Superdome (1978)

Wonderful character development!

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

I, like everyone else in the country watch the Super Bowl every year. I'm not even a sports fan, but I don't think most people are. Anyway, it's still weird how this is a movie all about and yet the movie stops right before the game even starts! Yeah, I don't even think we see a single football in this movie! I'm not the biggest fan of sports movies. I was at least expecting this to be a story about how a guy worked hard to be in the Super Bowl. There's this weird pointless plot involving a bunch of people dying that has nothing to do with anything.I barely remember anything that happened. I never realized how much Tom Selleck looks like Burt Reynolds. It's amazing they had anyone recognizable in this. This movie is just plain boring and needlessly padded. There's just nothing memorable in its extreme blandness. It seems to go on too long and it has mostly nothing to do with the Super Bowl. They could have just had it about any football game and it would be the same! *

Make no mistake about it, this is not a very good movie. I just about hit the eject button on the DVD player to put an end to the nonsensical movie called Superdome. I stuck it out to the very end because I really like David Janssen, Peter Haskell, Susan Howard, and Tom Selleck. And I absolutely love the beautiful and talented Donna Mills....she is gorgeous in any movie. But even her beauty could not save this turkey of a film. The plot was about what you would expect, but the subplots were laughable. What really made them ridiculous was terrible casting. Whoever cast these stars in their roles didn't have a clue as to what they were doing. For example, Donna Mills' character pursuing an intimate relationship with David Janssen? Not believable. Even worse was the aging and overweight Ken Howard cast as an all-pro cornerback was just plain ludicrous. The only one that really was a good fit was Tom Selleck as the starting quarterback for one of the teams. Selleck was in great shape in his pre-Magnum days and looked comfortable in his roll. When I bought this movie and saw all these fine actors were in this movie I thought it might not be too bad....can't win them all I guess. I would not recommend this movie unless you have absolutely nothing else to do.

The Super Bowl is a few days away. Veteran player Dave Wolecki (bland Ken Howard) has a bad knee and neglects his fed-up wife Nancy (shrill Susan Howard). Handsome quarterback McCauley (a pre-"Magnum P.I." Tom Selleck, who manages to make an amiable enough impression despite the weak material) is being courted by a management firm represented by desperate agent Chip Green (Van Johnson struggling with a thankless role). Meanwhile, a killer attempts to spoil the big game by bumping various folks off. Can gruff manager Mike Shelley (a grouchy David Janssen) catch the psycho in time? Sound exciting and compelling? Well, it just ain't because of Jerry Jameson's slack direction and a hopelessly talky'n'tedious script by Barry Oringer that gets bogged down in far too many dull and uninteresting soap opera-style subplots. Moreover, the meandering narrative unfolds at a plodding pace, thereby negating any tension or energy this made-for-TV outing needs in order to be remotely engrossing and entertaining. Worse yet, not only does all the behind the scenes drama and politics prove to be incredibly dry and boring, but also this clunker fails to adequately capitalize on the New Orleans setting or the rampant mania of the fans. Hell, it even punks out on showing the big game at the conclusion! This movie attempts to generate a few thrills towards the end, but it's much too little and too late to alleviate the overall numbing drabness. Only a neatly varied cast that includes such familiar character actors as M. Emmet Walsh and Michael Pataki and professional football players Bubba Smith and Dick Butkus keep this one slightly watchable. A total snorefest.

This TV movie goes to show that bad films do exist. The only reason I saw this was it was covered on a KTMA MST3K. It's Super Bowl at the Superdome in New Orleans. However, no football is played whatsoever and we see the behind the scenes look at basically nothing. With the many stars in this film, it made no difference. I really don't know why I watched this.