Super Capers: The Origins of Ed and the Missing Bullion

SUPER CAPERS is a bad film with a great idea: make a live-action superhero cartoon with nods to Looney Tunes and AIRPLANE! Unfortunately, the execution is a mixed bag that makes it hard to pin down exactly why it doesn't work.

The problem is that SUPER CAPERS is an antique: a high-concept live-action comedy for children. I mean ACTUAL children: from about 4 to 9 years old. They haven't made films like that since the 1990s, and even now, such films usually revolve around talking animals with a supporting human cast. For this reason, the film is full of jokes, homages, and gags that are straight-up rip-offs of other movies that can make it painful to watch if you're an adult who doesn't chuckle at the sight of a flux capacitor in an RV designed to look like the DeLorean.

This was the director's intention, but I didn't realize it until I heard him say so on the audio commentary. It's also the reason why the film is shot in an old-fashioned widescreen format that makes the sets look like sets, and the action fairly boring and uninteresting. The pacing is off, the editing isn't tight enough, and the acting is a tad under-rehearsed, although the cast is game and skilled enough to push through it.

All this makes for a lame movie with lots of slapstick humor that isn't as funny as it should be. But to be fair, since this film wasn't made for adults, it's kind of hard to be so critical of it. Once you take into account that it was made for kids who just wanna watch goofy stuff, it actually kinda works. The director is religious, so there's a little bit of a "message" in the film, but not to the point of proselytizing.

So the film is a rather bland and boringly unfunny film if you see it with adult eyes. But if you imagine yourself watching it as a kid in the late 80s, you can actually kind of enjoy it.

Well, I must admit that I was expecting this 2009 movie to be a bit more over in the actual comedy department, given its synopsis and the movie's cover. Sure, it was slightly in the comedy department, but not so much that the movie actually turned out to be what it could have been.

What's wrong with "Super Capers: The Origins of Ed and the Missing Bullion", aside from the title, was the storyline. Parts of the storyline were just too mundane and bland, feeling prolonged and didn't really serve much of any real purpose to the progression of the movie. And that made the movie feel unnecessary long and slow-paced.

And what was working in favor of "Super Capers: The Origins of Ed and the Missing Bullion" was the amazing display of references to an abundance of movies and TV series, such as "Back to the Future", "Star Wars", "Raider of the Lost Ark", "The A-Team", "Darkwing Duck", "Batman", "The Matrix", etc. I will actually say that sitting down to watch "Super Capers: The Origins of Ed and the Missing Bullion" just for these reference is actually worth it.

But it should also be said that the movie definitely have an impressive assembly of cast, which includes the likes of Michael Rooker, Justin Whalin, Danielle Harris, Doug Jones, Isaac C. Singleton Jr., Jon Polito, Christine Lakin, Tom Lister Jr., Clint Howard and none other than Adam West himself. If you have grown up watching movies and TV series, then you are in for quite a treat.

It was a shame that "Super Capers: The Origins of Ed and the Missing Bullion" actually didn't turn out to be what it potentially could have been, because what could have been a great comedy spoof and homage, ended up being a mere mediocre movie.

Sure, "Super Capers: The Origins of Ed and the Missing Bullion" is watchable, but it is hardly a memorable movie, nor is it a movie that have much of any solid enough contents to it to sustain more than a single viewing.

My rating of the 2009 movie "Super Capers: The Origins of Ed and the Missing Bullion" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

A movie virtually guaranteed to wind up in the DVD bargain bin in record-setting time, "Super Capers" is an indescribably awful attempt at superhero parody. It features a group of inept comic book figures, clad in ill-fitting get-ups, who bumble and stumble their way to victory against a passel of toothless bad guys.

The movie's idea of humor consists mainly of goofy sound effects and corny musical cues playing on the soundtrack, though I suspect that their sole function is to alert us as to when we should be laughing (there's really no other way for us to know, since, unlike a TV sitcom, it doesn't come equipped with its own laugh track).

Out of respect for any possible careers they may still have ahead of them, the actors shall remain nameless, though Adam West (TV's Batman) and June Lockhart stop by to show us just how far has-been actors can be forced to lower themselves when there simply aren't any decent roles left for them anymore.

At the end, the director of this fiasco, Ray Griggs, thanks the "directors who inspired" him during his childhood, namely George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis and Peter Jackson. Sounds like the makings of a good class-action lawsuit, if you ask me.

So I won't try to tell you that everybody is wrong and that this is a great movie. Watch the preview, and you'll see it's only a couple steps away from Power Rangers cheesiness.

However, a la crappy and corny kiddie stuff, kids do love it and there are a few funny asides and inside jokes for comic and movie fans throughout the script as well as with the casting. If you like Balls of Fury and the "Fill in the Blank...Movie" parodies (Epic Movie, Scary Movie, Superhero Movie, etc), you'll probably enjoy this one a little bit.

It's intentionally awful and corny, and obviously cheaply made, but it was worth the 4 bucks I paid for it to have a less serious superhero movie to serve as a bit of a gateway for my 3 little boys so that they can enjoy the better stuff with me when their attention spans grow a bit more! I gave this a 5 because it's tolerable and entertaining, even though it's pretty juvenile in its intentional silliness. Most of you will probably rather watch it after a few beers, but if you have kids that aren't ready for the Dark Knight and Watchmen yet, this is a decent kid-friendly compromise :)

When I first learnt about his film, I was intrigued. When I saw the trailer, I was more than interested. A funny superhero parody, with movie references and comic style drawings? This was going to be sweet. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

Basically, nothing works here - the jokes fall flat, the parody is barely present and the is replaced by unbearable campiness. All the funny moments can be seen in the trailer.

The actors did their job, cashed their pay-checks and went home immediately forgetting what movie they had just been in. The best one is b far Adam West and he's in it for about two minutes. That should tell you about the quality of acting.

Whatever the authors intentions were, they didn't succeed. For me the worst part were the constant movie references - after about 30 minutes they got incredibly annoying.

I can't recommend it to anyone. It's bad. Not in a good way, more in a "how long until the end credits?" way.