Post by Fatal Rewind on May 4, 2021 16:57:08 GMT -5
There's an old saying in Hollywood that most people, in general, do not understand satire. I think that partially explains the failure of The Meteor Man, a very funny, moralistic (hopefully without beating you over the head with a few messages), empowering movie that ended up flopping upon release that should've done way better than it did (which wasn't at all). Even though known as one of the best-loved cult classics ever, The Princess Bride didn't do that well initially upon release, because, as Billy Crystal said, "people didn't know what to make of it" with it taking the fairy tale/adventure comedy genre totally on its ear. (For the record, me, my mom and my sister saw it at the dollar theatre and all loved it instantly.)
Robert Townsend plays a nice guy, mild-mannered teacher (Jeff) that lives in a poor, crime-riddled neighborhood. He and friends and family are just existing best as they can, until one day after band practice he finds his car was broken into. "They took my stereo and my bass", he laments.
Not long afterwards, for some reason (I suppose he was "chosen") he gets chased down by a glowing green meteor. This helps earn the movie’s PG rating due to a brief gnarly scene (along with some violence) where the meteor gets absorbed by Jeff, although it's not for long.
During his hospital stay, he finds this incident has given him super powers, more of which he discovers upon discharge. These include:
1. Super strength
2. Super speed
3. Heat-ray vision
4. X-ray vision
5. Ability to fly
6. Bullet immunity
7. Ability to communicate with dogs (really...)
8. Ability to touch a publication (newspaper, magazine) for one second and retain entire knowledge of it...for thirty seconds
9. Telekinesis
Of course, he uses his powers to help clean up the neighborhood from a gang. Complications ensue when they start tracking him down, endangering neighbors, friends and family.
Although nowhere near as clever as Princess Bride, this is a very funny movie, the characters being the main part behind it, such as Jeff's friend Michael, played by Eddie Griffin of Malcolm and Eddie fame (along tons of other roles throughout the years). "Who does their HAIR?" being one of his best lines, especially this one hysterical part during the climax with a fight with the lead bad guy (who also has meteor powers), which, if I recall correctly, a nearby truck full of books had been knocked over, so both Jeff and the lead bad guy grab a martial arts book and start kung fu-ing (if that's a word) each other...until it wears off. Jeff searches for the book but grabs the wrong one by accident, then tosses it to the bad guy. What happens next isn't exactly a fight, but it's hilarious, especially with Michael wrapping it up by saying "Thirty seconds, thank GOD!"
Other cast members include Sinbad and James Earl Jones, who somehow is able to rap for several seconds (yep, the voice of Darth Vader himself rapping?). I guess this would explain his mohawk-like hair cut. Don Cheadle also plays an early, I do believe rare bad guy role (I don't think he's done many of them but I could be wrong), and there's some lady who was the spokesperson for either Church's or Popeye's Chicken (I don't recall which) for a while (it might've been LaWanda Page) being her usual feisty, funny character as per usual, especially when she assaults a bad guy with her purse, which was hilarious.
Of course, there's the usual happy, predictable ending, and a few nonsense parts, such as how Jeff's little dog can drag him out of his bed and hide him when someone's rummaging through his apartment but he won't wake up. Due to the low budget the special effects aren't that great. Also like with Michael, there's one guy who steals pretty much every scene that he's in, a legendary comedian known for just his facial expressions alone, looking so very pleased with himself in using his telekinesis powers for himself, saying only one word during the whole movie, which was hysterical near the end.
So, what's so bad about this? Well, unfortunately that person was Bill Cosby, who turned out to be a monster all these decades later.
This movie possibly did a bit better years after release, since I saw a few years ago where it was on a black entertainment network here in the States (Bounce), then for a couple of weeks they showed it over and over again. I saw Townsend on The Tonight Show promoting this back in the day and when asked why he used his x-ray vision he only saw people in their underwear he said if they were naked "then it’d be x-rated!". (No, it’d be r-rated, but not the point.) That, and plus Jeff, even with super powers and he could fly, was so afraid of heights he never flew any higher than four feet off the ground Another thing that might've gone over peoples' heads.
Robert Townsend plays a nice guy, mild-mannered teacher (Jeff) that lives in a poor, crime-riddled neighborhood. He and friends and family are just existing best as they can, until one day after band practice he finds his car was broken into. "They took my stereo and my bass", he laments.
Not long afterwards, for some reason (I suppose he was "chosen") he gets chased down by a glowing green meteor. This helps earn the movie’s PG rating due to a brief gnarly scene (along with some violence) where the meteor gets absorbed by Jeff, although it's not for long.
During his hospital stay, he finds this incident has given him super powers, more of which he discovers upon discharge. These include:
1. Super strength
2. Super speed
3. Heat-ray vision
4. X-ray vision
5. Ability to fly
6. Bullet immunity
7. Ability to communicate with dogs (really...)
8. Ability to touch a publication (newspaper, magazine) for one second and retain entire knowledge of it...for thirty seconds
9. Telekinesis
Of course, he uses his powers to help clean up the neighborhood from a gang. Complications ensue when they start tracking him down, endangering neighbors, friends and family.
Although nowhere near as clever as Princess Bride, this is a very funny movie, the characters being the main part behind it, such as Jeff's friend Michael, played by Eddie Griffin of Malcolm and Eddie fame (along tons of other roles throughout the years). "Who does their HAIR?" being one of his best lines, especially this one hysterical part during the climax with a fight with the lead bad guy (who also has meteor powers), which, if I recall correctly, a nearby truck full of books had been knocked over, so both Jeff and the lead bad guy grab a martial arts book and start kung fu-ing (if that's a word) each other...until it wears off. Jeff searches for the book but grabs the wrong one by accident, then tosses it to the bad guy. What happens next isn't exactly a fight, but it's hilarious, especially with Michael wrapping it up by saying "Thirty seconds, thank GOD!"
Other cast members include Sinbad and James Earl Jones, who somehow is able to rap for several seconds (yep, the voice of Darth Vader himself rapping?). I guess this would explain his mohawk-like hair cut. Don Cheadle also plays an early, I do believe rare bad guy role (I don't think he's done many of them but I could be wrong), and there's some lady who was the spokesperson for either Church's or Popeye's Chicken (I don't recall which) for a while (it might've been LaWanda Page) being her usual feisty, funny character as per usual, especially when she assaults a bad guy with her purse, which was hilarious.
Of course, there's the usual happy, predictable ending, and a few nonsense parts, such as how Jeff's little dog can drag him out of his bed and hide him when someone's rummaging through his apartment but he won't wake up. Due to the low budget the special effects aren't that great. Also like with Michael, there's one guy who steals pretty much every scene that he's in, a legendary comedian known for just his facial expressions alone, looking so very pleased with himself in using his telekinesis powers for himself, saying only one word during the whole movie, which was hysterical near the end.
So, what's so bad about this? Well, unfortunately that person was Bill Cosby, who turned out to be a monster all these decades later.
This movie possibly did a bit better years after release, since I saw a few years ago where it was on a black entertainment network here in the States (Bounce), then for a couple of weeks they showed it over and over again. I saw Townsend on The Tonight Show promoting this back in the day and when asked why he used his x-ray vision he only saw people in their underwear he said if they were naked "then it’d be x-rated!". (No, it’d be r-rated, but not the point.) That, and plus Jeff, even with super powers and he could fly, was so afraid of heights he never flew any higher than four feet off the ground Another thing that might've gone over peoples' heads.
The current rating for this on the imdb is only 5.2, which I’d ignore. Another superhero spoof of My Super Ex-Girlfriend (starring Uma Thurman) rates at a 5.1, which it deserves, as it took me three sittings to get through that movie like half an hour at a time (although for some strange reason it really improved and got pretty funny during the last half hour!). This isn't a 5.2, it's a 7 in my opinion, and I'd like to have it on dvd some day but that's going to be pretty unlikely.
Can't win 'em all I guess.