The opening sequence during the credits is some of the best slapstick comedy I’ve seen for a long while and I had tears of laughter streaming down my face as one incident lead to another.
Mixed in with the opening credits a work shy Gus Gorman played by Richard Prior is refused the American equivalent of the dole money and by chance sees a flyer extolling the virtues of becoming a computer programmer and earning loads of money. He seems to have a flair for programming and soon finds himself a real job. Complaining to a colleague about the deductions in his wage of their equivalent of our NI at IT, Gus discovers that the wages computer doesn’t deal in half cents and that these are floating around in cyberspace.
Helping himself to this loose change changes his life because no sooner has our genius got his hands on the first five-figure expenses cheque, his boss finds out and sends for him. The boss played by Robert Vaughn quickly realises that his genius employee is not to be fired but have his flair with computers put to good use, for himself that is. Gus is put to work where the boss will become king of all.
The adventure begins when Superman as Clark Kent heads for Smallville for the school reunion. En route Superman saves a blazing chemical plant and the surroundings from a disaster by freezing a nearby lake and dumping the huge ice lolly on the blaze.
Once in Smallville Clark, now back in civvies, meets up with Lana Lang and sort of falls for her.
This is a light hearted film not to be taken too seriously, so just sit back and enjoy the spectacle like in a scene at a road junction where our genius’s computer meddling has caused all the traffic lights to malfunction. The little green man is displayed at the same time as the red man above so he climbs up and starts to fight with the red guy. This ‘fight’ is one of many little cameos for the sharp eyed to titter at.
The boss’s attempts to gain world domination are continually thwarted by the caped hero so a plot is hatched to get rid of him by tricking Superman into accepting a chunk of synthetic Kryptonite. This alters the flying hero’s persona so that he becomes a ‘bad’ guy and the ensuing mental tussle between good and bad splits him into two separate people. To avoid confusing the viewer the ‘bad’ Superman’s clothes are a shade darker than the good guy’s.
Not the best of the Superman series but worth letting the film waft over you as you digest your wonderful Sunday lunch slumped in your favourite armchair.
Now if only Superman was here he could do the washing up in double quick time and I could watch Stargate.