SUPERHERO MOVIE (a J!-ENT DVD Review)
October 31, 2008 by Dennis Amith · View Comments
“When you see the ‘from the guys who brought you SCARY MOVIE and THE NAKED GUN, you pretty much know what kind of film you’re going to get. So, it’s all about watching these movies with an open mind. Fortunately, among the similar-related movies by these creators, ‘SUPERHERO MOVIE’ is probably the most entertaining of the lot.”
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FILM: SUPERHERO MOVIE
COMPANY: DIMENSION HOME ENTERTAINMENT
DVD INFORMATION: Color, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
RATED: PG 13
DURATION: 82 minutes
PRODUCED BY Robert K. Weiss, David Zucker, Craig Mazin
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Craig Mazin
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein and Mathew Stein
STARRING: Drake Bell, Christopher McDonald, Sara Paxton, Kevin Hart, Brent Spiner, Jeffrey Tambor, Robert Joy, Reginal Hall, Pamela Anderson, Leslie Nielsen, Tracy Morgan and Marion Ross.
THE TRAILER:
Spider-Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four will never be the same after this outrageously funny spoof of your favorite comic book movies! Drake Bell (Drake & Josh) stars as a nerdy high school student bitten by a genetically-altered dragonfly. He stumbles hilariously through the process of becoming a crime-fighter and as his new powers grow, so do the laughs. Sara Paxton (Aquamarine) and Christopher McDonald (Spy Kids 2) costar as the clueless damsel in distress and the comically intense super villain, along with Pamela Anderson and Leslie Nielsen. Going from superzero to superhero has never been this much fun!
For the week of Halloween 2008, I decided that there will be no horror movie marathon. This week, I will watch the various comedy films that typically feature on the front of the DVD “from the guys who brought you SCARY MOVIE and the NAKED GUN”.
I pretty much know what I’m getting into with these films and know you have to have an open mind because although many scenes will have its funny moments, you can expect your share of really idiotic moments as well.
I know people who can just laugh and know what to expect with these films but some who have never seen these type of films and just feel the wasted their time watching it. So, with that being said, enjoyment of this film depends on your take of these type of movies.
“SUPERHERO MOVIE” is a film that parodies the first “Spider-Man” film, “Fantastic Four”, “X-Men” and “Batman”.
The film revolves around Rick Riker, a nerdy high school teenager who loves his classmate but bullied quite a bit in his school. Things go from bad at worse at a school trip when he accidentally spills a chemical which attracts animals to him and somehow he ends up being bit by a radioactive dragonfly.
Riker develops special powers and next thing you know, the Dragonfly is born.
Marion Ross and Leslie Nielsen play the aunt and uncle of Rick Riker. In true Leslie Nielsen fashion, if you watched the “Naked Gun” films, you know what to expect for his role. Marion Ross of “Happy Days” fame was quite interesting as the aunt who has a major flatulence problem and just can’t stop farting.
Tracy Morgan plays a Professor X type of role, trying to help Riker learn his new powers and show him the school of teens who have powers. Pamela Anderson plays the role of Invisible Woman who has been caught messing around with Professor X by Mrs. Professor X.
One of the highlight scenes is when Riker and the girl of his dreams, Jill Johnson are about to share a kiss but his aunt Lucille (Marion Ross) sleeping right next to them leashes continuous farts that just sound so horrible. Fart jokes can be funny and the manage to include a hilarious gassy scenes in which Jill who really wants to kiss Riker, uses her tampons to put up her nose to avoid smelling the fart. Fart jokes are gross but when done well, you can’t hep but laugh.
Of course, probably the coldest jokes are the ones on physicist Stephen Hawking. The gags on his character featured getting his head accidentally stuck in a beehive and not able to get out of it because of his disability. And of course, using his vocoder device to simulate Hawking screaming profanities. For a film to really make fun of his disability to get some cheap laughs is just very cold.
There are so many gags in this film with those type of gags, some quite funny and some that are just idiotic but I found this film more to the funny side fortunately. But with jokes such as the Stephen Hawking (which there are numerous scenes with this character), I can see many finding it tasteless and some to find it so funny knowing it’s so wrong.
AUDIO & VIDEO:
Truthfully, I wasn’t paying too much attention towards the quality of the film and as for the audio, the film is strictly dialogue. Not much need for special audio effects.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The extended version features the alternate ending, deleted scenes, two featurettes and a theatrical trailer plus a commentary. The regular version only features the alternate ending (which was so dumb, I’m glad they didn’t use it), deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer.
There are three versions of this film on DVD in the US. The regular version which is only 74 minutes long and has only the alternate ending, deleted scenes and theatrical trailer, while the extended version which is 82 minutes long and has the additional commentary track and featurettes. The third version is a Blockbuster exclusive which features additional deleted scenes.
So, far of the movies within this genre and created by the same creators of “SCARY MOVIE” and “NAKED GUN”, of the more recent films, “SUPERHERO MOVIE” was probably the funniest compared to the others. Again, this is comparing to the other related films by the same creators.
There is a lot of funny jokes throughout the film but there are also a good number of idiotic jokes as well.
I enjoyed the superhero film parodies on this film and although there are a few well-known talent who made cameos on this film, I’m just glad many of their segments were quite short. In fact, I’m glad that the film was quite short.
In the end, I definitely didn’t find myself disliking it. I suppose it’s because I enjoyed the superhero parodies on the film and I haven’t seen a film go so far to do a parody based on superhero films in this magnitude.
All in all, a fun film if you come watching with an open mind.
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