This is one that really came outta left field. Up until now, my only exposure to Rainn Wilson was as Dwight Schrute. And he's not even my favorite character on "The Office". But the man deserves high praise for his performance as the jilted lover-turned amateur superhero in "Super" - a movie that (having not known what to make of the trailers) turned out to be a pleasant surprise, indeed.
Wilson's seemingly fairytale marriage shatters when his recovering addict wife (Liv Tyler) runs out of the house and into the arms of drug-dealing Kevin Bacon. Believing his wife to be kidnapped (and sick of being perceived as weak) and with the help of an eager comic shop employee (Ellen Page), Wilson stitches a costume, take up a wrench and hits the streets as The Crimson Bolt. Page joins the unlikely enterprise as his overzealous sidekick and the duo arm themselves to the teeth and take the fight to Casa de Bacon.
Wilson is impressive as the deeply conflicted Christian who finds himself doling out some seriously violent street justice. It's at times goofy role, but nothing like his signature goofiness on "The Office" (no mean feat). Page is v(she's very likable here). And Bacon brings a hilarious detachment to the asshat dealer, making it a almost ironic performance.
I'm pretty sure this movie contains the funniest ass-kicking montage I've ever seen. The early days of The Crimson Bolt's crime-fighting career are spent smacking guys in the head with a wrench ... and more often than not, just running away. That's his shtick. Naturally, the character becomes more earnest as time wears on, adopting an almost Batman-like intensity in his punishment approach, and the movie (as a whole) follows this trajectory as the once-lighthearted and silly premise becomes ever more serious and violent.
What began as a dark comedy eventually dims all the way to black and increasingly brutal. But out of the death and destruction emerges an end result that manages to be sweet and, dare I say, poignant.
7/10
Wilson's seemingly fairytale marriage shatters when his recovering addict wife (Liv Tyler) runs out of the house and into the arms of drug-dealing Kevin Bacon. Believing his wife to be kidnapped (and sick of being perceived as weak) and with the help of an eager comic shop employee (Ellen Page), Wilson stitches a costume, take up a wrench and hits the streets as The Crimson Bolt. Page joins the unlikely enterprise as his overzealous sidekick and the duo arm themselves to the teeth and take the fight to Casa de Bacon.
Wilson is impressive as the deeply conflicted Christian who finds himself doling out some seriously violent street justice. It's at times goofy role, but nothing like his signature goofiness on "The Office" (no mean feat). Page is v(she's very likable here). And Bacon brings a hilarious detachment to the asshat dealer, making it a almost ironic performance.
I'm pretty sure this movie contains the funniest ass-kicking montage I've ever seen. The early days of The Crimson Bolt's crime-fighting career are spent smacking guys in the head with a wrench ... and more often than not, just running away. That's his shtick. Naturally, the character becomes more earnest as time wears on, adopting an almost Batman-like intensity in his punishment approach, and the movie (as a whole) follows this trajectory as the once-lighthearted and silly premise becomes ever more serious and violent.
What began as a dark comedy eventually dims all the way to black and increasingly brutal. But out of the death and destruction emerges an end result that manages to be sweet and, dare I say, poignant.
7/10