This week on our show we brought in everyone’s favorite “Zombie Dog” Matt Dykes to talk about the next film in our Richard Donner retrospective: “Lethal Weapon 2.” We had a lot to talk about with this one, from the shoddy police work on display to the scene stealing/chewing Joe Pesci to the very nebulous villains hiding behind their diplomatic immunity. Fun film and equally fun conversation so let’s get right to it.
For many of the millennial persuasion, Richard Donner is the guy who directed Superman, which in turn introduced us to the great Christopher Reeve. Due to a lot of bullshit that is well-documented elsewhere, he was removed from the sequel and Richard Lester was brought in to take his place as director. That version of the film is the version we all grew up with and for the most part loved. And then The Donner Cut came along and gave us insight into what could have been and the results are…also very damn good. We go into all of this and more so let’s not waste another minute.
Richard Donner had quite the film career in his lifetime and we wanted to honor that by spending a month reflecting on some of his best films (and one film he got to re-edit after it was cruelly taken away from him). We kick things off with his first critical and commercial breakthrough, “The Omen,” starring Gregory Peck as a diplomat / ambassador whose son may or may not be (but totally is) the Antichrist. It’s a well-paced horror film that never overstays its welcome, and it manages to pepper a few shocking kills throughout its runtime. That’s not to say the film is without its share of flaws, and we go into those as well. An overall compelling start to our month honoring the late Richard Donner.
Imagine a time when comic book movies were not even a genre and the idea that they would dominate the box office would be laughable. Imagine a time when a film based on a comic book was seen to be a huge risk. That time is 1978 and a film was on the horizon that would change American Cinema forever. That film was Superman. At this point the most well known comic book adaptation was the live action Batman starring Adam West. The campy series was the exact opposite of what producers Ilya Salkind, Alexander Salkind and Pierre Spengler wanted to achieve. The development of Superman is the stuff of legend and borderline insane.
Continue reading A bird? A plane? It’s 40 years of Superman!
Matt is a huge film and TV buff who studied film and moving image production at university. In his spare time he enjoys reading comics and books, the occasional gaming session and writing novels.
