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 - No jokes you couldn't see comingIt's always weird to review a movie like this which claims to be a spoof but doesn't really creatively spoof the actual genre it mocks. This has become a big problem with the recent spate of movies in this genre and only seems to be getting worse. One thing these movies keep doing is just doing an imitation of a scene from a famous movie in the genre they're making fun of. That problem continues here and to be honest that's not good writing. It's just lazy. If these folks aren't going to spend the time writing some insightfully funny about this why even bother? Just re-watch the movies this is making fun of, you'll have a better time. And if you want to read an interesting new take on the superhero genre, check out BABY MONSTERS at [...] Rating:  - "SUPERHERO MOVIE" isactually the better of the "from the guys who brought you SCARY MOVIE and the NAKED GUN" type of filmsFor 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. Rating: - Move Over Spider-Man...Meet Dragonfly!If you're over THE DARK KNIGHT and IRON MAN, waiting for what they're going to do to SUPERMAN, and if you need good laugh? Check out SUPERHERO MOVIE. This reviewer was totally aghast by MEET THE SPARTANS (along with the other recent parody EPIC MOVIE), but SUPERHERO MOVIE fares way better. One reason SUPERHERO MOVIE works is because one of the Zucker Brothers (AIRPLANE, NAKED GUN films) is one of the producers and the legendary Leslie Nielsen is in a support role. The film is a total, and shot-per-shot, parody of the first SPIDER-MAN movie with a character called "The Dragonfly", with a little of BATMAN, X-MEN, and FANTASTIC 4 thrown in. This reviewer actually laughed thoughout most of the film and perhaps it works on the grounds that Spider-Man is more accessible and recognised. Also, the film has a great ensemble cast of actors familiar with comedy from Nielsen, Marion Ross (HAPPY DAYS), Christopher MacDonald (HAPPY GILMORE), and Dan Castellaneta. One of the more hilarious targets is of physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking. In a bit of inspired casting, moviegoers will recognise character actor, Robert Joy (CSI:NY,*61) as having the perfect likeness to playing one of the greatest minds of modern science. The creators recycle some of the gags from AIRPLANE and NAKED GUN as a definite homage to Leslie Nielsen's past work, but are still funny in the context of the film. This parody is not the "train wreck" that is MEET THE SPARTANS, but is a pretty smart and funny movie. Rating: - Four WordsSometimes it's a single word: "Plastics." Or two words: "My precious." Or "Bond. James Bond." (Is that two words, or three?) For movie lovers, some words or collections of words are magically evocative, forever associated with whatever was immortal about the films that featured them. A few days ago, four more words entered this privileged lexicon for me. My son, who will be 13 in September, wanted to see "The Superhero Movie," starring Drake Bell. My son has been a fan of Drake and Josh on TV. We rented the movie on our cable system. It comes in two versions, a PG-13 version and an unrated "Extended" version. Not aware that I could rent the PG-13 version, I rented the extended version for $4.99. The four words that I'll forever associate with the movie came about 10 minutes in. A snail was among a diverse group of animals frenetically attempting to have sexual intercourse with Drake Bell's character. In a subtitle, the snail said the four words: "Take it all, bitch." I was transfixed. The line so overwhelmed me that I found myself unable to watch more of the movie. I turned to another channel, and my son's only reaction was, "Dad, I'm surprised it took you so long to do that." Today, before writing this review, I took the trouble to rent, for another $4.99, the PG-13 version of the movie. The same scene, and the same line, were there. I'm not sure what else to say, except maybe, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Rating: - Gets the movie parody thing right!There's a horrible trend nowadays of movies assuming that stringing together a clump of unrelated jabs at current events & ripping off scenes from all sorts of movies is parody. It's not. For ages it seemed that the art of satire & parody ala Naked Gun & Not Another Teen Movie was lost in a wave of stupid & incredibly unfunny movies such as Epic Movie. Then along came Super Hero Movie. The movie follows after a mild mannered schoolboy who gets bitten by a dragonfly and gains superpowers. The movie then chooses to focus on one movie (Spiderman) to parody & only briefly touches on the others, focusing mainly on parodies & sight gags. The movie may not be the greatest, but it's still funny enough to watch just to watch a stupid movie. Maybe if we're lucky the trend of writing parodies properly will stick & we'll see the end of stupid films such as Meet the Spartans.
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