Super

Ellen Page, Rainn Wilson | PSEUDO-SUPERHERO Ellen Page and Rainn Wilson in Super
Photo: Steve Dietl

This trifle about a doofus who becomes a costumed superhero, even though he has no special powers, might have seemed funkier before Kick-Ass. Yet the movie (Super) is written and directed by James Gunn (Slither) with a certain whimsical black-comic flair. When Frank (Rainn Wilson) loses his wife (Liv Tyler) to a drug dealer (Kevin Bacon), he reacts by turning himself into the Crimson Bolt, a red-clad vigilante who defeats criminals — and other annoying people — by hitting them in the head with a wrench. It’s really a one-joke movie, but the joke is a good one: Frank’s ”crusade” is just a geek’s screw-loose revenge, which Wilson, digging into the character’s misery, makes oddly sympathetic. (Also available on cable via on demand) B

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