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Movie Review - My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006)
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(What this rating means)
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| Director: |
Ivan Reitman |
| Starring: |
Uma Thurman, Luke Wilson, Rainn Wilson, Anna Faris, and Eddie Izzard |
| Rated: |
PG-13 (for sexual content, crude humor, language and brief nudity) |
| Length: |
95 minutes |
| Genre: |
Comedy / Fantasy / Romance |
| Tagline: |
He broke her heart. She broke his everything. |
| Studio: |
Regency (production), 20th Century Fox (distributor) |
| Website: |
My Super Ex-Girlfriend |
| Release: |
July 28, 2006 |
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PLOT
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Architect Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) meets Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman) on the subway and they begin a
relationship, with Jenny later revealing herself to be G-Girl, a Wonder Woman-type superhero. Realizing he’s
actually in love with his co-worker Hannah Lewis (Anna Faris), he breaks up with Jenny, with building and furniture
destroying results. I can’t say much more about the third act of the film without spoiling it, but seriously,
that’s it. That’s the entire plot. A movie Johnny hasn't seen yet ensues.
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GUYLIAN'S TAKE
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This is yet another one of those films that starts off with a fantastic idea, but fails to reach its full potential.
Imagine what would happen if your neurotic, needy and jealous ex-partner had the super powers of your average comic
book hero? Hilarity would no doubt ensue, in hundreds of different ways, and especially if your director was Ivan
Reitman. My Super Ex-Girlfriend uses but a few of them. I was hoping for a lot more - well, just more. More
plot, more character development, more stand-out scenes. The result instead is closer to an average film with a
couple of good hits and a lot of misfires.
Straight up are the numerous very adult-rated jokes which were jarringly out of place to the rest of the tone of
the film, and left me hoping that the eight-year-old girl sitting down front with her mother hadn’t understood
them. It was like the film had gotten a PG-13 rating and the filmmakers decided to spice it up a bit, but only by
using throwaway one-liners from Rainn Wilson (as Matt’s workmate Vaughn Haige). Very strange, and very off-putting.
Maybe they were trying to appeal to the American Pie crowd.
There are also a couple of examples of piscatorial cruelty - you’ve probably seen the bit in the trailer with the
shark - that I was very unamused by. Animal cruelty is no laughing matter folks, be it a soft-eyed labrador puppy
or a goldfish. It also made me question why Jenny would do such things when she was supposed to be a superhero. And
Matt‘s ‘solution’ to Jenny’s jealous rampage (at the instigation of G-Girl’s nemesis Professor Bedlam (Eddie
Izzard)) was also disconcerting, in a very scary-stalker-ex-husband way.
What I did like about the film was the world in which it took place – how everyone just accepted as normal that
they were living in a city with superheroes and villains. In films like the Batman and Spiderman series there’s
nothing ever shown of what the ordinary people think about living in such a bizarre-ish state, of the daily
possibility of being crushed to death by giant inflatable cartoon characters or flown to safety by their local
omnipotent being. It was refreshing to see the other side for once.
Uma Thurman has a wonderful handle on the characters of both Jenny Johnson and G-Girl, and is probably the best
thing in the film. Luke Wilson is Luke Wilson. Rainn Wilson is completely wasted, as is Eddie Izzard as Professor
Bedlam.
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ODDS & ENDS
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- Rainn Wilson and Luke Wilson aren’t actually related, which makes Rainn the Adam Baldwin of the Tinseltown
Wilsons.
- Guylian thinks Ricky Gervais (from The Office (the U.K. version)) would have made a much better
Professor Bedlam. Or alternatively, they could have just spent more than five minutes thinking up the character.
- Director Ivan Reitman previously directed Ghostbusters, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, and
Dave. Guylian really likes Dave, and is the only person she knows who can see any kind of merit in
Kindergarten Cop.
- Johnny can't help but sing No Doubt's Ex-Girlfriend when thinking about this movie.
- Uma Thurman was in Jennifer 8 with Andy Garcia who was in Ocean’s 11 with Scott Caan who was in
Into The Blue with Josh Brolin who was in Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon.
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MAMA'S APPROVAL
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This would be a great film for Mama – if it didn’t have the R-rated one-liners in it. As it is, I certainly would
not want to be sitting next to her while Rainn Wilson repeatedly describes various sex acts. Luke Wilson’s naked
butt appears in one scene (that makes TWO naked appearances in the same week for the Wilson derrieres, with Owen
showing his in You, Me and Dupree) and there are a couple of sex scenes where
everything happens off-screen.
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TRAILER COMPARISON
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The trailer’s pretty spot on for what you can expect, and shows the best bits from the film. But don’t get your
hopes up for more.
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THE GIST
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Apart from the few concerns I’ve already pointed out above, My Super Ex-Girlfriend is pretty light, fluffy
and mildly enjoyable. It’s a good date movie, and if you like the actors then it’s certainly worth a look. You may
want to leave it for a matinee or a rental though.
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