As Scott pointed out in his review, you need not fear that this week's Superhero Movie is another brainchild of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, whose satanic perversions of the parody genre -- Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans -- have been terrorizing unsuspecting audiences every year since 2006. Superhero Movie was actually directed by Craig Mazin, a protégé of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker dream team responsible for Airplane! and The Naked Gun, and produced by David Zucker himself. But it, too, is plagued -- albeit to a much lesser degree -- by what's turning out to be the problem with the entire modern generation of spoofs going back to Scary Movie: relentless pop culture specificity.

The basest incarnations of this, of course, are the Friedberg-Seltzer monstrosities, which may be worthless as comedies but which could prove valuable to historians because they indicate precisely what dominated the American zeitgeist in the few months before their release. It's too generous to call these films' vulgar spasms "jokes," but to the extent that's what they are, they depend entirely on either audience members' awareness of US Weekly-type factoids such as Britney Spears' shaving her head or their recall of particular scenes and characters in recent box-office hits. That's not to say that these kinds of jokes can't be funny -- the problem with Friedberg and Seltzer, as others have pointed out, is that they think throwing something current on the screen ("Look, Paris Hilton!") constitutes humor. But they do limit comedies' universal appeal and staying power.

It ain't high art and it sure isn't "brilliant filmmaking," but the arrival of Craig Mazin's Superhero Movie is actually a (small) cause for (minimal) celebration. And here's why: Over the last few years, the word "spoof" has become synonymous with the phrase "wretched non-movie." One need only pick through titles like Date Movie, Epic Movie, The Comebacks and Meet the Spartans to see that the spoof movie is one good place to hide if you're very lazy. Just about every movie freak I know was skeptical of Superhero Movie because they've been burned too often by this sort of schtick -- but I'm pleased to note that Superhero Movie actually represents a (slight) upswing for the oft-maligned sub-genre. It's sure as hell no Airplane! -- but it sure as hell isn't Date Movie, either.

Written and directed by Scary Movie(s) scribe Craig Mazin (and produced by two of the guys responsible for not only Airplane!, but Top Secret!, Hot Shots, and The Naked Gun, too), Superhero Movie is a colorful mixture of the old-school spoof style (thank god for Leslie Nielsen) and the more current crotch- and fart-addicted sensibility. It's very broad, very silly, very episodic, and frequently very sloppy, but (and here's a big but) Superhero Movie succeeds over many of its cousins for one simple reason: It's pretty funny.

The Seuss-abration continued as Horton Hears a Who held onto number one for the second consecutive week. Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns took second, but held the highest per screen average of the top five films ($10,011). The caveman spectacle 10,000 B.C. took fifth, clinging to the top five for the third week in a row. Here are the totals:

1. Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who: $24.5 million
2. Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns: $20 million
3. Shutter: $10.4 million
4. Drillbit Taylor: $10.3 million
5. 10,000 B.C.: $8.9 million

Four new flicks going into wide release, with the movies being divided equally between comedy and drama.

21
What's It All About: A young man in dire need of money to pay for his education at M.I.T. takes part in a well-organized card counting ring with a fool-proof method for winning at blackjack. Based on a true story.
Why It Might Do Well: The combined cool factor of having Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne in the same movie may make some people curious.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Rottentomatoes.com is giving this one a lackluster 54%, and personally watching people play cards bores me to tears.
Number of Theaters: 2,500
Prediction: $17 million

Who's really behind the campaign to boycott all Weinstein Co. films until the original cut of Fanboys is shown in theaters? And are they the same group of people everyone thinks is behind this whole thing? I'll leave it at that. As you've probably already noticed, the whole Fanboys debacle heated up once again today when a press release announcing the Weinsteins plans to release both versions (cancer version, non-cancer version) of the film on DVD, while they "explore" theatrical options, hit the inbox of every movie blogger in the known universe.

This came on the heels of a potential boycott of the latest Weinstein Co. release, Superhero Movie, by a group of Star Wars fans who simply want to see one version -- the original version -- of their beloved Fanboys up on the big screen. Since the press release, the group has responded with plans to still go ahead and stage two large Superhero Movie protests this Friday in New York and Los Angeles. According to a Cinematical source close to the production, no one involved in the film (producers, director, etc ...) were made aware of these newest developments prior to the press release hitting the public. And apparently some folks are pissed.

They're pissed the film is being yanked around. They're pissed at the lack of progress. And they're pissed that the new director brought on (Steve Brill) knows jack about Star Wars. Seriously. Word has it the dude never even saw the original Star Wars when he was hired to re-shoot Fanboys. (But that's a rumor, it hasn't been confirmed and you didn't hear it from me ...)

Since today is St. Patrick's Day, and since it's practically a law to wear green on St. Patty's Day, we figured why not come up with a list of characters (most of which appear in movies, or have movies being made about them) who wear green and ask you which one is your favorite. This one was a fun list to create -- truth be told, I went back and forth with Monika over IM for about a half hour tossing out a number of characters. To coincide with the recently-released trailer, the first character we have to name is The Incredible Hulk. He's big, he's nasty, he kicks a whole lot of ass ... and he's green! Other green monsters? How about Frankenstein and Mrs. Frankenstein. Back to green comic book characters, we also have Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Green Goblin and Poison Ivy. Additionally, the upcoming spoof flick Superhero Movie also features a lead character called Dragonfly who -- you guessed it -- wears green. (I'm sure I'm forgetting some random green-wearing comic book characters, so feel free to chime in down below.)

Moving away from the comics, we have my favorite green character -- Kermit the Frog. He's perhaps the nicest green character there is; I mean, even when Kermit gets mad, he still sounds funny ... kinda like Jerry Seinfeld (who I've never seen wear anything green). My second favorite? C'mon ... Yoda! Moving across the spectrum, villains can also wear green -- like Leprechaun (horror version), the Wicked Witch of the West or that darn Grinch who stole Christmas. And finally, how can I leave out the lovable green Ogre ... Shrek! Green is a popular color, eh?

Since there's way too many characters for an official poll, feel free to tell us who your favorite green folks are in the comments below ... and definitely let me know who we forgot. Happy St. Patty's Day!

When they work they can be awesome (X-Men or Sin City anyone?), but when things dont go so well (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comes to mind) comic fans everywhere will hang their heads in shame. Today's trailers aren't necessarily for comic book movies, but there's a connection for each one of them. Let's have a look, shall we?

Coraline
The idea of Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas joining forces with fantasy novelist and comic book scribe Neil Gaiman strikes me as a whole lot of awesome. Gaiman has written some great comics in his day. I would say that his Sandman series for DC is one of the best ongoing series in the history of American comics. I haven't read the novel Coraline, but I have no reason to believe it's not up to his usual standards. Unfortunately this teaser trailer does nothing to reinforce my expectations. The movie is shot in stop-motion animation, will be presented in 3-D and is based on a Gaiman novel, and that's all you can really tell. To be honest, though, I don't need to be told anymore to know this is something I won't want to miss.

Star Wars: Clone Wars
Star Wars didn't start out as a comic book, but the first several issues of Marvel's adaptation of the original film were on the stands before I had a chance to catch the flick back in 1977, so I've always thought of it as kind of a comic book film. This trailer is for an all CGI theatrical feature releasing on August 15 which will serve as a lead in to a TV series that will launch in the fall on Cartoon Network and TNT. This maneuver reminds me of the decision to theatrically release the pilot episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. I still can't believe I paid to see that. The sensory overload of Revenge of the Sith has soured me on the idea of returning to George Lucas's galaxy far far away, but I have two nephews who will go ape over this, so I suspect younger Star Wars fans will flock to this.

NOTE: You can find the new trailer right here.

It's been a while since I've seen a good spoof. I don't think that I've even bothered watching one since Scary Movie. So of course, a Leslie Nielson movie that doesn't have him playing President Harris makes me curious -- especially when he's playing Uncle Ben. A trailer for Superhero Movie (previously called Superhero!) has popped up online, and you can see it right here.

As you can tell from the trailer, it looks like this flick should be called "Dragonfly-Man." It's basically a trailer full of Spider-Man spoofs, although IMDb doesn't list Spidey among the spoofs, but does list Batman Begins and Fantastic Four. That's my only real complaint about the trailer, which makes it look like it just took the Spider-Man script and spoofed it scene by scene. Still, I loved the spastic rush to change into the superhero outfit, because you just know that it isn't as easy as Spider-Man or Superman make it seem.

The comedy opens March 28, and also features Sara Paxton, Drake Bell, Christopher McDonald, Brent Spiner, Jeffrey Tambor, and Marion Ross.