My Super Ex-Girlfriend

My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ivan Reitman
Produced by	Arnon Milchan Gavin Polone
Written by	Don Payne
Starring	Uma Thurman Luke Wilson Anna Faris Eddie Izzard Rainn Wilson and Wanda Sykes
Music by	Teddy Castellucci
Cinematography	Don Burgess
Editing by	Wendy Greene Bricmont Sheldon Kahn
Studio	Regency Enterprises
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	July 21, 2006 (2006-07-21)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$30,000,000
Box office	$60,984,606

My Super Ex-Girlfriend is a 2006 American romantic comedy superhero film, directed by Ivan Reitman and stars Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson with Anna Faris, Eddie Izzard, Rainn Wilson, and Wanda Sykes.

Plot

After foiling a purse snatcher who tries to steal her purse, Matt (Luke Wilson) starts dating shy stranger Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman), whom he meets on the subway, thereby becoming Jenny's "hero". After several dates, Jenny displays increasingly neurotic and aggressive behavior, becoming more demanding and ultimately injuring Matt and destroying his bed the first time they have sex. Soon after, Jenny reveals to him that she is in fact the voluptuous blonde superheroine, G-Girl, who accidentally absorbed powers such as flight, superhuman strength and speed, invulnerability, super breath, heat vision, and super senses after she was exposed to radiation from a crashed meteorite as a teenager. Jenny starts to become more controlling after she reveals her powers and Matt starts to lose his mind.

Hannah (Anna Faris), Matt's co-worker, has a secret crush on him. As Matt and Hannah's friendship develops further, and after becoming aggravated with Jenny's escalating jealousy, Matt ends the relationship. An angered Jenny vows to make Matt regret the decision, using her superpowers to publicly embarrass him, throwing his car into space and eventually causing him to lose his job when she strips him naked during an important meeting. Professor Bedlam (Eddie Izzard), Jenny's former boyfriend, and now G-Girl's arch-nemesis, contacts Matt in order to enlist his aid in defeating her. Matt refuses and makes plans to leave the city. As he does so he is contacted by Hannah, and after confessing their feelings to one another, they end up in bed.

Jenny (as G-Girl) discovers them in bed the next day. Enraged and jealous, she attacks the pair with a great white shark. Angered, Matt contacts Professor Bedlam and agrees to help him defeat her, as long as Bedlam retires from being a supervillain. He instructs Matt to lure Jenny to a meeting where she can be exposed to another meteorite that will draw away her powers, leaving her a mere mortal. Matt agrees and meets Jenny for a candlelit dinner at his apartment, under the pretense of wanting to resume their relationship. Hannah arrives to see Jenny sitting on Matt's lap. The two women fight, and in the struggle Jenny's superhero identity is revealed to Hannah. Bedlam's trap is sprung, and the energy that gave Jenny her powers is drained back into the meteorite, incapacitating Jenny.

Professor Bedlam appears, but reveals that he has no intention of keeping his promise to retire from villainy and in fact plans to take the powers for himself. While he and Matt fight, Jenny crawls to the charged meteorite attempting to regain her powers; Hannah intervenes just as Jenny grabs the meteorite, which explodes in a burst of power. Both Hannah and Jenny are catapulted off the roof, apparently to their deaths; Jenny appears within seconds, powers restored, threatening even more mayhem. Only the unexpected reappearance of Hannah, who was also exposed to the meteorite's energies, and now possessing the same powers as G-Girl, saves Matt. The second fight between Hannah and Jenny is a full-on super-brawl, destroying part of the neighboring properties. Finally, Matt reasons with them both and they cease fighting. He tells Jenny that Professor Bedlam is her true love; Jenny agrees and she embraces her former nemesis.

The next morning, Matt and Hannah meet up with Professor Bedlam (now just "Barry") and Jenny. As cries for help are heard from afar, Jenny and Hannah, who have become partners in crime-fighting, take off to tackle the emergency; Matt and Barry are left holding their girlfriends' purses, and leave to have a beer together.

Cast

• Uma Thurman as Jenny Johnson / G-Girl
• Luke Wilson as Matthew "Matt" Saunders
• Anna Faris as Hannah Lewis
• Eddie Izzard as Barry Edward Lambert / Professor Bedlam
• Rainn Wilson as Vaughn Haige
• Wanda Sykes as Carla Dunkirk
• Stelio Savante as Leo
• Mike Iorio as Lenny
• Mark Consuelos as Steve
• Tara L. Thompson as Young Jenny Johnson
• Kevin Townley as Young Barry Lambert
• Tom Henry as the guy in the red cast
• Margaret Anne Florence as the bartender

Production

Writer Don Payne conceived of the idea of his first film while working on The Simpsons television series, saying that as a fan of comics, the idea of a romantic comedy with a superhero twist was "a fitting first feature". The spec script (at that time called Super Ex) attracted the attention of production company Regency Enterprises and director Ivan Reitman, and the film was fast-tracked for production. Filming took place over four weeks in New York City and featured Westchester high school Port Chester High School for the main characters' high school scenes.^[1]

Release and reception

My Super Ex-Girlfriend debuted in the United States and Canada on July 21, 2006 in 2,702 theaters. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $8,603,460 and ranked #7 in the American and Canadian box office. The film proceeded to gross $22,530,295 in the United States and Canada and $38,454,511 in other territories for a worldwide gross of $60,984,606.^[2] On the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, My Super Ex-Girlfriend received a rating of 40% based on 126 reviews.^[3] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 50 out of 100, based on 28 reviews.^[4] Michael Medved gave My Super Ex-Girlfriend two and a half stars (out of four), saying that Thurman gave "...one of her best performances ever...".^[5]

DVD release

The film was released on DVD on December 19, 2006 with anamorphic widescreen and fullscreen presentations along with English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround tracks. Special features include deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes, and "No Sleep 2 Nite" music video by Molly McQueen.

Trivia

G-girl is a parody version of Superman/Supergirl and Professor Bedlam is a parody version of Lex Luthor.

References

1. ^ Scott Weinberg (2006-05-10). "Cinematical Interview with Super Ex-Girlfriend Scribe Don Payne". Cinematical. http://www.cinematical.com/2006/05/10/cinematical-interview-with-super-ex-girlfriend-scribe-don-payne/. Retrieved 2008-04-21. 
2. ^ "My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=superexgirlfriend.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-21. 
3. ^ "My Super Ex-Girlfriend". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_super_ex_girlfriend/. Retrieved 2007-09-21. 
4. ^ "My Super Ex-Girlfriend". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/mysuperexgirlfriend. Retrieved 2007-09-21. 
5. ^ [1]

External links

• My Super Ex-Girlfriend at the Internet Movie Database
• My Super Ex-Girlfriend at AllRovi
• My Super Ex-Girlfriend at Box Office Mojo
• My Super Ex-Girlfriend at Rotten Tomatoes