An overly gentle black-themed superhero parody from director-star Robert Townsend. A meek inner city teacher is exposed to a glowing meteor and develops Superman-like powers which he is persuaded by the neighbourhood watch committee to use in the service of an anti-crime campaign that pits him against local gangs. With a lot of black stars in cameos (James Earl Jones, Robert Guillaume, Bill Cosby) and a genial air, this is likeable and watchable but never really takes flight, coming off like a Cosby Show version of the comedies Fred MacMurray used to make for Disney which were aptly characterised in Joe Dante's Matinee as "flying rubber professor movies."
Meteor Man Review
A trodden-over teacher inherits superpowers after being exposed to a meteor from outer space. But the world is obviously to realistic where he lives because there are no super-villains to fight, instead he joins the neighbourhood watch scheme and helps fight the local gangs.
Release Date:
01 Jan 1993
Running Time:
99 minutes
Certificate:
15
Original Title:
Meteor Man
With such a controversial subject of having one of the few black superhero's it's a shame that the story line seems so weak in comparison to the more traditional ones around. Although it is supposed to be a comedy, it would have been good to see more action sequences and the presence of a super villain, instead of Bill Cosby and James Earl Jones.
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