My Super Ex-Girlfriend

The wife and I went to see My Super Ex-Girlfriend last night. We both liked it since it had elements that appeal to us both: Romance, comedy, and superheroics (there were capes and costumes, but no tights, which was a nice change of pace.)

Where films like Spider-Man and Superman Returns give us a view of life inside a comic book, My Super Ex is more of a glance of what would happen if someone from real life was to attain super powers. Since there is no mention of any other super heroes flying around, the audience is left to believe that G-Girl, played by the effervescent Uma Thurman, is the world's only superpowered individual. Even her nemesis, the diabolic Professor Bedlam (Eddie Izzard) is just a regular Joe who relies on dim-witted thugs and nifty gadgets like a robotic pidgeon in order to spy on his super powered foe (sort of like the bird used by Syndrome on his island fortress in The Incredibles.)

My favorite performance was that of Rainn Wilson (from Sahara and The Office) who played best friend and confidant to Luke Wilson's protaganist character, Matt Saunders. Although the best line of the film was Luke's line when he says to Hannah (Anna Lewis): "Get out of town. Go to San Diego or Tahiti, or Utah. Well, not Utah. Utah sucks." I wanted to stand up and cheer after that one.

Oh, and I thought it was interesting to realize that Eddie Izzard also played in the wannabe superhero flick, Mystery Men, with Janine Garofalo, who played with Uma Thurman in The Truth About Cats and Dogs, who then played in My Super Ex-Girlfriend with Eddie Izzard. I'm sure that if I think about it, I could figure out the degrees of separation of any one of these actors to Kevin Bacon.

Anyway, it's not the biggest budget superhero flick out there, but then again, it's not intended to be a superhero story, just a love story with a superhero twist, which is all the rage these days (and for the record, that's okay with me.) But it is fun, and can be enjoyed by members of both sexes.

Anthing less would be uncivilized.