Superhero Movie

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Superhero Movie

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Craig Mazin
Produced by David Zucker
Robert K. Weiss
Written by Craig Mazin
Starring Drake Bell
Sara Paxton
Christopher McDonald
Leslie Nielsen
Kevin Hart
Music by James L. Venable
Drake Bell
Cinematography Thomas E. Ackerman
Distributed by The Weinstein Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) March 28, 2008
Running time Theatrical cut
75 min.
Extended cut
82 min.
Country USA
Language English
Budget $35,000,000
Gross revenue $59,292,183
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Superhero Movie is a 2008 comedy film written and directed by Craig Mazin and produced by David Zucker and Robert K. Weiss. Superhero Movie starred Drake Bell, Sarah Paxton, Christopher McDonald, and Leslie Nielsen. It was originally titled Superhero!.

Superhero Movie is a spoof of the superhero film genre, mainly the first Spider-Man. The film follows in the footsteps of the Scary Movie series of comedies, with which the film's poster shares a resemblance. It was also inspired by, and contains homages to, some of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker's earlier spoof films such as Airplane! and The Naked Gun.

Production began in September 2007 in New York. It was released on March 28, 2008 in the United States, and the UK release was June 6, 2008, and received 9 million dollars on its opening weekend and was number three in the box office. The film was rated PG-13 by the MPAA for crude and sexual content, comic violence, drug references, and language.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Rick Riker (Drake Bell) is an unpopular student at Empire High with his only friend Trey (Kevin Hart), who lives with his uncle Albert (Leslie Nielson) and Aunt Lucielle (Marion Ross). His crush and next door neighbor Jill Johnson (Sara Paxton), who hardly notices Rick, is dating Rick's bully, Lance Landers (Ryan Hansan).

When at a field trip, Rick is bitten by a genetically altered dragonfly, which swells up his neck. When he comes home, Albert and Lucielle believe Rick is acting strangely, which causes Albert to talk to Rick about Adulthood, for example his vagina will bleed once a month, just as Rick passes out due to the bite.

He then wakes up the next morning, with a strange video sent to him from a man wanting to speak to him, later adding Rick as a friend on Facebook. Meanwhile, Lou Landers (Christopher McDonald) gets into a scientific accident, transforming into the The Hourglass, who feeds on human life. At a science fair, with a comically rude and mean-spirited Stephen Hawking who gets physically hurt throughout the film, Rick gets into mishaps, such as becoming stuck to water fountains and a woman's breasts. He then realizes he has superpowers such as the ability to walk on walls, have incredible strength, but cannot fly. Trey offers to become his sidekick, but Rick resigns. His Uncle and he have a brief fight, which reminds Will when he was younger (played by Sam Cohen), and rich with his parents who die in a spoof of Batman Begins. His father urges him to invest of all his money in, instead of Google, Enron.

Jill, tells Rick, she loves a man with a car, which Rick couldn't succeed to do with no credit or payment. After his uncle is quickly injured, Rick is met by Xavier (Tracy Morgan) at his school for mutants aka X-Men. Rick is told to make a costume, which he does (and later improves). He quickly becomes a sensation until his fight with The Hourglass. During Thanksgiving, Lou visits the family (everyone is unaware he is Hourglass). He nearly catches Rick dressed as The Dragonfly, but doesn't. At dinner, Rick and Landers become suspicious of each other and Landers and his nephew Lance quickly leave with the excuse "I shit my pants". Aunt Lucielle falls asleep on the couch and experience's bowel difficulties, Rick and Jill realize their feelings for each other and are about to kiss but are disturbed by Hourglass who kills Aunt Lucielle.

After a comical funeral, Rick decides to throw in the towel as a superhero. Trey and Uncle Albert find Rick after the funeral with a fake beard, but then convince to find and defeat The Hourglass. At a ceremony, Lou is awarded the Douche Bag of the Year award, stalls away Rick from believing someone else is The Hourglass, and critically injures Jill. After a sincere speech given by Stephen Hawking to Rick, he dons the Dragonfly suits, and battles The Hourglass on the rooftop. In the end, Rick defeats The Hourglass. He also saves Jill and himself from falling to their death by finally growing wings and being able to fly.

The film ends with The Dragonfly and Jill flying in the air sky high, with Rick giving his final narration, only to be stopped short as both are hit by a helicopter. The credits roll with Superhero! Song in the background being sung.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production

The film was initially slated for theatrical release on February 9, 2007 as Superhero! under the direction of David Zucker.[3] However, it was delayed, and the film later began production on September 17, 2007 in New York, and the director's chair was shifted to Craig Mazin, a writer of Scary Movie 3 and 4, with Zucker being pushed back to being a producer.[1][4]

Zucker said the film primarily parodied Spider-Man, but it also spoofed Batman Begins, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Superman. The producer elaborated, "It's a spoof of the whole superhero genre, like we did with the Scary Movies, but this one probably has more of a unified plot, like the Naked Gun had."[2]

Star of the film Drake Bell composed and recorded a song just for the movie entitled "Superhero! Song". In the song he included co-star Sara Paxton on backup vocals. This song can be heard in the credits of the movie, however it is credited as being titled "Superbounce". This song was released onto the iTunes Store as a digital downloadable single on April 8th, 2008.

Sara Paxton also sings the second song heard during the credits, titled "I Need A Hero" (not to be confused with Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero"), which she also wrote with Michael Jay and Johnny Pedersen.

[edit] Release

[edit] Critical response

The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. As of April 2, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 13% of critics gave the film positive reviews. However, most critics preferred this film over previous spoof films, such as 2007's Epic Movie and the recent Meet the Spartans (both directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer), which were critically panned but stated Superhero Movie is not the worst of the spoof genre, but relies on tired gags and lame pop culture references all the same.[5] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 33 out of 100, based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally negative reviews". [6]

[edit] Box office performance

On its opening weekend, the film grossed $9,510,297 in 2,960 theaters averaging to about $3,212 per venue and ranked #3 at the box office. As of June 25th it has grossed $25,817,760 in North America, and $31,608,683 overseas for a total of $57,426,443 worldwide.

[edit] DVD Release

Superhero Movie was released on DVD July 8, 2008. It was released in the rated PG-13 theatrical version (75 min.) and the extended edition (82 min.). The extended DVD features commentary by Zucker, Weiss, and Mazin, deleted scenes, and an alternate ending.

  • Audio commentary by writer/director Craig Mazin and producers David Zucker and Robert K. Weiss - Extended Version Only
  • Deleted scenes
  • Alternate ending
  • Meet the Cast featurette
  • The Art of Spoofing featurette

[edit] Parody targets

The film parodies the entire superhero genre but is mainly a direct parody of the first Spider-Man.[2] However, the film also features some spoofs of Batman Begins, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. The scene of the death of Bruce Wayne's parents is parodied. Some of the members of the Fantastic Four are also featured in the movie.

The film also makes references and homages to other films such as when Rick Riker and Trey are in a bus and Trey is pointing out the different groups of cliques, one of which is "Frodos" - kids dressed up as Hobbits looking similar to Frodo, the Lord of the Rings character.

The film also makes fun of certain celebrities and their real-life actions such as Tom Cruise's scientology video and Barry Bonds' alleged use of steroids.[7] The movie also has instances of product placement such as T-Mobile, iPods, and Craigslist.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dave McNary (2007-09-19). "Dimension casts 'Super' spoof", Variety. Retrieved on 2008-01-31. 
  2. ^ a b c d Anthony Breznican; Robert Bianco, Mike Snider (2008-02-07). "Coming attractions: Superheroes get spoofed in 'Movie'". Retrieved on 2008-02-08. 
  3. ^ Sarah Levinson-Rothman (2006-04-16). "'Scary Movie 4' Sets Box Office Record", PR Newswire. 
  4. ^ Gina Piccalo (2007-09-20). "Superheroes to get a sendup", Los Angeles Times. 
  5. ^ "Superhero Movie Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
  6. ^ "Superhero Movie (2008): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
  7. ^ Brian Orndorf (2008-03-28). "THIS IS BRIANDOM: Film Review: Superhero Movie". brianorndorf.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.

[edit] External links

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