Review: Super Capers

Ray Griggs’s insufferably sloppy spoof elicits only agony.

Super Capers
Photo: Roadside Attractions

Writer-director Ray Griggs not only pays homage to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg with Super Capers, a superhero comedy that regularly references their ’80s classics, but at one point arrogantly puts himself in their company by placing a mock poster for his short film Lucifer alongside those for Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi. Fat chance of him joining such illustrious ranks, since unlike the genre adventures he so clearly adores, Griggs’s insufferably sloppy spoof elicits only agony. Comprised of B-list actors and one-note cinematic allusions, the film concerns Ed Gruberman (Justin Whalin), a wannabe do-gooder with no superpowers who, after being sued by a mugger (Clint Howard) he foiled, is sentenced to serve time at Super Capers, a halfway house populated by pitiful caricatures of traditional comic book heroes, including a mama’s boy telekinetic (Samuel Lloyd), a chilly ice queen (Danielle Harris), a vain superman (Ryan McPartlin), and a midget robot with the voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger. With wholesale amateurishness, Griggs offers up a Back to the Future-ish time-traveling bus, a villain revealing that he’s the father of his adversary, an appearance by Adam West—still pathetically clinging to past pseudo-glory—as a cabbie driving the Batmobile, and, in a desperate bid to engender nostalgia-tinged goodwill, the theme song from The Greatest American Hero over the final credits. Aside from addressing the question, “What has recovering addict Tom Sizemore been up to since his VH1 reality show ended?” (Answer: hamming it up in tedious schlock), Super Capers doesn’t ever come close to justifying its existence, with cruddy direction, a Superman-aping score, and sub-sitcom silliness making it seem like the mentally handicapped sibling of a Mel Brooks film.

Score: 
 Cast: Justin Whalin, Michael Rooker, Ryan McPartlin, Samuel Lloyd, Danielle Harris, Ray Griggs, Christine Lakin, Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jon Polito, Adam West, June Lockhart, Doug Jones, Clint Howard, Tom Sizemore  Director: Ray Griggs  Screenwriter: Ray Griggs  Distributor: Roadside Attractions  Running Time: 98 min  Rating: PG  Year: 2009  Buy: Video

Nick Schager

Nick Schager is the entertainment critic for The Daily Beast. His work has also appeared in Variety, Esquire, The Village Voice, and other publications.

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