Do you have a movie/show/book/whatever that you really like even though everyone seems to hate it and you know you shouldn't even enjoy it necessarily? That is me with, "My Super Ex-Girlfriend." Released in 2006, The overall messaging of the movie is incredibly problematic with the clunker of an ending (if I may spoil it) basically being the over-the-top crazy superlady who eventually ends up falling in love with the villain who has been trying to steal her powers out of a weird toxic obsession. Still, this movie actually works somewhat thanks to an incredible cast who elevate the so-so material to an enjoyable level.
Luke Wilson falls in love with a woman (Uma Thurman) who reveals to him she's the popular superhero G-Girl. The movie takes forever to get there, but they break up and she does not take it well. G-Girl comes across as a mean-spirited shrew, but Uma Thurman makes you actually like her even when she's hurling a live shark through a window at Wilson in a rage. Anna Faris is a co-worker of Wilson's whom he always ogles to the point their boss (Wanda Skyes) keeps threatening him with HR. Again, this is played for laughs because Faris actually likes Wilson's character a lot, but if she didn't, he would, in fact, come across as kind of creepy, with Skyes' concerns being played for laughs not that humorous. BUT YET! Skyes is so damn funny she makes a boss being concerned about her employee's safety somehow worth yukking at and Faris is hilarious too.
Also, Rainn Wilson plays Wilson's best friend (this is before, "The Office," made him super famous) and his character is supposed to be an insufferable bragging-prone super-horndog asshole...but Wilson makes him weirdly likable. I didn't even mention how Eddie Izzard (back before she started going exclusively by feminine pronouns and at times presented as Male) is the villain and so absurdly dry and sincere you almost forget how freakishly toxic this character's obsession with G-Girl is! I swear, "My Super Ex-Girlfriend," is proof that if you give a D- script to an A+ cast you can somehow, against all odds, get a solid B of a movie.
"My Super Ex-Girlfriend bombed in theaters, hard. The AV Club back in 2020 when they did a retrospective on it described it as, "Hacky," with the nicest thing writer Caroline Siede could say about it being, "...there’s so much potential in its premise," that it fails to execute. I wouldn't argue with that at all because, as I said, the message the movie imparts is basically, "Women, right? They're either horny, crazy, or a little of both!" BUT STILL! This cast was given the barest of ingredients and managed to whip up a metaphorically tasty dish as if they got a stinker of a basket on a cooking competition show. I will never argue that, "My Super Ex-Girlfriend," is a good movie, but I will argue it is funny despite itself. All of the credit for that goes to the stupendous cast turning a lemon into a relatively enjoyable lemonade (I'm sorry, I love food metaphors). If you get the chance to watch, "My Super Ex-Girlfriend," and don't mind spending 90-ish minutes on a heavily flawed but fun flick, maybe give it a chance? I'm glad I did, if for no other reason than I'll watch basically anything with Eddie Izzard.
3.5 out of Stars.
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