This is the perfect time to review a spoof of superhero movies. We are in the midst of the biggest summer ever for comic book movies. To my surprise, Superhero Movie was extremely funny, well-paced, and one of the better comedies I’ve seen in a long time. It has more laughs than Harold and Kumar 2 and a very short running time of under 90 minutes. Like the best spoof movies (Naked Gun, Airplane, Hot Shots) it flies along then gets out before overstaying its welcome. The gags come fast and furious and the cast is game. It’s full of hip references (ipods, craigslist, youtube, Emos) and does a great job using the basic plot line of the first Spider-man film to spoof other comic book films. Batman, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four take some shots along the way and the gags never stop coming.
The story concerns a dorky high school student named Rick Riker (likable actor Drake Bell from TV’s tween smash Drake and Josh) who is in love with the school hottie named Jil (adorable Sarah Paxton). One day, on a field trip with the rest of his class, he’s bitten by a radioactive dragonfly, which turns him into the superhero Dragonfly. He’s being bullied by Jil’s jock boyfriend and the boy’s father is a corporate bigshot named Lou Landers (Christopher MacDonald, hamming it up and stealing every scene), later becoming the supervillain Hourglass. Rick’s adoring aunt and uncle take care of him and they are played by Marion Ross (Happy Days !) and the always hilarious Leslie Nielsen, who brings out his trademark deadpan line delivery and scores some huge laughs.
Superhero Movie scores more often than not, and its one of my favorite comedies I’ve seen in a long time. It’s good, dumb fun. It got awful reviews, but I think critics are burned out on bad spoof films and weren’t willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt. Unlike the jackasses who wrote and directed Date Movie and the truly hideous looking Disaster Movie, the writers and producers are talented and know how to set up a good gag and some hysterical punchlines. They were behind The Naked Gun and Scary Movie 4. Superhero Movie won’t save the world, but it will give you lots of laughs, and it’s just about everything you could want a spoof comedy to be.
Film Grade: B+
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