Review: Superhero Movie


Drake Bell plays a high school geek bitten by genetically-altered dragonfly on a school field trip, which gives him superpowers. Now as the Dragonfly, he must do battle with the scientist-turned-bad Lou Landers, AKA the Hourglass. Sara Paxton is Bell’s would-be love interest Jill Johnson, Mario Ross and Leslie Nielsen are his devoted Aunt and Uncle, and in a “Batman Begins” parody, Robert Hays turns up as Bell’s father, in flashbacks. Craig Bierko gets to lampoon Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine character from the “X-Men” series.


2008 comedy spoof from writer-director Craig Mazin (co-writer of some of the “Scary Movie” sequels) is one of the better efforts in the spate of spoofs of the “Scary Movie”/“Date Movie”/“Epic Movie” variety. That’s faint praise, but praise nonetheless. This one actually has some genuine humour in it, if you can believe that, not to mention the funniest fart gag in ages, involving a certain cherished TV matriarch. The makers of “Meet the Spartans” and “Epic Movie”, are thankfully nowhere to be seen here, and really ought to watch this film to see how to do it in a non-sucky way. Then go back and watch “Airplane! (Flying High!)” and “Hot Shots!” to see how to do it even better.


Best bits are Tracy Morgan, instantly funny as Dr. Xavier from the “X-Men” films (Morgan is funny in that Jon Lovitz way, he’s funny because he shouldn’t be! And just wait ‘til you see his wife and kids!), an hilarious scene between hero Bell and villain Christopher McDonald where they compare injuries (and try to one-up each other) sustained during their activities as their alter-egos, Miles Fisher’s scarily dead-on Tom Cruise parody, and a shamefully funny caricature of Stephen Hawking (Robert Joy) as a lascivious old perv.


A lot of the gags flop and land with a thud (Jeffrey Tambor and Brent Spiner are surprisingly unfunny, Leslie Nielsen is wasted), but the ones that work are enough to easily pick this one up off the bottom of the heap (Could producer David Zucker be a primary reason for this?). Still, I’d rather watch a marathon of TV’s “The Greatest American Hero” for my superhero funnies.


Rating: C+

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