Merrick here...


Derek Flint sent in this look at SUPERHERO!

This is from Craig Mazin, who brought us a couple of the SCARY MOVIEs. Leslie Nielsen's in it. The film should release late March.


Here's Derek Flint...

“Meet The Spartans” is the worst cinematic experience of the century.

If poisoned Kool-Aid were served at the snack bars showing this shit, I'm sure the aisles would be filled with bodies. Thanks to this extended trailer masquerading as a film, along with abominations like “Date Movie” and “Epic Movie,” the goodwill moviegoers had towards parodies is gone.

Now, we approach these movies with wariness, wondering not if they're any good... but just how bad the latest will be.

I recently attended a sneak of a new spoof that doesn't just reverse the decline, but stops it in its tracks. It was far from finished, but it didn’t matter. The audience had a great time and so did I.

The film is called “Superhero!” Obviously, it’s a send up of every caped crusader picture under the sun, but the thing that makes it stand apart from all the other subprime vendor parody movies out there is that it’s produced by David Zucker, one of the men who gave us the original “Airplane!”

“Superhero!” takes the conventions of the genre and exaggerates them. It’s like watching “Spiderman” in a funhouse mirror.

While “Spidey” is the prime source material, “Fantastic Four,” “Batman,” and every other flick where you believe a man could fly is called on the carpet. Still, this isn't just a succession of dumb gags. The spirit is closer to “Hot Fuzz” where there’s a structure to the piece as well as genuine affection towards the genre being lampooned.

It also helps that Craig Mazin, who wrote and directed, is an aficionado on comic book heroics. (He already directed the clever indie flick “The Specials.”) His spoof apprenticeship was spent working on two of the “Scary Movie” sequels with Zucker, but this time he’s on his own, front and center. The smartest thing he did was make an actual film, not an extended skit like all the other parodies stinking up multiplexes. This movie is technically adroit and while it helps to have some knowledge of the movies being parodied, “Superhero!” stands on its own.

The plot, a novelty for these kinds of movies, follows the adventures of an average guy, played by Drake Bell, who accidentally becomes the recipient of superpowers. The movie adheres to the well established conventions of the genre: Guy gets powers, guy freaks out at powers, guy learns responsibility of powers and guy resolves to fights evil with them.

The romance and villainy of the first and second “Spiderman” provide the template. Sara Paxton is funny and hot as the Mary Jane character. Chris McDonald will make it impossible for you to look at Willem Dafoe’s “Green Goblin” again with a straight face, if you ever had one. Brent “Data” Spiner is delightful as a whacked out scientist and the appearance of Leslie Nielsen as a city official was greeted by applause.

Besides the mock-heroics occurring onscreen, you also get to watch Zucker and Mazin rescue the spoof genre. (It was wise to give the “Scary Movie” franchise a rest and mock fresh turf.)

To start describing some of this movie's gags will destroy a lot of the fun and, to me, that would count as spoilers... so hopefully a trailer won’t give away too many surprises. I will say that one of my favorite sequences is a “ZAZ” style ridicule of the subway scene from “Spiderman 2,” that has a lot of the same technical prowess of the original as our hero, stuck to the front of the train, encounters everything imaginable in harm’s way. It proves the "Airplane!" escalation method still works.

“Superhero!” like “Hot Fuzz” is a reminder that spoof movies don't have to suck when in the right hands. By virtue of sheer competence, this movie will do well.

In “Superhero,” the good guys save the day on screen while behind the scenes, Mazin and company save the spoof genre. I look forward to seeing the finished product.

I recommend that the ads for this film say: From People Who Had Nothing To Do With “Epic Movie” & “Meet The Spartans.”

Derek Flint