Super Watch: Superman Returns (2006)

Watched:  04/26/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Bryan Singer

I was maybe ten minutes into this rewatch of Superman Returns (2006) when I messaged Stuart that we needed to bring back the podcast just to do a ten-part series on this movie.  The pre-history of the movie is worth discussing, as is the production, months up to the release, the lackluster response to the movie, what came after with a reboot in the form of the Snyder movies, and that both the director and Spacey were canceled.  

It's also a movie from the wild west, excited days of the superhero explosion that came after two great Spider-Man and X-Men movies, Batman Begins and a terrible Catwoman film.*  But no real rules had been written yet for how superhero films should work.  

The DVD releases of the Superman quadrilogy had really brought the Donner film and its sequels back to the public consciousness, and looking for a safe bet, with Batman done and Wonder Woman the only other DC IP that seemed possible - but that was a girl and Catwoman had failed - they went back to DC's original moneymaker.  

Here, I'm just really going to cover the movie - but really what I thought at the time versus where I am in 2026.

60's Indie Watch: The World's Greatest Sinner (1962)

Watched:  04/25/2026

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:   First

Director:  Timothy Carey

I am unclear on the release history of The World's Greatest Sinner (1962).  I'm not even sure it ever did more than a screening or two in Los Angeles and then disappeared.  I don't know how it hit streaming, winding up (til the end of the month) of the Criterion Channel.  

Your mom has probably never heard of Timothy Carey.  And maybe you haven't, but if you're the right kind of film nerd, you may have.  Carey was a bit of a wild card hanging around the movie scene and getting cast as usually an oddball, and I saw him first in The Killing where he plays a gunman who shoots a horse and still botches the job (it's a phenomenal movie and I highly recommend it).

Well, I guess in the 1960's he got his hands on some money and wrote, directed and produced this movie.  And, man, making true low-budget indie movies back in the day was not easy.  You had to coast on vibes and ideas.  And this has both in spades.