Superhero Movie

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A contender for least funny comedy of the year

If the words 'Spider-Man' and 'spoof' leave you feeling a little apprehensive, then go with your gut feeling on this. A contender for least funny movie of the year, 'Superhero Movie' is tedious, drawn out and lacking in any sense of humour.

Rick Riker (Bell) doesn't hang out with the cool people at school. He's a nerd, he lacks social skills and very few people even notice him. He is secretly in love with Jill Johnson (Paxton), who happens to live next door to him. This is a source of great annoyance to her burly popular boyfriend Lance Landers (Hansen). Sound familiar? 'Superhero Movie' is the kind of parody that rips off every single element of its inspiration, in this case 'Spider-Man', but fails to inject any touch of humour at the key moments.

Leading man Drake Bell has spoof character written all over him. But although he plays over-the-top nerdy well there's just no saving this project. Lame, in-your-faces jokes abound but the clichés and extremes aren't ever used to good comic effect.

One star is generous given what's already been said and, like a child explaining their rationale for their scoring on 'The Late Late Toy Show', it must be justified. That would go something like: "I'm docking a point because the script was terrible, and another one because it says on the box that it's a comedy and it's not, and another because I got bored after about 10 minutes and the last one because I just didn't like it." And the one star, well that's for a very funny Tom Cruise impression, which provided the only laugh of the movie.

At just 85 minutes this one far outstays its welcome. You'll spend most of your time wriggling in your seat, looking at your watch or maybe watching the couple in front of you arguing about who chose to come see this rotten excuse for a film.

Another spoof movie, no worse, another really bad spoof movie.

Linda McGee