Supercon

There's a good premise here, a forgotten child star seeking revenge on his terrible co-star. The faux retro shows they have come up with are pretty cool. Unfortunately, the plot is just bizarre and messy, the characters without heart, and the villain unbelievably vile and one-dimensional.

The jokes are repetitious and almost compulsively bad taste. Most of them are awkward like a Ross Geller joke without laugh track because the editing doesn't support them either. Nor the sound design: Sometimes instrumental music drowns conversations that could be snappy and funny.

The film seems to take a stand against greedy people exploiting nerds, but at the same time it seems to spite nerd culture. It never misses an opportunity to tell you how sweaty nerds are and that furries and hentai are weird.

The cultural references seem forced. Like, we don't need to be told that a man hanging from the ceiling in a harness is a reference to Mission Impossible. And no "Game of Thrones" fan would say "you Game of Thrones Mountain wannabe".

This film at least demonstrates the importance of script and post-production, because there are enought talent here to make a better movie.

God - or producers with an IQ over 90 - preserve us from writer/directors!

This has good potential, particularly for anyone who likes comics and the comic con world. Galaxy Quest, anyone? But in spite of several good ideas, it just doesn't pull it off.

Yes, you have to blame the script and the director. What a surprise, they're the same person!

It does have a couple of saving graces, however. Maggie Grace is brilliant, as is Brandon Morales.

And, for me, John Malkovich can do no wrong. Yes, not even here. Makes you wonder how they managed to get him on board, but he is known for doing quirky movies.

So watch it for the stars, not the script or dialogue or, well, anything else,really...

This is a strange mess of a movie. It mocks comic-con culture, yet it's so deep into it that I don't even understand half the references. It's full of good actors, but their roles are disappointing and the editing is appalling. The entire movie grinds to a halt for excessively long scenes that don't have any relevance to the plot. Of all the mistakes made in this film, the editing is probably the worst.

'SUPERCON': Three Stars (Out of Five)

A comic book convention caper comedy, about a team of small-time celebrities who decide to rob the convention they worked at. It stars Ryan Kwanten, Maggie Grace, Russell Peters, Clancy Brown, Mike Epps and John Malkovich. It was directed by Zak Knutson, and written by Knutson, Andrew Sipes and Dana Snyder. The movie has gotten mostly negative reviews from critics, and fans, but I found it to be mildly amusing.

Adam King (Brown) is a former TV icon who still makes a lot of money touring comic book conventions, with the help of a corrupt promoter named Gil Bartell (Epps). A group of comic book artists, and other smaller TV stars, get into a fight with King one day, and they're all fired because of it. Matt Wheeler (Kwanten) comes up with a plan to rob Bartell and King, by stealing the money they make from the convention. The team of misfits recruit another former TV icon, Sid Newberry (Malkovich), to help them.

The film has some colorful visuals, and a nice cast. I really liked seeing Kwanten and Grace together, after just seeing the duo in 'THE HURRICANE HEIST' earlier this year, and they're both good in both films. Of course the veterans are the scene stealers (Brown, Malkovich and Epps), and the movie definitely has a few good laughs. For me it was worth watching at least, and I think it's a heck of a lot better than it's IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings! It's of course nothing great or special though.

Yeah, it was pretty bad. Casual racism. Toilet humour. And boring in parts too, which must be the cardinal sin in a caper comedy. As other reviewers have noted, it was a pretty good idea for a film, just poorly executed.

I'm confused by the Ryan Kwanten character: His lanyard said "Artist" but I didn't see him speaking to any fans or doing anything else an artist might do at a convention.

Hopefully this ends a few careers... not Maggie Grace though.