This mildly amusing comedy tells the tale of some poor schmuck who happens to date a super heroine and makes the mistake of breaking up with her. She then uses her superpowers to make his life miserable.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend is not exactly the worst movie that I’ve ever seen, but it has been done better in other movies.
Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) is riding the subway with his friend Vaughn (Rainn Wilson) when they spy a mousy girl. On the encouragement of Vaughn, Matt goes up to ask her out…and is rebuffed. Matt feels the fool, but as the train stops at the station a thug snatches the girl’s purse and Matt gives chase to retrieve it. He’s about as good at confronting the thief as he was in getting a date with the girl. He’s hiding in a dumpster and about to jump out with a hairdryer, the only weapon he could find in the garbage. When he does the thief is gone and the mousy girl is standing in the alley.
Never break up with a girlfriend who can toss a shark into your apartment
Matt’s a bit shocked that she’s standing there, but he gives her back her purse, and she agrees to go out on a date with her. As they walk away we see the thief hanging from the fire escape. What Matt doesn’t know it that Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman in “Clark Kent” mousy makeup) is really G-Girl (looking more like the Uma we know), the superhero protector of New York. They start dating and everything seems to be going okay until Matt’s coworker Hannah (Anna Faris) starts the somewhat dysfunctional Jenny to have feelings of immense jealousy.
Matt decides, on the advice of the doofus Vaughn, to break up with Jenny. Bad move dude, since her alter ego G-Girl will use her superpowers to make sure that you regret that move. Meanwhile, G-Girl’s arch nemesis Professor Bedlam (Eddie Izzard) approaches Matt to help him bring down G-Girl.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend is not exactly the worst movie that I’ve ever seen, but it has been done better in other movies. I’m really thinking of the Incredibles when I say that. Though the Incredibles dealt more with family life than dating singles, it still showed what it was like for superheroes to try and live a “normal” life.
What I did find interesting about My Super Ex is that is it shows that Jenny’s super-heroics have made her somewhat schizophrenic. She can’t really date or have any sort of relationship since her alter ego, G-Girl, always has to fly away and save the day. Therefore, it’s made Jenny quite a screwed up chick. I thought that Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson were okay in their roles.
The movie isn’t exactly hilarious and I expected it to be funnier since it was directed by Ivan Reitman. The role that I felt was underdone (as a character, not an actor) was Professor Bedlam. He’s supposed to be a super villain but the only villainy we see is that he has two thugs and has electronic equipment around his house.
Yawn, very scary. I suppose that his character had to be that way, what with the plot twists that occur with him. Still, as a super villain he really doesn’t have any menace. There is one funny set piece where G-Girl throws a great white shark into an apartment and it chases after Matt that I thought was amusing. Moral of the story – never break up with a girl that has superpowers. The movie presents a funny concept, but I still couldn’t help that it could’ve been funnier and Professor Bedlam’s character broadened.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend is presented on a flipper disc. One side has a fullscreen version and the other has an anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) that is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.
The special features are also divvied up by side as well. The widescreen side has five deleted scenes and a music video of “No Sleep 2 Nite” by Molly McQueen. The fullscreen side has an “extended shark sequence” and the theatrical trailer.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend wasn’t too bad, but I still felt that other movies dealt better with superheroes “real world” problems. It’s also probably not Ivan Reitman’s funniest movie, but it is not as horrible as some reviews made it out to be.
Professor Bedlam isn't given much villainy to do
It amused me more than it gave me belly laughs, but I still enjoyed it. I’d suggest a rental for those interested.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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