Video/DVD Review: My Super Ex-Girlfriend
What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that while the tone remains
light-comedic, the film includes frequent sexual references and
images, including jokes about "close" male friendships,
effeminate men, and domineering women. Three sex scenes in beds
(two comically show beds slamming through walls as superwomen
are on top of partners). A character makes repeated sexual
remarks about women; a black supervisor at work discusses
sexual harassment and feels offended when Matt carelessly calls
her "homegirl." Violence is cartoonish and frequent
(explosions, robbery ending in gunfire at superbodied G-Girl,
falls, slamming through ceilings and walls). Characters drink
wine and beer. Villain smokes cigarettes.
Families can talk about effective ways to "break up" with boy-
and girlfriends. How does the movie's comic violence make fun
of this usually painful process? How does the film show that
teasing in high school can lead to long-lasting hurt feelings?
How might Jenny have treated her friend Barry more
generously?
When Matt (Luke Wilson) first meets Jenny (Uma Thurman) on a NYC subway, he thinks she's demure and sweet, her head buried in her book, her brown hair straight and simple. And when he recovers her purse from a mugger, he feels empowered, even if he did hide in a dumpster with the purse. But as the newly forming couple walks off down an alley, the camera cranes up to show the would-be robber hanging from a grate four stories up, where Jenny has thrown him. And now you know: Her secret identity is G-Girl, blond superhero and local celebrity.
Energetic and deliberately absurd, MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND makes fun of comic-book/action movie and romantic comedy conventions. Written by former Simpsons scribe Don Payne and directed by Ivan Reitman, the movie also takes a few jabs at traditional gender roles, not to mention typical anxieties concerning sex and commitment.
There is some spastic violence on the street (cars tossed, spinning tornado effects, buildings broken) as well as the sorts of revelations you might expect for a happy ending. But the film's most delightful element is not special-effected; it's (Eddie Izzard's performance as Professor Bedlam. He's funny, charming, and surprising, this last especially hard to be in a movie so fond of clichés.
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Member Comments On...
Video/DVD Review: My Super Ex-Girlfriend
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This movie was by far the worst movie ever!
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