My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Though the recent TV spots for this film have tried to capitalise on Superman Returns’ current run in cinemas, My Super Ex-Girlfriend really doesn’t need to resort to such lows. Clearly not on par with the Man of Steel’s big budget affair, this other superhero flick is a surprisingly funny one that hits all the right spots in a timely fashion. Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) is a loser, more or less, who can’t seem to score a date until he meets Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman) on the subway. Though not interested until he saves her purse (in pathetic fashion) from a crook, the couple begin a relationship that never really finds its legs. Oh, did I mention that Jenny has superpowers and moonlights as superhero G-Girl? Well, their relationship suffers because of Jenny’s uncontrollable neediness and jealousy towards Matt’s co-worker Hannah (Anna Faris) and he ends things, which is where the film really begins. G-Girl vows revenge on Matt and makes his life into a living hell by utilising those superpowers of hers (which includes throwing a Great White shark at him through a window!). Matt does find solace, though, in Bedlam (the fabulous Eddie Izzard), an evil professor who grew up with G-Girl and is looking to put a kibosh on her "superdom,” and the pair set up a plan to rid their joint problem once and for all. My Super Ex works so well because it knows not to take itself seriously. Like Ghostbusters, Reitman has packed this film with loads of absurdity (Rainn Wilson’s sideman, for instance, exists solely to provide a non-stop barrage of insensitive sexual cracks) while exploring a number of fascinating and creative scenarios that give answers (i.e. showing what sex would be like flying through the sky) and raise questions (which is more important: an off-course missile threatening millions of lives or losing your boyfriend to another woman?) that every viewer will — on some level — find amusing. It’s likely not going to become the next big franchise move, but with the awesome Uma Thurman around to save the day, it certainly has the potential to take off. (Fox)