Plot Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) — nice guy, good job, owns a goldfish — finds his life turned upside down when he starts a relationship with a girl he met on the train… only to find out that she’s the super-powered hero G-Girl (Thurman), and more than a little insane. When he dumps her, she wages a campaign to make his life a living hell.
Review
God knows we love it, but the worst thing that could have happened to Ivan Reitman’s career was making Ghostbusters. For he’s been fruitlessly trying to recreate it ever since, be it with CGI (Evolution), a walking special effect (his run of movies with Big Arnie), or high concepts (even Dave, arguably his best movie, was fuelled by a big ‘What If?’).
And now along comes My Super Ex-Girlfriend, his latest attempt to fuse gags of both the laugh-making and eye-candy variety — and sadly, it’s his latest strike.
There’s nothing wrong with the concept — a superhero stalker played for laughs might have been a nice poke in the eye for the X-Men and Kal-Els of this world — but it’s the underbaked screenplay (and, it must be said, Reitman’s dreary direction) that proves to be this movie’s kryptonite.
Don Payne’s script feels like it needed a couple more passes to remove extraneous characters (Wanda Sykes’ annoying boss, for one) and further flesh out motivation for its principals. Luke Wilson’s Matt is such a likeable, dorkish Everyman that, when G-Girl starts turning the screw and destroys his car, job and apartment in sequences clearly meant to be hilarious, the only response we can muster is sympathy for the poor fella.
That’s a commodity that’s also hard to come by for G-Girl — Thurman does a nice line in psychosis, but Jenny is given noreal grounding for her lunacy. And, with Reitman unwilling to tip her over the edge into full-blown villainy, the character quickly becomes very one-dimensional.
It’s a pity, because the potential for a superspoof does exist in a couple of nice scenes — when a rogue missile threatens, a pissed-off G-Girl has to be talked into saving the day; while the HQ of arch-nemesis Professor Bedlam (a miscast Eddie Izzard) turns out to be a terraced house with his nefarious weapons stored on shelves. Otherwise, though, this is pedestrian and unsure of its tone.
The cast try hard, though, with the two unrelated Wilsons (Luke and Rainn, so great in the American Office) in particular hugely enjoyable as a pair of odd-couple best friends. When they’re swapping their sparky banter — Wilson, R. caustic and dry; Wilson, L. naive and ever-so-slightly appalled — it’s hard not to mutter discontentedly when an expensive ineffect shows up and we’re back to the “so what?” superhero shenanigans again.
Verdict For Ivan Reitman, Ghostbusters continues to cast one hell of a shadow. Shame — if he’d managed to resist the lure of big, shiny FX, this could have worked as a very black comedy...
My love of all things Uma and Anna Faris may twist my arm in the direction of indulgence, but I found this to be an enjoyable piece of fluff, with just enough rom-com and superhero satire to blend well. It could have gone darker, or funnier for that matter, but it's better than Reitman's other recent efforts. ... Read More
My Super Ex-Girlfriend was a thoroughly enjoyable, easy watching summer comedy. I was worried that it was gonna be a case of all the good bits in the trailer but there were laughs throughout the film.
It's not quite up there in the top league of recent comedies (which for me would be Wedding Crashers and Dodgeball) but this does not stop it being a good film. There were even some plot twists that I wasn't expecting.
The acting is good from all concerned, with Uma Thurman doing a very good ... Read More
I think every1 can agree with me and say that the only reason this was made, was SUPERMAN RETURNS!!!!
But it had its fair few scenes.... before u realised this was a superhero version of the most recent scary movies....
So unless u r really really bored wait 4the dvd.... ... Read More
I expected to not like this that much, due to the negative reactions and such...
But I actually enjoyed this quite a bit, sure the plots a bit thin, but there's some really funny ideas and moments in this, plus Eddie Izzard is always good quality!
3/5 ... Read More
I hated this ... In fact I would go as far as to say it is one of the worst films I have seen this year. Completely lazy, cheap, no-brained film making.
It is billed as a romantic comedy - but it is neither all that funny or particularly romantic. Luke Wilson and Uma Thurman have no chemistry at all. In fact, the only person who appears to be having any fun at all is Anna Faris, who puts in a game performance.
So, if it is not romantic and it is not funny... Read More
It is obvious that Superman inspires the entire concept of this movie. Our hero (or rather heroine) is G-Girl/Jenny Johnson portrayed by the ever-gorgeous Uma Thurman and Matt Saunders is in the Lous Lane's role, as G-Girl's lover. G-Girl's nemesis is Prof. Bedlum (Eddie Izzard), who only motivation is to find the kryptonite to rid G-Girl of her powers.
Even though G-Girl boasts super abilities like zipping through the sky in Mach speed, having laser vision, ultra-hearing and is bulletproof, ... Read More
Classic
Excellent
Good
Fair
Tragic
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