Written by Chris Johnson

Sometimes in life, you’ll have a crappy day. Maybe someone keys your car, maybe you get to work late, or maybe you get an accidental vasectomy after learning your wife died at Thanksgiving dinner. Regardless of what makes a bad day, there is one movie that can turn your day around. The Superhero Movie, written and directed by Craig Mazin, is a coming of age story about Rick Riker, a teenage boy who lives with his aunt and uncle, Lucille and Albert. As well, his best friend is Trey, who happens to be his confidante. Rick has a crush on Jill Johnson, who is dating the local bully, Lance Landers, nephew of Lou Landers, the local terminally ill businessman.

The story seems to be a spoof on mostly the X-MEN, Batman, and The Fantastic Four, with characters from the respective franchises coming into view. However, the movie plays out as if it were the first Spider-Man from 2002. There are many jokes throughout the movie, but crude humor dominates all. If you’re not a frequent patron of Dick’s Last Resort, you might feel a bit worn out early on. But with Leslie Nielsen in this film, there’s quite a bit of witty, highbrow humor mixed with the crass, lowbrow humor of this film.

I personally would consider this to be Drake Bell’s magnum opus. After years of success, he met one of the largest challenges to his career yet. There are some who say this was a waste of his talent; I would say quite the opposite. Even Disney and Marvel would come to agree with this. This movie portrays very strange foreshadowing, as in recent years, Drake Bell has played Spiderman in television series on the Disney channel.

Even if there is crudeness and what may be mistaken for as lazy writing, this story actually displays some symbolism that I have not seen since I watched the Watchmen movie. Throughout the film, there’s this message of fighting against fate, this message of trying to resist change and fight against the future, which is seen as utterly evil. Everything goes away eventually, and needs to make room for more things, and continue the circle of life. Those who attempt to live past their prime in the film and not accept the reality of the situation tend to show off negative characteristics as early as the character is seen, at least until the scene reverts back to bladder and puberty based jokes. And what makes this more interesting is that it isn’t some “you snooze you lose” type of fairy tale, that makes you want to sleep before it could ever get to the good part. No, this film gets your attention, and keeps you awake. It also teaches you how not to be, in contrast to said fairy tales.

So whenever you have had a bad day, don’t hunker down and stress eat, don’t kick yourself, and don’t lose faith in the world. Instead, watch the Superhero Movie, and sit back and laugh for a while. We don’t live forever.