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 • I'm sick of of "switcheroo" movie trailers in which the hilarious screwball comedy pretends to be a serious drama and then gets ya with a wacky twist (usually accompanied by the sound of a needle being pulled across a record). After so many years of that crap I can see them coming a mile away, and it's just really just insulting to the audience. That being said, the trailer for My Super Ex-Girlfriend totally caught me off guard. My thought process was, "Boring... romantic comedy... boring... love gone wrong... boring... boring... holy shit, did she just throw a shark at him?! Awesome!"
• I really wanted to really like My Super Ex-Girlfriend. As it turned out, I only sort of liked it. It had its moments, and it didn't suck, but sadly it was much stronger in concept than it was in execution.
• The basic story is that Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) has a brief relationship and inevitable breakup with Jenny Johnson, who is the secret identity of G-Girl, who is the super identity of Uma Thurman. Jenny doesn't take the breakup well, and hilarity ensues! Hypothetically. But there is a fundamental flaw at the core of the story that makes it all fall apart.
• Saunders is the sweetest, most lovable nerd since Brendan Fraser in Bedazzled. He is a genuinely nice, likable guy. Conversely Jenny is a balls-out psycho hellbeast. The movie is meant to pick up comedic steam once Saunders and Jenny break up and she starts tormenting him with her super powers. The problem is, by that time the audience's allegiance is on the wrong side of the relationship.
• Saunders behaved very amiably and reasonably through his entire relationship with a completely unstable, unlikable girlfriend. We love Saunders, and we feel bad when his crazy-ass super ex-girlfriend goes ballistic on him, his pets, and everything he loves. The jokes all fall flat because poor Saunders doesn't deserve any of the abuse he takes.
• In order for the gags to have worked, Saunders would have had to have been a dick who had a super revenge coming to him. If we really liked Jenny and saw some cockbag break her heart, then we'd find it really hilarious when she throws a shark at him. As it plays out, you sort of get a knot of dread in your stomach, like "Oh my God, she's insane and indestructible! How will he ever survive?!" It's sort of like Fatal Attraction meets The Terminator.
• On top of all of that, a lot of the gags and one-liners just weren't that funny. You could almost see the writer's pencil marks in the margins of the script saying, "Place holder joke: Punch this up later."
• My Super Ex-Girlfriend had a really great trailer. You should watch that instead.
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