Tom Wilkinson dies from an allergic reaction to a bee sting and his fat lay-about son, Seth Rogen, inherits his father’s media empire. Enter Jay Chou, Wilkinson’s mechanic and coffee boy, who shows Rogen all the toys he made for his Dad. They become fast friends, Rogen tries to stop some local thugs, Chou shows him how it’s done; impressed, Rogen decides they should become superheroes. The twist is that Rogen gets the newspaper to spin the story so that his alter ego is seen, not as a hero, but as a villain; the reasoning is slightly rushed… but whatever. The scene is set for Chou, mechanic, kung fu expert, and coffee boy, to set about town, wiping out crime, with the self-aggrandising, but pretty lame, Rogen in tow.
The fight sequence between Rogen and Chou, as they face off against each other in a petty argument, is one of the high points of a film that is filled with fast paced action and some nice gags, though sometimes both gags and action lack a certain dynamism, we have, after all, been down this road many times before. The biggest let down, however, is the villain, played by Christoph Waltz, continuously told that no-one finds him scary as a running gag, he fails to exude the menace needed for the role and cannot really carry the comic aspect either. It might have been better to keep the far more charismatic James Franco in the film for longer, especially as he gets a fistful of the best laughs at the beginning by calling Waltz a disco Santa Claus. Cameron Diaz also features and has a fine turn as the obligatory love interest, and while her character is never really fleshed out, she never gets kidnapped, manages to disable both Rogen and Chou, and masterminds their whole plan. Not bad for a small female part in a superhero film. Likeable, fun, charming, needs a better villain, perhaps a few scenes need a trim, but otherwise thumbs aloft.
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