Hot Tub Tragedy

The drowning death of game-changing QB Randall Cunningham's son hits sports fanshard

Randall Cunningham and his son on the field for his Eagles Hall of Fameinduction.
Randall Cunningham was one of the most exciting players in recent NFL history.

Certain athletes just resonate with fans. It's not always about skill level or accomplishments, a lot of times, it's harder to define than that, coming down to an It Factor.

Randall Cunningham — the forever scrambling quarterback of not-so-ancient NFL lore — certainly had that. If you started watching NFL football in the 1980s, Cunningham was probably one of your guys. It doesn't matter what city you actually lived in and how far away from it that Cunningham played, his moves grabbed your attention. When Randall Cunningham played on TV, you watched. HIs Fog Bowl game was one of the greatest single-game playoff performances by a quarterback ever, and perhaps, more importantly, full of the type of on-field drama that defined his career.

His Monday Night Football appearances were appointment TV. In many ways, Cunningham and Bo Jackson were the original video game sports stars.

That's why the news that Cunningham's 2-year-old son drowned in a hot tub is hitting so many sports fans so hard.

Cunningham always seemed so in control, so cool under pressure and now he's dealing with the type of tragedy that no parent wants to even imagine. Cunningham was out of town when the youngest of his four kids, 2-year-old Christian Cunningham, was found in the hot tub by an unidentified woman who was at his Nevada home with the kids. Las Vegas police are investigating, but say neither foul play or neglect are suspected.

Belying the wild way he played — without Cunningham, there never would have been a Vince Young — the 47-year-old Cunningham is an ordained minister who runs a church that's just six blocks from the Las Vegas Strip with his wife Felicity. ABC news reports that Cunningham often performed baptisms in the same hot tub that his son's lifeless body was pulled from.

Christian Cunningham was on the field with his dad just last year when the quarterback was inducted into the Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame at halftime of a widely-televised game, giving sports fans an image of what he looked like even before the news broke today.

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Movie Review

Supergirl fails to take flight in a movie weighed down by grief

Photo courtesy of DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures

Milly Alcock in Supergirl.

Last year's Superman reboot brought a renewed sense of optimism for, if not the concept of the comic book movie, then at least the DC Comics universe. After more than a decade of DC films that felt mostly creatively bankrupt, the leadership of James Gunn gave the story a sense of fun. That included the brief introduction of Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, who’s now getting her own showcase in, naturally, Supergirl.

When we first met her in Superman, Supergirl was in rough shape, arriving at the Fortress of Solitude visibly inebriated. Nothing has changed at the beginning of this film, save for her aimlessly traveling around the universe with her rambunctious dog, Krypto. One of her random stops puts her in the same bar as Ruthye (Eve Ridley), who is looking for help tracking down Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts) and a group known as the Brigands after they brutally murdered her family.

Kara is initially loath to offer aid, but when Krem shoots a poison dart into Krypto while escaping, her motivation goes way up, especially since Krem holds the antidote. Kara, with Ruthye doggedly following her, uses every means available to her to find Krem, a journey that is hampered by galaxies having different colored suns than the one that gives her powers, the yellow sun.

Directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Ana Nogueira, the film is a big step back in the fun category, not least because Supergirl is deep in her feelings for much of the film. Her personal trauma, which is detailed in occasional flashbacks, gives a reason for her depression, but fails to land fully. The story seems to want everyone to be sad, as it includes a child trafficking ring and multiple instances of families being murdered.

Milly Alcock and Krypto in Supergirl.Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

To try to counteract that downer material, the filmmakers give Supergirl many opportunities to show off her fighting skills. While still CGI-heavy, the action scenes contain enough of a semblance of reality that they feel exciting. Unfortunately, this is undercut by the inclusion of several slow-motion sequences, giving the impression that the filmmakers didn’t trust the actors to deliver the goods on a consistent basis.

Superman (David Corenswet) makes a handful of appearances in the film, and while his presence is welcome given how well the character came across in the previous movie, it also doesn’t allow Supergirl to become her own person. Almost everything she does is colored by either her cousin or her parents, and since her powers are identical to those of Superman, there is very little that makes her story unique aside from how she’s dealing with the fallout.

Alcock (House of the Dragon, Sirens) gives an appealing performance despite her character being drunk and/or moody most of the time. She definitely sells what Supergirl is going through, so if given a better story in a future film, she’s proven her capability. Schoenaerts makes for a pretty good villain, although he’s aided by a look that includes a face full of studs. Jason Momoa has a memorable supporting role as the bounty hunter Lobo, even if his character doesn’t add much to the story.

While not a full-on disaster, Supergirl does not continue the momentum that Superman started. With a story that’s more concerned with showing audiences death scenes than a hero saving people, the film doesn’t seem to understand the appeal of a character like Supergirl or how to make her someone audiences will return to over and over again.

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Supergirl is now playing in theaters.

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