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 Kevin Hart Leslie Nielsen Sara Paxton Christopher McDonald |
| Editing by | Craig Herring |
| Distributed by | Dimension Films Metro Goldwyn Mayer |
| Release date(s) |  March 28, 2008  June 6, 2008  April 10, 2008 |
| Running time | 87 min. |
| Country | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $35 million |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Superhero Movie is a 2008 spoof comedy film that mocks the superhero genre, following in the footsteps of the Scary Movie series of comedies, with which the movie's poster shares a notable resemblance. The film is written and directed by Craig Mazin, and produced by David Zucker and Robert K. Weiss. Production began in September 2007 in New York. It was released on March 28, 2008. The UK release was June 6. In Australia the release date was April 10 and it is rated M for moderate sexual references, and infrequent moderate coarse language.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
After being bitten by a genetically altered dragonfly, high school loser Rick Riker develops superhuman abilities like incredible strength and armored skin. Rick decides to use his new powers for good and becomes a costumed crime fighter known as "The Dragonfly." However, standing in the way of his destiny is the villainous Lou Landers. After an experiment gone wrong, Lou develops the power to steal a person's life force and in a dastardly quest for immortality becomes the supervillain, "The Hourglass."
[edit] Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role | Parody of Movie |
|---|---|---|
| Drake Bell [2] | Rick Riker/Dragonfly | Spider-Man |
| Sara Paxton [2] | Jill Johnson | Spider-Man |
| Christopher McDonald [2] | Lou Landers/Hourglass | Spider-Man |
| Leslie Nielsen [2] | Uncle Albert | Spider-Man |
| Kevin Hart [2] | Trey | |
| Marion Ross [2] | Aunt Lucille | Spider-Man |
| Ryan Hansen [2] | Lance Landers | Spider-Man |
| Keith David | Chief Karlin | |
| Brent Spiner [2] | Dr. Strom | Spider-Man |
| Robert Joy | Stephen Hawking | |
| Jeffrey Tambor [2] | Dr. Whitby | |
| Robert Hays | Blaine Riker | Batman Begins |
| Nicole Sullivan | Julia Riker | Batman Begins |
| Tracy Morgan [3] | Professor Xavier | X-Men trilogy |
| Regina Hall [3] | Mrs. Xavier | X-Men trilogy |
| Marisa Lauren | Storm | X-Men trilogy |
| Craig Bierko | Wolverine | X-Men trilogy |
| Simon Rex | Human Torch | Fantastic Four |
| Pamela Anderson | Invisible Girl | Fantastic Four |
| Miles Fisher | Tom Cruise |
[edit] Production
The film, produced by David Zucker (who originally was directing it), was initially slated for theatrical release on February 9, 2007.[4] The film later began production on September 17, 2007 in New York.[2][5] 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."[3]
Craig Mazin directed and wrote Superhero Movie, which was originally titled 'Superhero!'. Mazin had previously worked with Zucker on Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4, co-writing those movies. He claims that some of his "heroes" are David Zucker, Pat Proft, Jim Abrahams, and Robert K. Weiss, whom he worked with on those movies.
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. This song was released onto the iTunes Store as a digital downloadable single on April 8th, 2008.
[edit] Reception
[edit] Critical response
The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. As of April 2, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 15% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 39 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.[6] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 33 out of 100, based on 13 reviews, indicating "generally negative reviews". [7]
[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 May 31st it has grossed $25,555,740 in North America, and $19,998,071 overseas for a total of $45,553,811 worldwide.
[edit] Parodies and References
- Spider-Man[3] - The main parody.
- Spider-Man 2 - In the movie, Rick tells Jill he doesn't love her like said by Peter to Mary Jane. The villain, Hourglass, has a similar origin compared to Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2.
- Spider-Man 3 - The villain Hourglass dies almost the same way Venom dies in Spider-Man 3.
- Fantastic 4[3] - The scenes with Invisible Girl and The Human Torch, Rick stops the Truck the same way as The Thing.
- X-Men[3] - The scene where Professor Xavier guides Rick around a school of people with superpowers, showing him people from the film X-men
- Batman Begins[3] - How Rick's parents die is similar to the way Bruce Wayne's parents died when he was young in Batman Begins
- Superman[3] - Dragonfly finally getting his flight abillity is a parody of Superman's flight superpower.
- Lord of the Rings - Rick and Trey are sitting on the bus next to each other. Trey points out the groups of different cliques on the bus, one of which is the "FRODOS" - teenage boys dressed up as the Lord of the Rings character.
- Fall Out Boy - The part when Rick points out the group of different people and in the emo group, Fall Out Boy (the rock band) was sitting on the bus.
- Blade - Undertaker throws a knife, he strikes a pose like Blade.
- Airplane! - The "George Zip" speech by Leslie Neilsen is used
- The Green Hornet
- Naked Gun
- Tom Cruise[8] - Where Tom Cruise is on CruiseTube saying how he is better than the Dragonfly at flying and explaining that the Dragonfly can't even fly.
- YouTube- Parodying it by calling it CruiseTube
- T-Mobile - Once Aunt Lucille passed away, Rick removed Jill from his Fave 5
- Sky High
- MySpace[8]
- iPod[8] - In the bus scene, Trey uses various tools supposedly by apple like "iDrink", a juice box and "iPick", a tool used for picking mucus out of the nose.
- Scarface - Same as the Lord of the Rings parody, but pointing out "Scarface society"
- iPhone
- Barry Bonds - showing Barry Bonds taking steroids and shooting laser beams out of his eyes.
- Hooters
- Windows
- Clippit
- 2girls1cup - When Professor Xavier sends the video to Rick, Xavier says "2 girls... 1 cup... you know what to do."
- Enron[8]
- Craigslist When Rick points out that Lou has a bruise on his neck and Lou says he met a girl on Craigslist and Rick says he met a boy on Craigslist.
- Perezhilton.com
- Google - When Rick looks up dragonfly bite.
- All Time Low
- WebMD
- Men in Black - The metal ball thrown by Rick to Hourglass hits him back.
- Enron - When Rick's parents tell him to invest their fortune in Enron stock instead of Google
[edit] DVD Release
Superhero Movie will be released to DVD on July 8, 2008. It will be released in the rated theatrical version and the unrated extended edition will be priced at $29.95.
Special Features - 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] References
- ^ Superhero Movie - Village Cinemas
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dave McNary. "Dimension casts 'Super' spoof", Variety, 2007-09-19. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Anthony Breznican; Robert Bianco, Mike Snider. "Coming attractions: Superheroes get spoofed in 'Movie'", USA Today, 2008-02-07. Retrieved on 2008-02-08.
- ^ Sarah Levinson-Rothman. "'Scary Movie 4' Sets Box Office Record", PR Newswire, 2006-04-16.
- ^ Gina Piccalo. "Superheroes to get a sendup", Los Angeles Times, 2007-09-20.
- ^ Superhero Movie Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
- ^ Superhero Movie (2008): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
- ^ a b c d Brian Orndorf (2008-03-28). THIS IS BRIANDOM: Film Review: Superhero Movie. brianorndorf.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
[edit] External links
