PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com
Let's face it – films based on sketches from Saturday Night Live have a really bad rap. People have major problems with the concept of a once-funny skit that's been driven into the ground for three or four years being stretched into a 90-minute movie. And who could blame them? But if you look closer at the list of skits-turned-films that SNL bigwig Lorne Michaels has produced, you will see a surprising track record.
Of the four previous attempts, only the most recent (A Night at the Roxbury) has failed critically and commercially. Roxbury wasn't even a funny sketch to begin with, so it was doomed from the get-go. Lorne's other endeavors were much more successful, including both Wayne's World films, The Coneheads and the teaming of Chris Farley and David Spade in the hysterical Tommy Boy (which wasn't really ever a skit…and I'm not going to mention Black Sheep). But because most of the mega-stars that matured on SNL were featured in original films (read: not tired skits), those featuring current cast members are tossed off quicker than Sharon Stone's panties at a Hollywood Foreign Press party.
That said, Superstar is not at all a good movie. Doesn't that contradict everything I just said? Well, yes and no. It is still a slight concept stretched way too thin, but the refreshing part of the film is that it doesn't repeatedly hammer home the protagonist's snappy catch phrase – `Sometimes, when I get nervous, I put my hands under my arms and then I smell them like this.'
Based on the character she created on SNL, Molly Shannon (Never Been Kissed) brings the soft-spoken, apologetic, TV-movie-loving Mary Katherine Gallagher to the big screen. Here, like the television sketch, M.K. is a bit of an outcast at St. Monica's High, craves popularity and dreams of becoming a superstar. Additionally, viewers will learn that M.K. was born and raised in the small town of Bessame Heights in the ugliest house with the ugliest yard and the ugliest dog. She is in love with Sky Corrigan (Will Ferrell, Dick), the captain of the football team, and ends up in the special ed. class when a nun catches M.K. smooching a tree that she pretends is Sky.
M.K.'s home life isn't much better. Originally told that her parents were torn apart by hammerhead sharks, she later learns that they were victims of a grisly step-dancing competition accident. Raised by her crippled grandmother (Glynis Johns, Lady Penelope Peasoup from the ‘60s Batman serial), M.K. gets a very unprestigious after-school job at Kip's Video as the rewind girl. She fails at attempts to join both the cheerleading squad and the gymnastics team, but sees a potential for her big break when St. Monica's announces that they will conduct a `Let's Fight Venereal Disease' talent competition. The winner will receive an all-expenses paid trip to Hollywood and a part in a movie with `positive moral values.'
The film proceeds predictably to the big, dull finale, where M.K. is pit against her arch-rival Evian (Elaine Hendrix, The Parent Trap), who also happens to be both a popular cheerleader and Sky's current squeeze. There isn't much imagination in the script (Steve Koren, Roxbury) or the direction (Bruce McCulloch, Dog Park), except a spiffy Armageddon dream sequence spoof. I think Superstar's opening credits – featuring an overhead drop shot into a pool of synchronized swimmers - probably cost more than the entire production of Dog Park. And I got really tired of continually seeing M.K.'s white cotton panties. Superstar co-stars MTV shocker Tom Green, Harland Williams (Rocket Man) and Mark McKinney (S.N.L.).
1:25 - PG-13 for sex-related humor and language
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