SUPER (2010)

This film is very realistic for a superhero movie; bullet wounds to the arms and legs don't prevent people from walking or carrying things, but other than that, the violence is very real, whether its played for laughs or gasps or both.  Usually both.  For you see, Rainn Wilson dubs himself The Crimson Bolt and then, after discovering that criminals can/will just beat him up, selects a wrench (get it?) for his weapon after considering zero other options.  Later, Wilson waits in line for a movie and runs afoul of some dirty line cutters.  Delightful anticipation builds, as you wait for the jerk to get his comeuppance.  But then realism.  Wilson busts the miscreant's forehead open like the melon he tested the wrench on, and whacks his vile shrew wife just for good measure.  Ohhhh.....  So this really IS a movie about what would happen if a normal person tried to be superhero.  They would violently overcompensate for petty personal grievances; sounds about right.

I enjoyed this so much more than Kickass, the other movie about a normal guy trying to be a superhero (actually there's tons of movies in this genre but forget about it).  That film was edgy because it had child-cursing and routine action movie violence.  This film is edgy because when Rainn Wilson decides to become a superhero, its shortly after he's tentacle raped, scalped, and lobotomized by God Almighty, whom the credits tell me was voiced by Rob Zombie; you know, that old cliche.  This movie actually feels like a comic book, albeit from one of those unhinged unrated black and white bottom shelf brands that don't get movie adaptations but used to get MTV shows back in the 90's.  Writer/Director James Gunn previously delivered Slither, another film that failed at the box office before building a large fan base on DVD, and this film feels cut from similarly 'cult' cloth.

The film jumps from funny to hysterical when Ellen Page appears, first as a sarcastic comic store clerk and then as The Bolt's over-enthusiastic psychopathic sidekick Boltie.  She makes fun of how ugly "mongoloids" are.  She says its not okay to buy a Christian comic book "unless you're laughing at how gay it is."  She forgets to call Wilson by his superhero name instead of his real name, and she forgets every time she opens her mouth.  She cackles with delight when liberally applying deadly vengeance to people who may or may not deserve it.  After someone bumps into her in the sporting goods store, she tries to go after them with a machete but Wilson stops her in time.  About a minute into their first mission she bumps her arm against a wall and cries "Ow! Its just like when you got shot Frank!"  She does worse things.

The supporting cast is also really funny.  Michael Rooker plays a hired goon, Nathan Fillion plays a moral-teaching public access Christian superhero who serves as inspiration to The Crimson Bolt, Andre Royo (Bubbles from The Wire) plays a friend and co-worker of Wilson's, and Liv Tyler is Wilson's recovering addict wife whose disappearance into the clutches of strip club owner/aspiring drug trafficker Kevin Bacon provides the initial descent into madness that becomes his transformational journey.  I spotted cameos from comedian Steve Agee, the gay guy that wasn't Brian Posehn on The Sarah Silverman Program, Linda Cardellini from Freaks And Geeks and Delaney Williams, the fat sergeant from also The Wire.

Despite all the wacky ultra-violence, mind-splitting insanity, and clever one-liners about how cats are bad companions because 'they have flat faces' the film is a surprisingly heartfelt journey of a sad-sack pushover who decides to finally stand up for what he believes in, with two bookend segments where Wilson takes stock of his life that are unexpectedly moving, at least for a movie where someone carries on a hallucinogenic conversation with a toilet full of vomit.  Also, its about time a superhero drove a Buick Century.