Movies starring Topher

When I was sitting in a theater during the summer of 1977 enthralled by the spectacle that was Star Wars, never did I imagine that, some 31 years later, I would find myself wishing it would go away. Overmerchandising, fan unfriendliness, and greed...

I approached Super/Man with a healthy degree of skepticism. After all, Christopher Reeve’s life, health crisis, and death are an open book. What would be the point of rehashing incidents that played out in the media 30 years ago? I had no great ...

What if Quentin Tarantino collaborated with John Hughes on a teen comedy? Superbad is a decent approximation of what the result might be. As with Borat, there are no sacred cows here. The movie, produced by Judd Apatow, written by Seth Rogan & E...

To date, the 1978 theatrical version of Superman remains the only motion picture based on a comic book to have a lush, epic feel. Developed by Godfather scribe Mario Puzo with reverence for the venerable superhero, Superman pays homage to the lege...

According to the original plan, Superman II was intended to be released six months after the original Superman (in fact, the end credits for Superman contain the following statement: "Coming Next Summer: Superman II"). The idea had been to film t...

Talk about movies that haven’t aged well… Seen a couple of decades into the 21st century, this 1983 relic is an embarrassment. Come to think of it, however, it wasn’t that great when it came out. There are three major problem areas: the scri...

In 1987, Superman returned to the big screen after a four-year absence. The fanfare was more muted than it had been for any of the previous three entries into the franchise, including the critically lambasted and fan-unfriendly Superman III, which...

Sweet Virginia is an odd title for a movie set in Alaska. An early version of this moody, atmospheric neo-noir thriller was located in the Appalachian Mountains; however, when director Jamie M. Dagg came on board, he moved the setting far to t...

You may have to look long and hard to find a 2005 movie with as cynical an outlook on global politics as Syriana. Sadly, this is a situation when the cynicism is understandable. In addition to painting a bleak picture, Syriana makes no concessions...

Good comedy stands the test of time. Two of the funniest movies I recall seeing arrived in theaters during the early 1980s. One, Airplane, a spoof of the Airport series (and disaster movies in general), has withered on the vine of changing times....