Ed Wood (1994)

Director: Tim Burton

This is a charming little film about Hollywod’s favorite cross dressing B movie director, Ed Wood. Wood, portrayed by Johnny Depp was a film director with a dream: too make movies. That’s exactly what he did too. The movies he made though were so atrocious that they’ve gone down in history as classics (we here at visual evidence certainly appreciate such film). Burton’s biographical film, shot in black and white, captures the manicness of the sets that Wood ran. It’s a definite A movie for B movie fans.

Cross dressin’ law:

1. At one point the crew must stop filming and hit the road because the police are spotted and they don’t have a permit.

2. Bela Lugosi’s unemployment gets cancelled by the government.

3. Bela also includes in his will that he be buried in his Dracula cape.

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The Odd Couple (1968)

Director: Gene Saks

The film adaptation of Neil Simon’s play by the same name, The Odd Couple is a window into the lives of two divorced friends who move in together. During the their time under one roof Oscar (Walter Mathau) and Felix (Jack Lemmon) realize that while they love each other like brothers they hate each other like spouses. Full of great acting and funny bits the adventures of Oscar and Felix is certainly worth seeing.

Obsessive compulsive law:

1. Felix was once locked in a bathroom and wrote out his will on a roll of toilet paper. Probably not enforceable.

2. Oscar is behind on child support and his ex-wife threatens him with jail.

3. A cop plays in the weekly poker game. He says that he “can’t arrest the whole game.”

4. Felix’s wife is going to use his cousin as her lawyer in the divorce proceedings.

5. The Pigeon sister’s claim that divorce is tough with out the proper solicitors. One of them had her husband die “before the final papers went through,” so she isn’t technically divorced.

6. When it is suspected that Felix might be attempting suicide again they look for him in a police car. The Cop who is off duty and shouldn’t be driving around with all his buddies in the car tells some other officers that it is an “off duty arrest … caught them gambling.”

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Superman Returns (2006)

Director: Bryan Singer

Another movie from a transatlantic flight – Delta again – this time they gave me a headphones that didn’t work in one ear. I pressed the stewardess button and it stayed on for an hour. Rubbish airline.

Superman Returns is exactly what it says it is. He’s back. Lex is back. Lois is back. I personally thought that the film was damn good (but I may have been comparing it with Delta’s roast chicken . . . or the Jack and ginger could have been kicking in). Kevin Spacey bring Lex Luther back to life quite brilliantly, and about half way through I realized that Brandon Routh wasn’t Christopher Reeve.

And its full of legal tidbits:

1. Act 1, Scene 1: Lex is bedside with an old woman who is signing her will which gives her estate to Lex – just before she dies. I think that there could be an argument for duress here, but more importantly there is no witness. There is no way Lex gets the estate so quickly. Can we say “lots of court.”

2. Superman’s first big deed is to save an airplane that has a space shuttle connected to it. The whole idea is that the shuttle will be launched from the back of the plane to save fuel (guess no one told them NASA was phasing that shuttle out). More importantly though, this causes questions about the delineation between airspace and outer space. This particular contraption would cause all sorts of difficulties for those that endorse the functionality view of the question. Also as to any claims made by those in the airplane, would they fall under the Liability Convention or do they fall under the Federal Tort Claims Act?

3. There are questions as to vigilante “justice.” The scoop at the Daily Planet one day is “Superman: Does he still stand for justice?”

4. More great police work. The police have barricaded a building that has villains with big guns in it, but the security guards are still wandering around inside with small guns.

5. Lex is out of jail because he won his 5th appeal. Apparently the appeals court called Superman as a witness, and he didn’t show up. This is just shoddy writing, the appeals court wouldn’t call a witness; they would rule for a new trial.

6. Lex tells Superman that he is “not so good at the little things like Miranda Rights, due process, making a court date.”

7. Lex is making a new continent. Right in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. So lets first talk a little bit about the law of the sea. Usually when land is suddenly created where there was once water, whoever had the rights to that area before gets the land, but of course no one owns the high seas. The question is can Lex actually claim the land as his? Someone actually asks Luthor if he thinks the rest of the world will let him keep the new continent . Also though, new land might very well require new property law, especially with such a vast amount.

8. Superman takes the land Lex created and puts it into orbit. Is it now a celestial body under the auspices of the Outer Space Treaty or the Moon Treaty? Or since it has an earthly origin is it a space object?

9. Oh yeah, Lex means law.

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