The do-it-yourself crimefighters of “Kick-Ass” look like polished professionals next to the hero of “Super,” a movie that plays like a weird underground film by comparison.
In this one, the non-super-hero is Frank, a hard-luck cook in an urban diner. Rainn Wilson, the off-kilter workplace nebbish from “The Office,” plays the role with a combination of campy humor and gritty desperation.
Frank’s wife (Liv Tyler), a recovering junkie, is lured away by a sleazy drug tycoon (Kevin Bacon, quite spirited). Frank’s frustration leads him to transform himself into the Crimson Bolt, a masked crusader in a bizarre red outfit.
His ultimate goal is to liberate his wife, but in the meantime the Crimson Bolt is available to interrupt street crime and knock a few people in the head with a heavy wrench. His exploits earn him the admiration of a potential sidekick, a comic-store clerk (Ellen Page) who desperately wants to fight crime herself.
Although it plays as sad-sack comedy at first, “Super” signals its more serious vein when Frank begins beating people with the wrench. A guy who cuts into a movie line is liable to get his head bashed, which seems a little extreme, even for an admittedly rotten move.
Writer-director James Gunn is trying something interesting here: a movie with ideas in it, dressed up as a fanboy picture. It has the flavor of a 1970s film, where satirical moments are suddenly followed by something violent and distinctly not funny.
That’s a tricky blend, but Gunn hits it more often than not.
We may chuckle when Frank watches the cheesy videos about a religious superhero called the Holy Avenger (Nathan Fillion), but there’s something genuinely unnerving about Frank’s belief that he, too, is divinely chosen for a vigilante cause. This is “Kick-Ass” with a touch of “Taxi Driver.”
Everybody in the movie is at least slightly insane, including Page’s character, who becomes quite unleashed when she puts on her hero’s outfit (she’s got a list of possible names for the sidekick: Boltie, perhaps, or maybe The Creeping Bam?).
Page is so expert at delivering deadpan “Juno”-esque performances that it’s cool to see her shaking it up like this.
A hilarious cartoon title sequence sets the tone for “Super,” which seems designed and destined to have life as a cult movie. As such things go, it’s a solid effort.
“Super” (3 stars)
This cult-movie-in-the-making looks like fanboy foolishness, but it has a gritty undertone that makes it interesting: The funny stuff is rudely interrupted by off-kilter violence. Rainn Wilson stars as a jilted loner who decides to become a masked crimefighter; Ellen Page is the comic-store clerk who becomes his sidekick.
Rated: R for language, violence, nudity
Showing: Varsity.
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