger than
this and she has like a lot of small roles, but like, but I
think because I, because I thinkI fell in, I fell in love with

(20:30):
her. But I became a fan of her during
Smallville because I think that's probably the one thing
that I watched more of her in. So, you know, seeing her in this
was like, oh man, it was so goodto see her, you know, at that at
that time. And of course, if you're a fan
of the Netflix show Virgin River, she's a main character on
that show as well. So what's more current show?
And she's really good on that, too.

(20:50):
Very much not. You know, she's more the Lois
Lane character in Virgin River. She's much more direct and
speaks her mind than than the Lana Lane character that's a
little bit more ditzy. You know, we'll kind of get into
that too. Yeah, she's a little too ditzy,
but. But no.
Yeah, Annette, Annette O'Toole is just great.
I love her as Lana Lange. I wish there was more.

(21:12):
Yeah, the more development with that character and their
relationship. Yeah.
I just wish there was a little bit more.
But yeah, then she's she's greatas Martha Kent in Smallville.
Just amazing. Of course, I probably lock in on
Beverly Marsh from it. Well, yeah, it's.

(21:33):
Where I, I'm not saying my favorite role of hers, but
that's probably where I first introduced.
Yeah, first was introduced to her, but then also not to
mention, or I guess to mention because I'm about to, but the
fact that she wrote a lot of themusic for A Mighty Wind, the
Christopher Guest movie. Well, I forgot about that.
That's right. That's right.
Along along with her husband Michael McKean.

(21:54):
Yeah, they wrote and I think even got Oscar nominated for for
a couple of the songs. So yeah, amazingly talented.
Yeah, and she has admitted to being a big fan of comic books
and was as a child and was thrilled to be cast as Lana
Lang, one of her favorite characters.
Now, I'll ask you this question because this is how I felt.
Do you think she had better chemistry with Christopher

(22:16):
Reeves than Margot Kids? Yeah. 100%.
Yeah, this relationship seems somuch more believable.
Even though Superman 1 and 2 is are better movies than this, the
chemistry between Lana Lang or between Annette O'Toole and
Christopher Reeve is much more palpable in this one.
Absolutely, in fact to not to jump into the next movie, but

(22:37):
they did not know what to do with the relationship between
Lois and Clark that in the 4th movie they just redo the
storyline from the first movie. Yeah, yeah, it's bad.
Yeah, no, 100% that Lana and Clark have more chemistry that
you do. Kind of like we said, we want

(23:00):
more of it, whereas I had no problem with Lois leaving at the
beginning of this movie. Right, right.
All right. Moving right along, we've got
Annie Ross as Vera Webster. She was the sister and partner
of Ross in his company and plans.
She was played by I said Annie Ross, who was a British American
singer and actress best known asa member of the influential jazz

(23:22):
vocal trio Lambert, Hendrix and Ross.
Her film roles included Mrs. Hazeltine from Throw, Mama from
the Train 87, Rose Brooks and Witchery in 1988.
She played Loretta Crestwood andPump Up the Volume in 1990.
She also had roles in Robert Altman's Shortcuts and Blue Sky,
but she also appeared as Granny Ruth in the horror films Basket

(23:43):
Case 29 from 1990 and Basket Case 3, The Progeny in 1991.
Never heard of any of those. I think I might have seen the
the VHS case for those or the DVD case for those, but never
seen them. I will say though she is a
trooper for taking all of the insults.
Yes yes that that she has given in this movie cuz they are bad.

(24:08):
Yeah, yeah. I'm just not, I'm not a fan of
comedy where it's like completely demeaning the other
person. Like, I know that was kind of
like a thing in the 70s and 80s.Yeah, but there were some people
who could do it well. Right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you think of like Don
Rickles? Like Don.
Rickles roasting, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
He was an insult comic, but it was always you felt like it was

(24:30):
in fun and it was more of in jest, but.
Right. Yeah, this was just me.
Yeah, this was and. And it probably would have been
different if all of it came fromRoss.
But it didn't. Like the right off the bat we
see the picture of her and PerryWhite's talking about how blurry
it looks and they're like. No, that's just her.

(24:52):
That's her face. And I'm like, how does a person
look? Blurry naturally, right?
Right. Yeah, All right.
So we'll probably, what a trooper.
We'll, we'll, we'll probably talk about more of the fact that
this movie is not not nice to women.
No, it's not. Not not just this character, all
of them. So on the other side, you've got
Pamela Stevenson as Lorelai Ambrosia, who was the yoga

(25:16):
instructor psychic. Psychic nutritionist.
There you go. That's a psychic nutritionist.
Yeah, cuz that's a that's a thing.
Uh huh. Stevenson appeared in British TV
shows including Space, The 99 New Avengers, The Professionals,
and Tales of the Unexpected before her breakout role
alongside Rowan Atkinson, Mr. Bean himself, Mel Smith and

(25:37):
Griff Rise Jones, and the satirical sketch show Not the
9:00 News. From 1979 to 82.
She also had a role in Mel Brooks's comedy History of the
World, Part 1 from 1981. Of Laramie's Favorites, Richard
Lester says that he actually wanted her for the part based on
her performances and not the 9:00 news.
I got to go find out who she is in History of the World Part 1.

(26:00):
Yeah, I'm sure it's a small, I mean there's so many different
vignettes in that it's like she could be in any of them.
So hard to place. But but yeah.
And I think she was actually, she was the first non American
to be cast, the first non American female cast in Saturday
Night Live like in the mid 80s as well.
Like I think for one season she was not well.
Received well the Saturday NightLive in the 80s was.

(26:23):
Not well received, right? Not, at least not until the end,
yeah. Late 80s, early 90s, kind of.
Started to get better, but yeah,yeah.
Yeah, but, you know, I don't have much say about her
character. It's very, you know.
No, again, stereotypical. I mean I I do at least like that
they give her where she's secretly intelligent but but

(26:45):
almost from the complete other end of the sister.
Like just making her just an object for the most part.
Right, right. I mean, again, starting right
off with that, that clip inside the Daily Planet where Jimmy's
photos and the majority of the board are photos of her.
And then they proceed to have close-ups, including one that is

(27:06):
just of her cleavage, Right, Right.
So, yeah, just making her an object again.
They yeah, cuz you, you got Loisthat Margot Kidder that they
just completely, let's just kickher out of the movie.
But of course, when they do the like, the way she leaves is by
holding up this really Skimpy's bikini.

(27:26):
Right, right. You know, like you're going to
show that to your boss before you go on vacation.
Yeah, well, I mean, this Lois Lane really doesn't care, right?
But then you've got Lana, who's probably one of the best
portrayed female characters, butthey still give her this
ditziness that just doesn't doesn't seem to fit.

(27:47):
Then you've got, as we just talked about, you got Vera who
they just it's just to throw insults at.
And then you got this character Ambrosia, who is just again,
like a it's an object. She's just something to look at,
even though they try, like I said, to give her this thing
where she's highly intelligent. But they even have the scene
where she's reading the book, tries to hide it.

(28:07):
And then she just. Right.
She knocks. Yeah, yeah, she knocks.
She leaves on the couch and knocks the pillow off the book
and it's still out in the open and no one.
Nobody. Notices.
That's probably because they're just looking at her because
she's just an object for for thethe male view and this.
Yeah. Because, yeah, it's just so bad

(28:27):
that the portrayal of women in this one, you know, I don't know
if if we want to say that it's athing of the time because you
did just bring up history of theworld.
I mean, Mel Brooks is notorious for doing it as well, so.
Yeah, I don't know. I think it was part of the time
it does it it's parts. Doesn't right.
Yeah, yeah. It didn't age well, as they
would say, but you know, it's very cringey to go back and look

(28:48):
at it. No, that was very normal back
then. So all right, let's talk about
Robert Vaughn as Ross Webster. Vaughn had his breakthrough role
as disabled drunken war veteran Chester A Gwynn and the Young
Philadelphians, earning him a 19601960 Oscar nomination for
best supporting actor. He also appeared in scores of
films, notably in The Magnificent 7 in 1960, Bullet a

(29:10):
Bridge of Remiten and he was thevoice of Proteus 4IN Demon Seed
in 1977. He's also very well known for
being in the TV show The Man from Uncle, which I think is
where most people probably know him from, and that's probably
what I recognized him from. He once stated an interview that
after the film was released, he decided to no longer show up at
his son Cassidy School because the students were horrified that

(29:31):
he quote UN quote, almost killedSuperman.
That's awesome, though I ain't. Gonna lie, yeah.
Yeah. He played your role well, yeah.
Yeah, exactly. I will say, although I did know
he was the man from Uncle, that wasn't until later in life that
I experienced the man of UNCLE. To me, he was always the guy
that bought the A-Team, right? In the yeah, that's right, Yeah,

(29:52):
that's right. The last season.
The last last like season or two, yeah, I can't remember,
Yeah. But yeah.
To where he was the one that controlled what they did and.
And it was just weird. That was when the A-Team, that's
when they added the the guy who did the special effects.
Yeah, yeah. He became a member of the A-Team
and and then there was a girl aswell that.

(30:13):
They're trying to spice it up. Yeah, trying to rejuvenate it in
the the later years and it just it didn't work.
No, no, it run its course. So Vaughn was not the original
choice. According to the writers.
They actually wanted Alan Alda because they wanted an actor who
could be ruthless without losingany charm.
I agree with that as well. No, Yeah, he can do that.
Yeah, I think that would, I think he would even be better in

(30:35):
the role. I think he would.
It would have separated him a little bit more from cuz Vaughn
to me just seems to be playing Lex Luthor.
Like he just seems to be have that same kind of matter of
fact, you know, speech or whatever.
But yeah. Yeah.
But yeah, I can see that. Salkind said in the DVD
commentary that his choice was Frank Langella.
And of course, Langella appearedas Perry White and Superman

(30:58):
Returns in 2006. Yeah, Langella, not as much as
Alan Alda. Yeah, Langella would have been,
I think 2:00 and intense. I don't think he would have for
what this movie ended up being. I don't think he would have fit
right. You know, the, the more
cartoonish, you know, comedic this movie was.
I, I just, I, I don't know. I know Frank Langella can do

(31:18):
comedy, but I just I don't thinkhe would have fit in this movie.
I agree with that. All right, wrapping it up, we've
got Gavin O'hearley as Brad Wilson on his ex-boyfriend in
Clark's high school Bully. Most people know him as playing
Chuck Cunningham in the first episodes of the TV sitcom Happy
Days. He was also in films such as
Never Say Never Again, At Wish 3and Willow.

(31:42):
But yeah, it was Chuck Cunningham, the long lost older
brother. But again, if you're like me,
you know him from Superman 3. Yes, you know, that's what you
know him from. All right, then, if we got a few
cameos I wanted to mention, I thought worth worth mentioning
Aaron Smolnowski. Yeah.
Anyway, he played the baby ClarkKent in the original Superman in

(32:04):
78. He appears uncredited as the
little boy waiting outside a photo booth while Clark Kent is
changing into Superman, which I thought that was a great scene.
I love that. I thought was a cool idea of
having him changing in the booth.
And you see the pictures of him transforming.
And then, of course, he cuts offand just gives the kid the small
piece of him as Superman. So he doesn't revealed his
secret identity. So I thought that was a cool.

(32:25):
Little like that kid would even know who Clark head.
Was not a clue. But no, yeah, it is the best
part of the opening credit sequence compared to all the
crazy shenanigans and stupidity that happens throughout the
rest. But yeah.
Yeah, then we've got Gordon Rawlings plays the man with the

(32:45):
cap during the opening slapstickcrit.
Speaking of the opening. Yeah, he also appeared briefly
in Superman 2 as the fisherman who sees the three super
villains land in the lake. Pamela Mandel, who played Mrs.
Stokes, was also the diner waitress in Superman 2.
And then my favorite cameo that we did not get to see was Frank
Oz played a brain surgeon in a deleted scene from the montage

(33:08):
of the supercomputer causing a nationwide power outage.
It's included in the extended television version of the film
and was broadcast in the UK in the late 80s.
He also worked on puppet sequences, which were also
deleted but not included in any of the versions.
But yeah, good. I love a good Frank Oz cameo.
He, him and Landis had their thing of always having each

(33:29):
other pop up in their movies. What would have been the puppet?
I was trying to think maybe partof the computer, maybe like,
yeah, yeah, supercomputer, because it is kind of like at
one point doesn't like that armscome out of the computer in that
one scene where Vera gets pulledin.
Or am I imagining that? Yeah.
But I, I, I think, I don't know if they're arms or anything, but

(33:49):
I do think, yeah, that he may have had something to do with
just the technical aspects of maybe some of the computer
stuff. I could see that.
Yeah. Oh, that.
Can that. Yeah, we'll get into that.
Yeah. All right, well, let's let's go
ahead and jump into scenes, iconic scenes.
When someone says Superman 3, what is the first scene that you
think of? No, it's got to be the junkyard

(34:10):
fight of. Course, that is the iconic
scene. Yeah, no doubt about.
It the the junkyard fight as well as evil Superman at the
bar. Yes, yeah, that's, that's a
close second, yeah. Just because that one's been
turned into a meme. Yeah, yeah, a GIF and all, but
yeah, the actual fight between Clark and evil Superman is

(34:30):
definitely the the, you know, the best part of this movie.
And yes, and the part that you're gonna think of the most,
I mean, I'm sorry, Richard Pryor, but I yeah, it's not any
of your scenes. I'm sorry.
No, it's not. Yeah.
I mean, I I agree. I think that so they're like
this movie feels like 3 different movies to me.

(34:51):
Like it feels like a Richard Pryor movie about Gus trying to
find a job and becoming this computer mastermind.
Which is amazing that he took one class and somehow knows how
to control every computer known to man.
Which is apparently just tellingthe computer what to.
Do. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, that's all you got. To do right is sell the
computer. Like yeah, break breakthrough
security and it does. He invented ChatGPT before we

(35:13):
knew what ChatGPT was. Yeah.
But I feel like like, like that's that's a movie that could
have been its own movie without Superman at all.
And then you've got the Supermanmovie that I wanted, which is
him going back for his high school reunion, him, you know,
rekindling with Lana. I don't know what the villain
aspect. Maybe it's, you know, just him

(35:34):
trying to try to do I want to go, do I want to go back to
Metropolis and be Superman? Or do I see myself settling down
and being just Clark with, you know, enjoying love without the
risk of being a superhero? That, to me, could have been its
own, its own story. You know, and you still could
have had the the evil Superman aspect of it.
You could have had where you know, I know, I know.

(35:57):
On the way to Smallville they stopped at this factory that for
some odd reason is creating acid.
Right. But you could have had something
where maybe somebody, you know, some scientist was studying
kryptonite and does something tothe kryptonite that you know,
causes it to have a different reaction to Superman

(36:18):
unknowingly. I'm not saying they're.
Doing any of this Exactly the villain.
Yeah. And then Superman, you know,
maybe during a rescue, maybe they could have still had a very
similar scene where fire breaks out, he gets exposed to this
modified kryptonite, and they still have that part of the
movie and that that is the conflict.
Yes, yes, it's good Superman andbad Superman.

(36:40):
So yeah, no, definitely could have kept this more focused in
Smallville, had more of the Lanastuff, you know, flesh that out
a little bit. Hadn't honestly had more of
Christopher Reeve being Clark. Yeah, because exactly I.
Also feel there's a lack of Clark Kent and.
There is, there is. I agree with that 100%.
Yeah. So like this.

(37:00):
So, you know, so for that scene,like I understand, you know, the
evil Superman or the you know, yeah, the evil Superman is
flying away after having the confrontation with the boy who's
saying, you know, you know, thatkind of reminds him of who he
who he's supposed to be. And then he lands in the
junkyard and Clark Kent just kind of comes out.
And it was kind of jarring at first, like when I was

(37:20):
rewatching it because it was like I would have liked some
kind of like already some conflict of maybe hearing the
Clark Kent's voice or like therebeing this internal monologue
that we heard of the two kind offighting internally before it
became this external battle. It's still great, but I just
wish there was a little bit better of a setup for it that
made a little bit more sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(37:41):
Having Clark either as just a voice or I mean it was the 80s.
Having the little like Ghostly. Clark, head right.
Talking to him or or even more 80s having clips of just like in
a black void of Clark and evil Superman arguing with each
other. You know, like it's in his mind.
Yeah. Hell yeah.
Yeah. You know, Allah, Allah, when

(38:04):
Mork talks to the the leaders inMork and Mindy, he's always just
being. Black.
Yep. Yep, void.
More calling Orson, yeah. Orson, Yeah.
But having having that same sameidea, it definitely would have,
I think it would have made a better movie.
I mean, it definitely would havebeen different because you
didn't up until the moment when Clark and evil Superman face

(38:25):
each other, you know, you wouldn't have had any type of
battle. But I still, yeah, I think that
definitely would have made a made for a better movie.
Yeah. And another thing I didn't
understand was this whole time that evil Superman is being evil
Superman. It's not like he's doing things
in secret. They see him doing these
diabolical things like he blows out the Olympic torch and like,

(38:48):
but there's no like coverage of the news or anybody like what
happened to Superman. Like there's no, seems like no
repercussions for that. Like nobody's wondering what
happened and so. I mean you do have the the
street vendor who gets very upset when he straightens the
Eiffel the lean tower Pisa so unnecessary again when he fixes

(39:08):
here at the. End, which was actually an idea
that yeah, that it was actually an idea that Leicester wanted
for Superman 2, but they ended up not using it, so he just
repurposed it for Superman 3. Why not?
Which is still better than him fixing the Great Wall of China
in Superman 4. Yeah, a lot of physics problems

(39:28):
in this one. Look, physics problems, it's one
thing Superman having abilities that make absolutely zero sense
to Superman, right, right. Is, is, is completely different.
You know, I mean we we had the cellophane S in Superman 2.
That was the beginning of the end, the beginning of the main

(39:50):
line. Yeah.
And and of course the yeah, I will say though, the the mind
erasing kiss to Lois that he also does.
In Superman 2 that that at leasthas a little bit of a comic
connection because he's done something similar in early
comics. But and then yeah, Superman 4,

(40:12):
the blue laser out of his eye that can fix the Great Wall of
China. But yeah, this one with his just
the way they do some of his powers.
I don't do they really do they do anything that's not a
Superman power in this one or they do.
They just use his powers in a weird way.
I mean, he uses his, he uses hisvision like, you know, he he

(40:33):
reseals the tanker with the oil amazingly not spilling out of
it, which I that's another physics issue I didn't see.
I understand, Yeah. But that's not about his powers.
Right, right. He freezes.
He freezes. The part of the lake, yeah, yes,
but then he picks up the lake with the lake still being there,
right? And then there is the fact that

(40:53):
the way he's holding the frozen lake would make zero sense as
he's flying, how it wouldn't break apart or melting, yes or
yeah, whether due to the heat ashe's traveling or whether it's
the friction flying through the wind.
And then let's just go ahead andget to the fact that when he
does drop it and it starts to rain, where are the fishes?

(41:14):
Yeah. There should be fishes falling.
There should be fish alive, dead.
I don't care. There should be fish falling
because they were. There's no way that lake
contained. No.
Yeah, yeah. Creatures at all.
Yeah, sea. Life at all.
Yeah, I want a deleted scene where a guy was fishing in the
lake and then he froze the part where his pole is still in the

(41:37):
lake. So when he picks it up, the
guy's holding onto his pole. He's hanging my fish.
He's just hanging well. But then, of course, he'd he'd
fall. He would fall to his death.
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I can't think of any
specific powers that he uses that aren't Superman powers in
this one that I can remember. Is there something he does when
he's fighting the supercomputer that maybe I know there's things

(42:00):
that happened to him, right? Yeah.
Because like he like he gets a taste of his own medicine by he
gets wrapped up inside of a likea cellophane bubble.
Yeah, yeah. That happens to him.
But there are some things. There are some things in his
powers that don't make sense, like the opening sequence when
the guy is drowning in the car and instead of just using his

(42:22):
light vision to break the glass or open the door, he flies as
slow as he could walk over there.
Yes. Yeah, a good like 4 feet above
the ground slowly flies over there.
I've got plenty of time, he'll be OK.
Yeah, he could have gotten therea lot quicker.
Yeah. And then I.
Also like when he picks up the burning, when he picks up the
burning Penguin, takes the fire out, and then sends the Penguin

(42:46):
back into the road. Yeah, didn't.
Get that or then the other one where he had the fire, where the
people that are on the scaffold or would it like the up, they're
up too high and so they're like,how's he going to get them?
He could have flew and like picked them up and carried them
down. But instead burns are, you know,

(43:06):
the user has to burn off a tube that we assume has no kind of
exhaust fumes or yeah, that that.
Should have been excruciatingly hot.
Yes, exactly. But safe for them to slide down,
you know, we So yeah, lots of problems.
Lots of problems. Do you have any favorite scenes
in this movie? No.

(43:27):
OK, good. I don't either.
Other than Other than the junkyard?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's, that's the
highlight. That and the scenes with him and
Lana, like they're some of them are problematic, you know?
But yeah. I love that.
So in their reunion, there is this picture.
Yes, Clark Kent without his glasses on right on the stage.

(43:50):
No, no one is putting two and two together.
You know what Clark looks a lot like super, because the whole
idea behind the Clark Kent persona is that he's he's got
the glasses yes, but it's supposed to be that he is
someone that you don't like. Think about like that you you
don't consider right, but the fact that he's got this, I guess

(44:10):
senior picture of him looking all, you know, proper and again
with no glasses, you think. But then yeah, then I then I
started getting into the just the crazy stuff that someone
thought to write into this. Like, I get that it's Kansas,
and it's supposed to be kind of,you know, small town America.
But the fact that they have their reunion and then the next

(44:33):
day, as Lois and Lois, Lana and Clark are cleaning up, Lana goes
there's so much potato salad leftover.
Yeah, who? Has potato salad at a high
school reunion, right? Why was it such a big bowl of
potato salad and why was it justsitting out?

(44:54):
All night. Yeah, Yeah.
Gosh, that and then and then they have their picnic and the
tallest grass they could find insmall mills.
Yeah, such a weird spot. In the middle of a possible
coming, you know, Kansas tornado.
Yeah, because you can hear the Thunder in the background, like
I'm expecting a storm to break up the picnic.

(45:15):
Yeah. Correct me if I'm wrong.
It's Thunder that scares the dogoff.
Yeah, which is what makes sense.You run after and then you're
seeing the wind blowing right inthese, this wheat field that
they are sitting in. And then, and I do like as
Clark's going through the stuff,green stuff, I mean, it's a
funny little bit. And then him eating the dog

(45:36):
food. Yeah.
Especially the fact that after she tells him the dog food he's
like it's good. Right.
He's just gonna keep eating it. Yeah.
But then Lana sees that she has an oil leak.
How the grass is. So the grass is so high.
You are you are sitting lower than the car is, but yet you can

(45:56):
see an oil leak that is on the other side of the car.
How? How did Lana see that?
How? No clue.
Yeah, and then the fact that herson happens to trip and fall on
the one and only rock. That just happens to be in the
path of the. The excavators or whatever you

(46:17):
call them. And then Harvesters, that's the
Harvester. And then why does Superman
Philly has to destroy the Harvester to save the boy?
Like couldn't he have picked himup and carried him away?
Or was he afraid he would get hurt worse?
Like that part just didn't make sense to me.
Also, how far did that kid make it that Superman had to fly that
far right? Right, right.

(46:39):
You see him flying from what it what appears to be your miles
away headed towards like why, how?
And then yeah, and he picks up the kid, flies the kid leaves
the dog there. So how he then?
Got brings the dog out of the I get.
The Super mate. Yeah fast, but how did he then
get back, get the dog, get changed and get underneath the

(47:01):
the drain? Which once again proves how much
higher the car was than they were right.
Right. With him coming out of the drain
with the dog and little Billy. Danny whatever is the kids name
was because I don't care. Right, right.
You know how he doesn't all of asudden go, wait, how was the dog
there? I just chased the dog.

(47:22):
Well, he's got a head injury, soyou know, he probably doesn't
make a lot of sense. Yeah, and how again, how Lana
cannot put two and two together.Yeah, she is standing in, in
the, in the gymnasium. She is standing next to a giant
picture of Clark without glasses, standing next to Clark.
Then during during when Supermanrescues her son, she is standing

(47:42):
there looking directly at Superman.
You know, guy that she's known all her life and has clearly had
feelings for. And I'm sorry, the one thing
Christopher Reeve doesn't do a extremely great job of is his
voice isn't that different. No, no.
Christopher Reeve is a great Clark Kent.
He's a great Superman. He does a great job, but his
voice doesn't change that much. And so when he's talking to

(48:05):
Lana, how Lana doesn't go, your voice sounds so familiar.
And then I won't even talk aboutthe ring.
Like, yeah, how she believes that a reporter, you know, a
beat reporter for the Daily Planet was able to afford her
that ring. And.
Yeah, I don't. Yeah.
I get the, you know, there, there's a lot out there that can
prove that Clark, the Clark Kentdisguise, even though Superman's

(48:29):
the disguise, Clark Kent's the real person, that it can work.
I just think with someone like Lana, shouldn't that that's all
I got to say. And if anything proves that it
is the show. Smallville.
Let's just go ahead and and be clear with that.
Because even Lois, like, she's figured it out, Yes, there's
always that moment in the other movies where she's, like, right
on the brink of making the connection and then gets

(48:51):
distracted or something happens.Yeah, well.
Even in this movie they have where he's telling them about
going back to Smallville and he holds up his sweater with.
S on it, right? And Lois kind of gives that look
of wait. That looks kind of familiar when
you hold it like that, yeah. And you even see Clark look down
and realize what he's doing right, Right.
That's for Smallville. Yeah.

(49:12):
Yeah. All right, well, let's jump into
some trivia. Maybe we'll think about some
other scenes. So.
Give me more scenes to bash. Yeah, we, we, we don't have
enough time to cover them all. The writers of the film Office
Space utilize the storyline of taking a fraction of a penny
from employees for their own gain, stating that they saw it
work in the movie Superman 3. So what a way to steal an idea

(49:34):
and then in pure fashion, let you know where the idea came
from. You know it works with Superman
3. Yeah, yeah, it's great.
I love that that is a legit thing.
I also, however, let's again, wegot you gave me something else
to bash the guy, then bringing it to Webster's attention about
how you're being robbed. They robbed you.

(49:54):
They stole $85,000 or whatever it was.
Oh yeah, yeah. And, and they're like, well,
maybe he'll slip up. He goes, no, he won't slip up.
He's too smart for the 1st. I'm going, wait, how do you not
know who it is? Because you cut him a check,
right, right. He had to put in his employee ID
number to take the money. So how do you not know what it

(50:17):
is? That and, and the guy's
explanation of, you know, back when we used to do this on paper
with, you know, books and all that, this would not have
happened just like it. There's even a better way you
could have caught him though, because of the computer like,
and I'm not even going to go to computers nowaday where you can
trace which computer was being used.
He put in his employee ID. Right.

(50:38):
But instead they're convinced. Yeah, instead they're convinced
by a pure a true non Richard Pryor driving a red sports car.
Yes, which? Which only doesn't work because
they linger on him a little too much after he barks.
Right, right. Like when he drives in, yes,
it's an overhead shot, so you just see the hair and right,
it's fine. But then when they linger on him

(51:00):
as he's getting out. He.
Slightly tilts his head up and you're just like, yeah, that
ain't, that's Pryor. Yeah, it could be that guy, but
it's not Gus. Yeah.
And let's talk about Richard Pryor for a minute, because I
just a lot of the problems with this movie and it's I don't
think it's Richard Pryor's fault.
I think they were just trying tocash in on his celebrity and his

(51:23):
style of comedy because it was popular at the time.
But you gave him there were too many moments that was just him
riffing that wasn't needed. You know, the the him showing up
to Smallville during the presentation, the birthday party
where he comes dressed as General Patton and has this long
speech. Like who's going to stand and
let some guy just come up and start having this long speech

(51:43):
that in essence doesn't really do anything besides just give
moments for Richard Pryor to tryto be funny.
And then, you know, him, you know, buying the suit to fool
Lana's ex-boyfriend. And you know that works at the
company that he really doesn't need to sneak into.
Yeah, it's owned by Webster We King is it says it on the door,

(52:06):
it says Websco, you know, company or whatever it says.
Yeah, yeah. So why does he need to break
quote UN quote break in? Yeah.
Why does he need couldn't have Webster just given him access?
Right, right. I mean, I yes, I get that it was
to make for the the comedic element of it.
And then why does a wheat company have this government

(52:28):
computer? Right, right.
That needs 2 keys. Gosh.
Yeah, yeah. And access to this weather
satellite that When does a weather satellite control the
weather? When the computer tells it to.
Yeah, this movie does not know how computers.
Work. No, not at all.

(52:48):
It's a weather satellite. It's there to read weather
conditions, which means it must be able to control the weather.
We can obviously shoot a beam some country and make it a
storm, hurricane, tornado. That's clearly what what these
satellites are built to do. Yeah, and then the one scene

(53:10):
that makes the least amount of sense is after he's telling his
story on the ski slope on the top of an office building
downtown. Which I guess we're to assume he
also did with the weather satellite, I guess, yeah.
But then he falls off the roof on the skis and lives.
Yeah, doesn't shatter his legs, right, right.

(53:32):
Doesn't. Lose the blanket or yeah, that
whatever that he put all over his back, that when he's on the
in, when he's actually on the road in the middle of the
street, you can see where it's sewn into his shirt.
Like you can see this. I I noticed that this time I was
like, you can tell it was sewn in.
Like, yeah, lose it. But anyway.
Yeah, just even Richard Pryor, though, didn't like even even

(53:53):
Gus looks and goes how in the Yeah, how did I survive that?
And once again, for what purpose?
What was the purpose of that scene?
Nothing but just to give RichardPryor some kind of sight gag.
Funny moment that really wasn't.Yeah, which Speaking of going
and just doing something for thesake of having a gag when he is

(54:13):
controlling all computers everywhere.
Apparently. Oh gosh, yeah.
So the ATM makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense.
All of a sudden the ATM is spitting out money.
Makes sense. Even the Bloomingdale's like
having it. So it, it creates this bill for,
you know, $700,000 or whatever it was.
That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that

(54:35):
Gus is sitting there just in a few minutes.
Like it. He hasn't been sitting there for
days. He's just been saying yet.
Yet this Bloomingdale's bill hasbeen printed, shipped, sent
through the United States PostalService, arrived at a guy's
house, and at breakfast, he opens it up.
And then in another way of completely horribly treating

(54:57):
women right, he immediately thinks it's all his wife's fault
and shoves A grapefruit or whatever it was into his wife's
face, right? You know, again, horrible
treatment of women in this movie.
But but I haven't even gotten tothe part I was actually getting
to. I get that he can control
traffic signals. Oh gosh, how?
How does the little red and green men come to life, right?

(55:20):
Right and fight. Each other.
Each other. That's not only how that's not
how computers work. That's not how lights.
Work right, right. Again, just meant for that funny
little gag, yeah. But just yeah, same with like
the video game. Yeah, the video game when he's
the missiles are being fired at him and he's it looks like a
video game where you actually see getting points for the bombs

(55:42):
going off around Superman. Yeah, so bad.
Yeah, well, of course it looks like a game because it was meant
to be. A game right, I just.
Think Atari had planned to release that game?
And went belly up thanks to ET the game.
ET had come out the year before and tanked it and then the
Nintendo would come out like a year or two later.
So sorry, was that theorem? But anyway, yeah.

(56:04):
And anybody who listens to moving panels my show know that
I I have a section called Weird science.
Yes, yes, I am all for I understand superhero movies and
whatnot have their own rules andand that physics can sometimes
be broken. I get that, but you've got to
stick to the rules and the physics within your own

(56:24):
universe, right? Right.
And, and I don't care if you're saying that computers have the
ability to do some of this stuff.
There's still things that computer shouldn't be able to
do, right, No matter what. And yeah, so, and then the fact
that they create that Gus creates this supercomputer, I
get that he's I get that you've,this is again going to that

(56:47):
weird science. I get that.
You've established that he is, he's got an innate sense for
computer programming, right, right.
That doesn't make him a engineer, that doesn't allow him
to know how the the hardware works.
And then the fact that they are able to create the supercomputer

(57:11):
out of the most basic drawings on a bunch of napkins makes no
sense. Even less sense the fact that
Ambrosia knows how it all works.Yeah.
Yeah, man. And yeah, and then they they
bring the box containing all thepieces into a Canyon and land it
in the middle of the Canyon and then expect the guys to carry it

(57:35):
up to the caves. Yeah.
So. Oh, gosh, it's so much.
OK, we've got to start wrapping.It and then don't give you easy
access because they even have totake the little hot air balloons
right chairs down to them you. Couldn't have found a better
spot. Yeah, you couldn't have created
some sort of way for us to get to The Cave without having to
risk our lives on these balloons, man.

(57:56):
OK, all right, moving on. So Speaking of inconsistencies,
the year of the film is set in is also very inconsistent of the
year on Gus's checks say 1983. Twentieth High School Reunion
takes makes it appear to be 1985because it reads class of 65 and
the Olympics appearing to be in the summer should be happening

(58:18):
in 1984. 84, yes. So yeah, just pick a year in a
year. No.
And if you have any questions about any of this, just dial the
number 12345678. Right, because it'll also get
you in a class to teach you how to make computers do whatever
you want them to do. Yes, pay attention in that
opening scene when guests receives the the matchbook, the

(58:38):
ad on it, that is the phone number.
Yep, it is 123. 57. Eight.
They didn't even care to put a fake 555 number no on it.
Someone found a template that was the number that was there.
And yeah. And so that that's what you got,
man. Can we get into, can we get into
the the supercomputer? The fact that Gus built it so

(58:59):
that there's just a single. Screw right, right.
That shuts off all the power. That does it all and.
And then why is there an? Axe.
Exactly. Why is there an axe in there?
Makes no sense. None at all.
Makes no sense. All right, so my last my last
trivia thing, and because we've kind of already discussed this
about the huge picture of young Clark Kent at the reunion is a

(59:23):
picture of Christopher Reeve on real picture of his high school
picture. But in the Superman 1978
version, Clark Kent was not played by Christopher.
He was played by Jeff E even though they gave him prosthetics
to make him look more like Christopher Reeve that did
Smallville Clark. OK, it was played.
By yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.So why?
Why? I mean, it would have made more

(59:44):
sense for them to use the old picture than a Christopher Reeve
picture. I don't know.
I mean Lana Lang technically wasin the first movie as well and.
True played very. Different actress.
They didn't have her picture. Showing it in the in the Oh
yeah, they didn't have. They didn't.
Have the picture of her with Brad.
Right. That's right.
That's right. Where they were like the prom
king and queen or homecoming queen and queen, whatever they
were. Yeah.

(01:00:06):
I don't know. I, I kind of give that one a
pass a little bit as much as I Icomplain about how, you know,
it's it's Clark, it's Christopher Reeve without
glasses on. You know, if it had been a
picture of Jeff, EI think there probably would have been a
certain group of the audience who would not have realized.
Or they would have put it. Together, even if it said Clark

(01:00:28):
Kent underneath it, they would go.
Who the crap is that? Like, Right, right.
I think I think there. So I can give that one a little
bit of a pass. Yeah.
It doesn't make 100. And you know, some people would
argue. Well, well, Jeff E was when he
was younger, I was like, well, no, he's he's Jeff E up till the
very moment that he's not like, like when he leaves, he's Jeff E

(01:00:52):
like. And again, I think you can go
back and listen to one of our two episodes talking about the
original movie. We're assuming he finished
school, right? And so the, the Jeff E you see
tell Martha, you know, buy and leaves and creates the the
fortress solitude. You would think that's got to be
at least maybe a 1718 year old version of Clark.

(01:01:13):
So clearly a picture from him inhigh school should look like
Jeff East. But yeah, I can give that one a
little bit of a pass. I don't have too much problem
with that. But yeah, the years, the years
don't make a lot of a lot of sense because the years start
coming and they don't stop coming.
But yeah, I don't, I don't have too much of a problem with that.
But I can see the years are frustrating.

(01:01:35):
But yeah, the Clark Kent being Christopher Reeve is, I'm fine
with it. I'll let it pass.
All right, Box Office Superman 3was released on June 17th, 1983.
It took the number one spot at the box office on its opening
weekend because it had no other new releases to compete with,
although it did it did dethrone Return of the Jedi from the

(01:01:57):
number one spot in its fourth week of release, so.
That's impressive. Yeah, that's impressive.
Yeah, it grossed $60 million at the United States box office and
20.2 million internationally, for a total of 80.2 million
worldwide. It was the 12th highest grossing
film of 1983 in North America. So, you know, we talk about
there's some people that say this was that it bombed.

(01:02:19):
It really it didn't bomb. It just didn't make as much
money as the previous movies, but it made a lot of money over
its budget. So that's.
Yeah, because. It had a much smaller budget.
Yeah than considering the first movie was like the most
expensive movie. Right at the time.
At the time, Yeah, exactly. Ever made Yeah, so.
After that, they were trying to cut the cut that cost to make

(01:02:40):
that money. Yeah, I tell you what though,
they were doing it off of off ofproduct placement.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we had, we hadcut KFC, OK.
KFC was pretty big. Which which is funny considering
the movie before this Supergirl right had the the big famous
which pretty much you Google Supergirl, you go to images.

(01:03:02):
Yep, it's that picture of Supergirl standing in front of a
Popeye's. Yep, exactly.
Yeah, and then Gus is smoking Camel cigarettes.
Camel Cigarettes. Clearly, even though in Superman
2 they had Superman get thrown into a.
Marble sign? Yep, Yep.
And then, then there's a Pepsi. There's a couple of Pepsi cans
clearly visible in this movie, right?

(01:03:24):
But then again, you go back to Superman 2.
He gets thrown into a coca. Cola sign, Yeah.
So yeah, everybody wants a pieceof that Superman pie.
Yeah, for sponsors. Yeah, yeah.
You know, they're, they're, they, they aren't going to
stick. They aren't going to have the
one sponsor and be biased and say, you know, it's not like,
you know, everybody has to have an iPhone unless, unless you're

(01:03:46):
the bad guy right then. You can't have an iPhone.
Can't have an iPhone, but it's not going to be that everybody
is is eating or drinking the same food.
We we're going to disperse it among, hey, you know what, we
gave Popeyes a chance in Supergirl, now we're going to
give KFC, right? Although I think KFC also
appeared in Superman too. But we're going to give KFC a
chance here. Pepsi, Coke, we'll have them
swap it out. Yeah, yeah, that.

(01:04:08):
Get that product placement in there.
You go every, every time they come about product placement, I
always go back to Wayne's World.Or is it Wayne's World?
Yeah, when they's like, I don't want to sell out anyway.
That's one of my favorites. All right, we've come to the
part of our show we took a look at how well the 80s flick holds
up today. It's the all new rewatchability
nostalgia meter. It's our way of measuring how

(01:04:29):
enjoyable a movie is for repeat viewings along with ways of
nostalgia. Here's how it works.
It's a one to 10 scale. Any number between 1:00 and
10:00 will do. Here are a few parameters to
help you decide. At the bottom of the meter is a
number one. I saw it once and that was
enough Don't need to rewatch it ever again.
Right in the middle and #5 is a good rewatch every couple of
years. You know, it's got some

(01:04:50):
redeeming qualities, but not something you want to watch on a
regular basis. And the top of the chart?
The top of the meter is a #10 highly rewatchable and full of
nostalgia. You can watch repeat viewings
without ever getting tired of the movie.
So Laramie, where does Superman 3 land on your rewatch ability
and nostalgia meter? All right, so I'm going to start
off by saying no, this is not a good movie.

(01:05:13):
Yes, if yeah, if, if we are ranking this as how good of a
movie it is, it would be much lower.
But this is about nostalgia. Yes, this this is a Christopher
Reeve movie. It is a movie from my childhood.
Yes, I am a bit biased. I'm a huge Superman fan, but I
probably have to put this movie at about like a 7.5.

(01:05:35):
OK, OK. You know, again, not great, but
it's, it's not for nostalgia purposes.
It's not bad. This is a movie that I would
watch every couple of years. You know, this is also a movie
that if I'm, you know, watching television or if I'm, you know,
on a, you know, Tubi or something and I'm going through
channels, you know, on Pluto TV or something.

(01:05:56):
And I noticed that it's playing.I'll stop and watch it.
This is a good, you know, if I just, if I want to have
something on while I'm, you know, cleaning up or doing
something. This is a good background movie
that I don't have to give it my full attention, but that I
don't, you know, get annoyed that I'm watching it.
You know, I I'd stop and I stop and watch a couple of scenes.

(01:06:16):
You know, I but, but I'm not upset that I'm it's not going to
pull me so far into it that I'm not going to be able to do
whatever I'm doing right. So I think it's definitely, I
think this falls is like a 7.5 for me.
OK, yeah, I'm pretty close to that.
I'm I'm right at A7. I was kind of like upper like
6.8 to A7 for a lot of the same reasons.
It's nostalgia. The nostalgia is what is what

(01:06:38):
gives it that bump. Because like I said, I remember
watching this a lot as a kid. It wasn't my favorite Superman
movie. I think my favorite is, is still
for nostalgia Superman 2, because I saw that one more.
The first Superman is probably still my favorite.
But but yeah, but it's not one that I like I said I was not one
I'm going to want to rewatch a lot.
But it's not it's it's not bad. It's worth putting on every so

(01:07:00):
often. And it's, we talked about this
with Superman 4. It's a, it's a fun bad movie.
Like it's fun to watch even if you're going to make fun of it
like we did on this, make a lot of fun, make a lot of fun about
things in the movie that don't make sense.
It's that that makes it almost more enjoyable by laughing at
the things that you shouldn't belaughing at.
Yeah, So say I'm gonna give it a7.
So let me ask you since we did just cover Superman 4 over on

(01:07:21):
Moving Panels, my podcast. Which one's better, three or
four? I think solely on nostalgia
because as I mentioned on your episode about Superman 4, I
don't think I ever saw Superman 4, right.
Like let's take it back. I think I saw that one in the
theater and realized it was a bad movie and I never watched it

(01:07:42):
again. So it wasn't one that I watched
a lot as a kid. So for me then, I'm going to put
3 slightly over 4 just because of nostalgia.
Which one is better there? There really is too close to
call for me. See, I slightly give 4 an edge
over 3 in my opinion, and this is primarily because 4 feels

(01:08:02):
more one. It feels more cohesive.
Slightly, yeah. Because there isn't that.
Yeah, there's at least one storyhappening, right?
For the most part, For the most part, there's a couple of little
side side stories and plots happening.
You know, B&C plots. Right, a lot of messages they
had to get in there. Yes, but it at least is all

(01:08:22):
cohesive and having an actual villain for Superman to have to
go against, you know, it makes it more of a superhero comic
movie. Not to say that that premise of,
you know, that you came up with of what Superman 3 could have
been would not have been great. I just think for what we have.
Yeah. Oh yeah.

(01:08:42):
Yeah. Superman.
Superman 4 at least feels to me like an actual Superman movie,
whereas we've talked about Superman 3 is a Richard Pryor
movie. That is, is Richard Pryor, a
Richard Pryor movie being put inside of a Superman?
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, I agree. That's why they're both bad
movies. Yeah, let's.
See, they're both, yeah, they'reboth fun, bad movies, as Tim

(01:09:04):
just said. But I would say if I had, if you
had to tell me to rank them, I would put Superman 4 over
Superman 3. OK, OK, personal opinion yeah
and that that's that's why I have you on the show.
All right well let us know whereyou think Superman 3 and
Superman 4 rank on the rewatchability nostalgia.
Which one do you think is betterthan the other?
You other. You can send us an e-mail or you

(01:09:25):
can let us know on social media,as I mentioned before, Facebook,
Instagram and you can make a comment right here in the
YouTube. If you're watching us on
YouTube, you can put the comments right there.
All right, I think it's going towrap this one up.
I want to thank Laramie for joining us for this episode.
So what's going on with moving panels as I'm starting my summer
series? You have a summer series as
well. What you got going on We?

(01:09:45):
Do this summer we are focusing on the work of Mark Miller.
Again. Most people would say Millar, I
have as well and I probably willslip up throughout the summer
and say it. But I did learn that it is
pronounced Miller. So it it more like Miller, but
the A has more of an E sound anyway.
But yeah, we're going to we're going to tackle who he is for

(01:10:06):
people who aren't as familiar with who he is.
We'll we'll talk about that. We'll talk about his use of
social commentary and violence within his comics, which of
course then portrayed into the movies and we will discuss
wanted Jupiter's legacy, the Netflix series, and then both
kick ass and kick ass two. We can't get to all of his work
in one summer, but we will hit. We'll highlight a few of those.

(01:10:29):
Yeah, Oh yeah, those are some good ones.
I think I've enjoyed. I enjoyed those for sure.
So I would definitely check out moving panels.
As I said before I go, if you enjoy this episode about
Superman, go to listen to the other episodes that we've done
either on my show or his show orboth.
I check them all out. So if you enjoyed the episode,
please leave us a five star review on Apple podcasts.
I mentioned before, visit us on the website 80s Flick flashback

(01:10:52):
Comm or our T public store for some awesome 80s flick flashback
merch and original designs that just launched some new designs a
few weeks ago from some previousepisodes.
A designs inspired by previous episodes like Caddyshack, UHF
and Weird Science. I actually got 2 new ones I need
to put on there. Hopefully that'll be out before
this episode drops. So all right, well, thanks there

(01:11:12):
me for joining. Thanks everybody for listening.
I'm Tim Williams for the 80s flick flashback podcast.
My friend, you are yesterday. Whomever pulled off this caper
is tomorrow.

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#137 - "Superman III" (1983) with Laramy Wells

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#137 - "Superman III" (1983) with Laramy Wells