Supervized (Ireland/U.K., 2019)
July 21, 2019
Let me admit to loving the premise behind Supervized.
The problem is that a movie needs more than a great premise – it needs to grow
and nurture that idea, and that’s where Supervized falls short. To an
extent and for a while, the film gets by primarily on the strength of its tepid
and uneven humor. However, when it’s forced to draw on comic book tropes, it
loses steam. There’s not a scintilla of originality in the superhero aspects of
the movie and the humdrum and predicable resolution feels unworthy of the
aforementioned premise.
Supervized is sort of The Expendables for the
MCU or the DCEU. It postulates an endgame for superheroes who grow too old to
keep leaping tall buildings (or knocking them down) and defeating the baddest
of bad guys. What Logan did in an intelligent, serious manner, Supervized
does with its tongue planted in its cheek. Dunmanor, located in Ireland, is the
superhero retirement home. Under the care of the attractive, no-nonsense functionary-in-charge,
Alicia (Fiona Glascott), the facility seeks to transition the world’s saviors
into their post-crime fighting life. Living there are Ray (Tom Berenger), who once
went by the name of “Maximum Justice”; his former sidekick, Ted (Beau Bridges);
Pendle (a.k.a. “Total Thunder”) (Louis Gossett Jr.); and ex-love interest
Madera Moonlight (Fionnula Flanagan).
Supervized might have been on solid ground if it had
been content to remain low-key and take a semi-serious/semi-comedic look at nursing
home life for past-their-prime icons. There’s a lot of untapped material in
that vein – we get a flavor of it when the residents don their old costumes for
an appearance and are upstaged by the current Hero of the Moment, Celestro (Hiran
Abeysekera) – but Supervized feels the need to throw in a lot of mediocre
action sequences and a cheesy villainous storyline. Satirical as this material
may be, it also seems suspiciously like filler. It tries the patience more
effectively than tickling the funny bone.
Director Steve Barron, the music video maestro whom some may remember as the man responsible for subjecting the public to the first live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feature, aims in Supersized to poke fun at the current wave of superhero popularity by plucking low-hanging fruit. The cast is solid, with Tom Berenger and Louis Gossett Jr. in particular doing good jobs of portraying men who don’t understand where their glory days have gone (cue the Bruce Springsteen song), but a lot of the sophomoric humor feels too easy and obvious. There are no real characters here, just quickly sketched stick figures in too-tight costumes that deliver a few solid laughs but not much more. The sense of a missed opportunity is palpable, a chance to one-up Bubba Ho-Tep that never quite comes off. The movie might have worked better if the action/comedy field wasn’t so oversaturated at the moment (especially when it comes to comic book-inspired entries). To stand out amidst so much mediocrity, a production needs something to elevate it, and Supervized doesn’t have any such quality.
Supervized (Ireland/U.K., 2019)
Cast: Tom Berenger, Ned Dennehy, Fionnula Flanagan, Louis Gossett Jr., Cliver Russell, Beau Bridges, Fiona Glascott, Elya Baskin
Screenplay: Andy Briggs, John Niven
Cinematography: Sam Renton
Music: Ed Harcourt
U.S. Distributor: Freestyle Releasing
U.S. Release Date: 2019-07-19
MPAA Rating: "R" (Violence, Profanity, Sexual Content, Brief Nudity)
Genre: Action/Comedy
Subtitles: none
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
- Sliver (1993)
- Eddie and the Cruisers (1983)
- (There are no more worst movies of Tom Berenger)
- (There are no more better movies of Ned Dennehy)
- (There are no more worst movies of Ned Dennehy)
- Transamerica (2006)
- Invention of Lying, The (2009)
- (There are no more worst movies of Fionnula Flanagan)
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