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SUPER (2011)Movie Reviews
Action comedy about a sad sack who dons a homemade superhero suit to avenge himself upon bad guys after his wife leaves him for a scuzzy drug dealer. Cast:Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Nathan FillionDirector:James GunnRelease Date:April 1, 2011DVD Release:August 9, 2011From:IFCLength:1 hr. 36 min.
Super (2011) played in key cities to mixed reviews. • Ty Burr wrote in the Boston Globe, "Smart, sick, and subversive... gives you what you want only to make you wonder why you want it." • Elvis Mitchell wrote for Movieline, "Everyone in the movie is a little too old to be behaving the way that they do..." • And Colin Covert wrote in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "I'll take gutsy, misjudged movies over bland product any day." More Reviews Below...
Super (2011) Positive Reviews (34 Reviews, reviews below)
Alynda Wheat, People: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Archly funny scenes are followed by twisted violence, visual effects come and go, and ideas get raised and dropped... fanboys may appreciate the wicked comic-book satire."(See all of Alynda Wheat's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 117 words, 03/31/11
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: VERY GOOD(cg) "...sweet and earnest, but also raunchy and fearless.... Ellen Page pretty much steals the show... it has such a low-budget charm, it's pretty hard to resist."(See all of Christy Lemire's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 570 words, 03/31/11
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a one-joke movie, but the joke is a good one... It's a geek's screw-loose revenge, which Wilson, digging into the character's misery, makes oddly sympathetic."(See all of Owen Gleiberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 124 words, 04/01/11
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (9 Reviews)
Stephen Holden, New York Times: WEAK "...subversively funny, tonally twisted film morphs from something playful with dark undercurrents into the opposite.... registers as a slap in the face."(See all of Stephen Holden's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 765 words, 04/01/11
Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: POOR "...repels with half-baked ideas, Wilson's and Page's scorched-earth overacting and atonal bursts of jokey gore. To this 'Kapow' and 'Bam' world, please add 'Bleccch.' "(See all of Robert Abele's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 215 words, 04/01/11
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "The notion of an ordinary citizen becoming a superhero, with or without superpowers, carries precious little creative currency at this point in time."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 349 words, 04/08/11
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: POOR(cg) "Like a twisted romp around the cliche of the underdog who turns personal frustration into a quest for truth, justice and the American way.... It's twisted all right."(See all of Michael O'Sullivan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 505 words, 04/01/11
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: MODERATE(cg) "...could be endearing, if Rainn Wilson's performance weren't so nihilistically dull, and if there were somebody in the picture who had a soul."(See all of Steven Rea's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 434 words, 04/15/11
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: MODERATE(cg) "A few good laughs pop up... But the graphic violence spatters along for an hour and a half until we reach that point when James Gunn ('Slither') says, 'That's all I've got'..."(See all of Roger Moore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 303 words, 04/02/11
Clint O'Connor, Cleveland Plain-Dealer: FAIR(cg) "...worth avoiding.... strains too hard to reach an absurd level of satire. It stumbles, instead, into something less than super and more akin to stupidly bad."(See all of Clint O'Connor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 422 words, 04/22/11
Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: MODERATE(cg) "...shows us a nebbish who becomes a costumed crime fighter without telling us anything interesting about nebbishes or crime fighters.... an unwieldy mix..."(See all of Walter Addiego's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 370 words, 04/01/11
John Hartl, Seattle Times: WEAK(cg) "A sense of style can make up for a lot at the movies.... 'Super' succeeds only in demonstrating that without it, you may not have much of anything."(See all of John Hartl's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 303 words, 04/15/11
Mike Russell, Portland Oregonian: VERY GOOD(cg) "...holds the superhero power fantasy under a nasty fluorescent bulb and finds it funny and sad and deluded and brave and scary all at once."(See all of Mike Russell's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 266 words, 04/15/11
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: VERY GOOD(cg) "The libido and bloodlust flowing from the pint-size Page is the funniest thing in the movie, but elsewhere, the mix of the goofy and ghastly is hard to digest."(See all of Joe Williams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 321 words, 04/15/11
Tom Long, Detroit News: FAIR(cg) "...offers Ellen Page her best role since 'Juno,' and she has a rip of a time with it. She almost makes the movie worth watching."(See all of Tom Long's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 314 words, 04/15/11
Katey Rich, Cinema Blend: MODERATE(cg) "James Gunn keeps 'Super' at a brisk and entertaining pace... [but] it never quite manages its constant shifts between extreme violence, physical comedy and pathos..."(See all of Katey Rich's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 710 words, 09/11/10
Brett Michel, Boston Phoenix: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...tailor-made-for-the-midnight-circuit... we get unrated doses of over-the-top violence -- and a massive inconsistency in tone."(See all of Brett Michel's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 146 words, 03/31/11
Scott Tobias, AV Club: VERY GOOD(cg) "...stands out from the pack for its brash, spiky, horrific real-world violence... exists in the no-man's land between indie quirk and raw exploitation... thrillingly off-balance."(See all of Scott Tobias's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 418 words, 03/31/11
Nick Schager, Slant: WEAK(cg) "...the bleak, crazy, postmodern superhero saga 'Kick-Ass' aspired to be, which doesn't prevent it from being sluggish, derivative, and beyond obvious."(See all of Nick Schager's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 698 words, 03/27/11
Stephen Holden, New York Times: WEAK "...subversively funny, tonally twisted film morphs from something playful with dark undercurrents into the opposite.... registers as a slap in the face."(See all of Stephen Holden's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 765 words, 04/01/11
Anthony Lane, New Yorker: FAIR "...the violence quickly brims with that hip, midnight-movie smugness which condemns anyone who shies away from it... Ellen Page makes the movie..."(See all of Anthony Lane's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 350 words, 03/28/11
Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: POOR "...repels with half-baked ideas, Wilson's and Page's scorched-earth overacting and atonal bursts of jokey gore. To this 'Kapow' and 'Bam' world, please add 'Bleccch.' "(See all of Robert Abele's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 215 words, 04/01/11
Nathan Heller, Slate: GOOD "...unfocused and bafflingly inconsistent. It is also the most genuinely surprising new release I've seen in a long time.... ends up an unflinching essay about human cruelty."(See all of Nathan Heller's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,075 words, 04/01/11
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon: FAIR "...shifts from farce to grotesque to melodrama to straight-to-video action flick... occasionally brilliant, sometimes awful and terribly confusing overall..."(See all of Andrew O'Hehir's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 966 words, 03/30/11
MOVIE INDUSTRY (4 Reviews)
Rob Nelson, Daily Variety: WEAK "Waiting for 'Super' to deliver the funny is an experience as long as the film itself.... wants to weld 'Kick-Ass' to 'Taxi Driver,' but James Gunn fires only blanks..."(See all of Rob Nelson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 637 words, 09/12/10
Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter: EXCELLENT "...a giddily over-the-top, super-entertaining goof... Rainn Wilson strikes the perfect pushed-to-the-brink tone... the film's true secret weapon is awesome Ellen Page..."(See all of Michael Rechtshaffen's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 412 words, 10/15/10
Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: POOR "...repels with half-baked ideas, Wilson's and Page's scorched-earth overacting and atonal bursts of jokey gore. To this 'Kapow' and 'Bam' world, please add 'Bleccch.' "(See all of Robert Abele's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 215 words, 04/01/11
Stephen Holden, New York Times: WEAK "...subversively funny, tonally twisted film morphs from something playful with dark undercurrents into the opposite.... registers as a slap in the face."(See all of Stephen Holden's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 765 words, 04/01/11
20.9 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Super (2011)'s reviews are separated by an average 20.9 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Super (2011) (34 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Super (2011)'s reviews cover 61.0% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 14,954 words involume (average is 20,172 words). Length:The film's reviews average 440 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Super (2011) Coverage, Volume & Length (34 Reviews, reviews below)
Reviews Broke 5 Days Before Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Super (2011)'s reviews on average broke 5 days before opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Super (2011)'s opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Super (2011) (34 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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