| Superhero Movie (2008) | |
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Rating: 4.7/10 (75,253 votes) Director: Craig Mazin Writer: Craig Mazin Stars: Drake Bell, Leslie Nielsen, Sara Paxton Runtime: 75 min Rated: PG-13 Genre: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi Released: 28 Mar 2008 |
| Plot: Orphaned high school student Rick Riker is bitten by a radioactive dragonfly, develops super powers (except for the ability to fly), and becomes a hero. | |
Meet Rick Riker. He’s young, he’s cool and he’s got superpowers. Now, if he only knew how to use them…but the world is in danger and no one is safe when Zucker and the gang – headed by the hilarious cast of Drake Bell, Leslie Nielsen, Tracy Morgan, Pamela Anderson, Regina Hall and many others – take aim at some of the biggest blockbusters of our time including Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, and Fantastic Four, to name a few.
I was determined not to see this – after all I had already suffered enough this year with Meet The Spartans, and all of the ‘Movie’ series so far have been weak. So I was actually surprised to find myself enjoying this film a lot more than the spoofs that preceded it.
Perhaps one reason this one works where the others (Scary Movie 1-4, Epic Movie, Date Movie, Meet The Spartans) failed is that, for once, we have one general spoof story. More or less a parody of Spider-Man (with a brief touch of other Marvel property) it means the film feels more like the old spoofs of the 80s (although not quite as good). A crafty mix of slapstick and sly humour and plenty of nods to the classic Leslie Nielsen days, make it a spoof that works a lot more than it deserved to. The ‘pop culture’ references that weigh down other recent spoofs are kept to a minimum here, with most being just one throwaway line or a tabloid headline (unlike in Spartans where the Pop Idol gag is dragged out far too long), so whilst this film still has the obligatory dig at Britney, it is just one quick line.
The whole film is comparable to Naked Gun 33 1/3 (the weaker of the Naked Gun trilogy), and the spoofs of celebrities and famous figureheads is handled in much the same way as that franchise – especially the Stephen Hawkins skits which defy political correctness and good taste, but still tickle the funny bone.
Perhaps I am losing my inner-critic, or perhaps I was just feeling a bit strange, or maybe, just maybe, this is actually a step in the right direction for the spoof genre? Either way this was a lot better than expected.
