Superhero Movie Review
by tom elce (dr-pepperite AT hotmail DOT com)June 6th, 2008
Superhero Movie (2008)
Rating: 2 / 5
Reviewed by Tom Elce
Director: Craig Mazin
Cast: Drake Bell, Sara Paxton, Christopher McDonald, Leslie Nielsen, Marion Ross, Kevin Hart, Ryan Hansen, Regina Hall, Tracy Morgan, Keith David, Brent Spiner, Robert Joy, Sam Cohen, Jeffery Tambor, Robert Hays, Nicole Sullivan, Marisa Lauren, Pamela Anderson, Craig Bierko, Simon Rex, Miles Fisher, Dan Castellaneta, John Getz, Charlene Tilton MPAA Rating: PG-13
BBFC Rating: 12A
"Superhero Movie" is about what you'd expect from the people responsible for the "Scary Movie" series, but even more watered down. For sure an improvement over the miserable likes of "Epic Movie" and "Meet the Spartans," director Craig Mazin's film is still a low-level, hacky attempt at spoofery that falls far short of the standards once set by films the likes of "Airplane!" For the majority, the film is packed wall-to-wall with lame sex gags - our hero gets gangraped by genetically-modified animals five minutes in - and putrid toilet humour - the old "falling in fecal matter" one.
Just as "Meet the Spartans" lazily copied the plot of Zack Snyder's "300" to service its rank humour, so does "Superhero Movie" rely heavily on one single source in its coure to parody the superhero flicks. "Spider-Man" gets revamped by director Craig Mazin, scored to too many jokes that didn't seem humorous to begin with - our friendly neighbourhood Dragonfly's (Drake Bell) dancing on a wall upon discovering his wallclimb-enabling superpowers.
To be fair though, the moie has its share of individually funny moments, with Leslie Nielsen, as our hero's loving Uncle, getting laughs everytime he appears on the screen. The villainous Lou Landers' (Christopher McDonald) every appearance is more humorous than the remainder of the film to, McDonald clearly enjoying himself in filling out the film's answer to "Spiderman"'s Green Goblin. Drake Bell, though, and for all his success on Nickelodeon's favoured "Drake & Josh," too often relies on simply looking confused to communicate what simply amount to reactions to the poor jokes being thrown about around him.
In an age when almost every motion picture churned out by Hollywood rips off countless superior films that have come before it, "Superhero Movie" is at least honest about how uninspired it is. That self- awareness, however, doesn't come close enough to forgiving the obviousness of the gags and mean-spirited tone that has consistently came with these Zucker-inspired spoofs all the way since 2000's still- good "Scary Movie." The fat jokes, the toilet jokes, the ugly jokes, and even the better jokes - a reference to Enron springing to mind - come without the underlying good spirit you usually expect to find in a comedy.
To my estimation, Craig Mazin has created a far more approachable spoof film than the talentless hacks behind the horrid "Epic Movie" and "Meet the Spartans" created in the past year, but that alone doesn't make it worth recommending. For a film that pokes fun at a myriad superhero-themed movies ("Spider-Man," "Batman," "Superman," "Blade," etc), "Superhero Movie" lacks a lot in the way of inspiration, the overly familiar jokes almost precisely the same as what came in the critically disliked "Scary Movie" films or, more frighteningly, the terrible "Date Movie."
So far as present-day spoof movies go, "Superhero Movie" is a step up, but these films clearly have a long way to go before they warrant recommendation.
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