Masterful Movie

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Disappointment for a huge fan!

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Between Hollywood Shuffle and his HBO specials, Robert Townsend was a major force in comedy in the 1980's and 90's. This early attempt at showing what an African-American superhero would be like is sorely overlooked.Jefferson Reed (Townsend, who also directed, produced and wrote the film) is a high school teacher who dreams of playing jazz, stuck in a neighborhood ruled by the Golden Lords gang and drug lord Anthony Byers (Frank Gorshin, the Ridder from the 60's Batman TV show). After he stops them from raping a girl, the gang, led by Simon Caine, chases him into a dumpster. That dumpster is then hit by a meteor. Days later, he awakes in a hospital where his major injuries have already healed.The meteor also gives him powers, like x-ray vision, flight, improved strength and hearing, super speed, invulnerability, telekinesis, dog communication and the power to absorb the knowledge of books. His power set totally seems like someone rolled him up at random in the old Marvel Super-Heroes TSR role-playing game.With the help of his parents (Benson's Robert Guillaume and The Jeffersons' Marla Gibbs) and neighbor (James Earl Jones in a hilarious, wigtastic performance), Meteor Man stops 11 robberies, destroys 15 crack houses and brings the Crips (Cypress Hill!) and the Bloods (Naughty by Nature!) together. He even plants a garden in the middle of the food desert that his neighborhood has become.The Golden Lords learn who Meteor Man is, as well as the fact that his powers are fading. The community even wants him to leave to keep the gang from attacking them, but he takes the fight to the gang, despite the fact that he has no powers. He's saved by Marvin (Bill Cosby), a homeless man who has also found part of the meteor.Meteor Man finally defeats the gang, but not before his dog is fatally hurt. Marvin comes and uses the last of his powers to save the dog. Then, a gang of hitmen all attack the community - led by Luthor Vandross, no less - before Cypress Hill and Naughty by Nature come back to save everyone. Sometimes guns really do solve everything!The film is packed with stars, like Eddie Griffith as one of our hero's friends; Sinbad; Another Bad Creation as the Junior Lords; Big Daddy Kane; Don Cheadle; Tiny Lister (Zeus from No Holds Barred and Deebo from Friday); Biz Markie and Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride).Meteor Man even got a six-issue series from Marvel where he'd meet Spider-Man and Night Thrasher (who at the time was one of Marvel's most prominent African-American heroes). The comic used the original ending of the film, where Jeff discovers a larger part of the meteor in Arizona, as a plot point.I wouldn't say this is a great film, but it's entertaining and the runtime flies by. Numerous re-writes led to a script filled with plotholes and subplots that go nowhere, like Jeff being in love with his ex-girlfriend Stacy, as well as his numerous phobias. But don't let that stop you from enjoying this slice of pop culture from the early part of the 90's.

For a movie that's a Superman-wannabe in the ghetto, I wasn't expecting to enjoy it very much. This film is surprisingly entertaining. While the characters don't seem worth caring about, the story certainly is. This guy being a (substitute)teacher, it would have been nice to see how his students reacted to him as a superhero. My only quibble about the movie is that the final sequence goes on a bit too long. Halfway through this fight sequence, I felt the movie made its point. Bill Cosby appears in a non- speaking cameo role, which isn't anything special, because the character isn't even explained. This role certainly won't be one of his career highlights. *** out of ****

Ok this was rather made for kids, rather than some 25-year-old who are looking for B-movie fun. Reading some stuff in here I decided to give it a try. About the jokes: some worked and some didn't with me - I guess the movie along with its funny special FX is OK.I suggest some (or more!) beer along with this, unless of course you're under 18 and alcohol consumption is prohibited for your age in your country. WARNING! This is not extreme fun, rather stupid but it has its moments.

Like so many underated films, I stumbled across this one on television and was most surprised at how much I enjoyed it. The concept of a black superhero is obviously intriguing but what made this one stand out for me was it's strong heart of community justice and pride.Unlike so many SuperHero films, the theme here was for the community to stop relying on someone else to solve their problems and to stop turning a blind (and scared) eye to the violence and crime that surrounded them until it knocked on their own door.What was also so refreshing was that the film managed to convey this is a light comedy format, which was never preachy, over the top or too slap stick. Honours to the writer/director for such restraint not only in the telling of the drama but also in the refinement of the comedy which resisted over wrought juvenile comedy tactics like fart and sex jokes (a true breath of fresh air considering the bogmire of "naughty" comedy we have had to wade through this season.)The only critiscism is that the final confrontation is a little too overplayed, but the final few scenes help to let the audience overlook this with a realistic and enjoyable ending.Special mention for James Earl Jones in his rather off beat role as a "young" rap dude, which he plays with true humour and as the film progresses, beautiful pathos. This film is worth seeing. For social commentary or just for a laugh - it delivers.