christopher reeve Tagged Articles at Cinematical

We've been pretty hard around here on a certain movie with adamantium claws. Yes, whenever I'm reminded of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which comes out on DVD and Blu-ray today, I wish I had been shot with amnesia bullets. Still, I appreciated Hugh Jackman's determined efforts to stay out of the damn costume. Whenever Wolverine has donned a uniform in the previous X-Men flicks, he looks like he can't wait to rip it off. In his natural state, as the wandering, memory-challenged Logan, he repels latex like Congress repels taxpayers.

Most actors quickly declare that the biggest challenge in superhero movies is the costume: how to avoid looking sheepish or silly while wearing a form-fitting, custom-made suit that may reveal more than most of us are willing to bare at the beach? With advanced, super-realistic, computerized special effects and ripped body / stunt doubles available as needed, though, I think the bigger challenge lies in bringing the secret identities of superheroes to life: all those moments when supposedly normal people are leading supposedly "normal" lives.

Who, then are the most convincing superheroes without costumes? What actors and actresses have made you believe that their very human characters on screen could transform into larger-than-life heroes and/or heroines with a quick dash into a phone booth? Mind you, I'm not just talking Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen ...

1. Famke Janssen as Jean Gray in X-Men
She cuts a fine figure, doesn't she? Famke Janssen is undoubtedly sexier than Wolverine when they both suit up, yet she really shines whenever she's using her brain -- which is all the time. She doesn't need the costume to be one of the smartest, most empathetic, and most lethal people, in the universe.

Time has flown by and it's been almost three years since Christopher Reeve died on October 10, 2004. You might remember that his son Matthew had been filming a three-part documentary series about his famous father. The first, Christopher Reeve: Courageous Steps, aired on ABC back in 2002 and earned an Emmy nomination. The second part was completed and before the third chapter could be tackled, Mr. Reeve died. Now Variety is reporting that the first two parts of the series are going to be released on a DVD called Hope in Motion on November 6.

The disc is from Art Alliance America and the company's president, Joe Amodei, says: "It's incredibly inspirational. As much as many of us think we know this story, you see things here that you've never seen. I was always a fan of him as an actor and I followed his story, but I never knew after his accident that he could do things like raise his arms up and this film shows the progress he made by just continuing to fight against the odds."

I imagine it will be both inspiring and depressing as all hell. The footage details the life of Christopher and Dana post-accident, and includes interviews with him and his doctors, footage from the actor's rehabilitation sessions and his role as an advocate for stem-cell research. Obviously, that much will be inspiring -- the man had an insane amount of drive and determination. Unfortunately, there's the dark air to it -- his death as well as Dana's last year. Still, it's nice to see his fight live on. Part of the revenue will be donated to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, so hopefully the DVD does well.

First, the news we've all been waiting for, and by "we" I mean "hardcore Superman geeks." The long-awaited "Donner Cut" of the super-sequel will hit DVD on November 28th -- and it'll be surrounded by a ton of sparkly new Special Editions of Superman (1978), Superman 2 (1980), Superman 3 (1983), Supergirl (1984), Superman 4: The Quest for Peace (1987), and Superman Returns (2006).

I'll try to break this down as simply as possible. If you walk into a DVD shoppe on 11/28, you'll be greeted by:

• A 4-disc Special Edition of the original Superman, which contains both the theatrical and the 2001 extended cut, a new commentary with producers Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler, the 2001 commentary with Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz, three documentaries, some restored scenes, screen tests, archival materials, nine old-school Superman cartoons, and the 1951 feature Superman and the Mole-Men.

• A 2-disc Special Edition of the Superman 2 we already know and love, only now it comes with Salkind/Spengler commentary, two old TV specials, a Fleischer featurette, and more Super-cartoons.

• The single-disc Superman 2: The Richard Donner Cut, which comes with a new featurette entitled Restoring the Vision, a new Donner/Mankiewicz commentary, and (of course) the highly-anticipated retroactive facelift that the fans have been clamoring for.

(My apologies to Mark Beall for stepping on his geek toes with this one.)

Whether or not there will be a sequel to the not-as-bad-as-some-people-think Hulk, directed by Ang Lee, has been a topic of discussion since about five minutes after the movie came out. Star Eric Bana has seemingly gone back and forth on it, sometimes denying any participation and sometimes saying things were on track.

Now Avi Arad, recently parted from Marvel Comics but still involved in the films as a producer, has spoken about the potential for another Hulk-errific flick. Arad says that plans are still for a second movie to be made. The catch is that this won't be a sequel to the 2003 film but a do-over. The first movie wasn't, according to Arad, enough of a comic-book movie, a situation they intend to rectify this time around. Now that Marvel has its own production house they aren't subject to the studio whims that, I guess, compromised the first film. And they can do this movie on their own, and not through Universal, by calling it a new movie and not a sequel. That's because Universal likely has the sequel rights.

Now Superman is about to get a reboot, but that's coming 19 years after the last Christopher Reeve movie. Batman Begins had a smaller window but it was still almost a decade after Joel Schumacher ran the series into the ground and then torched the remains while clubbing baby seals. But three years seems like an awfully short period of time for a complete Mulligan. I actually think the Ang Lee Hulk had more problems that likely resulted from some power trying to make his drama more like a comic book. For Arad to come out and say that while he liked the first movie it wasn't quite comic-booky enough just seems like he's trying to find a rationale to reclaim the franchise for his own profit and not that of Universal.

The Superman Homepage fansite is currently running with an interesting little exclusive about the upcoming re-release of Superman 2 on DVD, part of the enormous Superman push we've been seeing (and will keep seeing) as a lead up/followup to the new Brandon Routh-styled Supes film. According to Superman Homepage, Warner Brothers had an interesting casting call a month back -- holding tryouts for Superman himself. They were rumored looking for a Christopher Reeve look-alike to add some additional footage to the classic film. Not a face double, however, just a body double; the added shots will only show our hero from a good distance.

I always get uneasy when I hear people are adding footage to a classic film. Sure, they often have good reasons, and sometimes maybe it even enhances the overall quality of the story -- but generally I like to leave things in their original, unaltered form. Am I alone here in thinking movies are best left unaltered once they've past a certain "classic" mark? Or am I just being a stodgy old Tevye type, shaking my fist and shouting "Tradition!"?