My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Ivan Reitman has directed many funny movies, including Stripes, both Ghostbusters, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, Junior and Dave and writer Don Payne comes out of the Simpsons camp (and also co-wrote this summer’s F4: Rise of the Silver Surfer) so the creative pedigree is certainly strong. Actors Luke Wilson, Eddie Izzard and even Anna Faris have made their share of decent comedies.

In which case you shouldn’t be surprised that My Super Ex-Girlfriend is pretty darn funny. Mashing up the superhero/supervillain conflict with a romantic comedy and today’s computer F/X returns a potent combination that Reitman, whose Ghostbusters flicks flirted with similar territory, and Payne deliver fully.

Matt Saunders (Wilson) has a history of falling for slightly crazy chicks and when he meets Jennifer (Uma Thurman), the Clark Kent front identity of superhero G-Girl, he gets crazy on a. Whole. ‘Nother. Level. Jennifer falls for him quick and hard after Matt chases a purse snatcher for several Manhattan blocks but this is her first crush since the day back in high school when she and her friend Barry were in the woods making out and a strange meteor crashed near their car. Touching the rock transformed Jennifer into a superpower (and a superhottie) via otherwise unexplained radiation, and she left Barry in the dirt. Not at all happy about that, Barry becomes her arch-nemesis Bedlam.

G-Girl reveals her true self to Matt but this lady has a case of jealousy that matches her powers and he breaks up with her. Bad move. But Matt really loves his co-worker Hannah (Faris) and while comforting her after she catches her model boyfriend in bed with two or three women he finally tells her. So they hook up, which superstalker G-Girl sees an, er, terminates by tossing a live shark into Faris’s bedroom, many floors up in a high-rise.

Bedlam uses this behavior to convince Matt the only answer is tricking Jennifer into touching the meteor again, which experiments show will return the radiation to it. Matt pretends a reconciliation and at dinner gets her to touch the rock. Bedlam, of course not so nice as he pretended, is about to kill them both when Faris turns up, a catfight ensues and the women both touch the meteor before Bedlam can (again).

This is really funny. Thurman is not really that good at broad humor but does very well as the straightman to Wilson and Faris. Also helping out is Rainn Wilson as Matt’s superhorny best friend, though his advice seems as often calculated for his amusement as actually helping Matt.

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