Conference bookie::movies

295.0. "Meteor Man - A Family Movie - Rated PG" by ASDG::FOSTER (Like a Phoenix Rising) Sun Aug 15 1993 18:22

    
    Last night, I saw Meteor Man. I didn't know much about it except that
    it was a black super-hero movie done by Robert Townsend. (Black actor/
    director, with a lot less ego than Spike Lee.) And I didn't have very
    high expectations.
    
    It was...

    
     TERRIFIC!!!  ****� out of *****
    
    It was a warm, fuzzy, fun, delightful family movie. With an ABSOLUTELY
    star-studded cast. Townsend plays Jefferson Reeves, a school teacher
    from a working-class neighborhood in DC who gets struck by a meteor.
    His parents are played by Marla Gibbs (227 & The Jeffersons) and Robert
    Guillame (Benson). His neighbors include Bill Cosby and James Earl
    Jones. Frank Gorshin (remember the Riddler in Batman?) got the top
    villian role. And there are cameos by Beverly Johnson, Luther Vandross
    and the woman who played Sanford's nemesis in Sanford & Son.
    
    The plot is not totally predictable, even though the characters are
    somewhat caricatured. They do things that ARE predictable, but that's
    part of what makes the movie special, especially when we see them grow
    and develop.
    
    Some of Meteor Man's powers are unique, too. He's a cross between
    Superman & the Flash with some extras thrown in.
    
    Since the movie is rated PG, there's no sex, NO ONE gets killed and
    I heard no foul language. But I roared, I screamed with delight, I
    clutched my seat from the suspenseful moments, and I had a sappy grin
    on my face when I left.
    
    Please go see this if you like family movies. It's worth the price of
    admission.

    I saw this movie over the weekend and was slightly disappointed.
    I am a big Robert Townsend fan and was expecting more from this fable.
    Much of the story consisted of rehashed ideas Townsend scatters through
    all of his movies.  And the ending was so unoriginal, so ordinary,
    that it appeared to me Townsend couldn't think of a creative climax
    that he fell back on one of the oldest stereotypes of all times, last
    seen in movies like "Thunderheart" and "Quigley Down Under".
    
    The above is not to say that the movie wasn't entertaining - it was.
    I laughed loud and often.  The cast was uniformly good, especially
    Cosby who (I think) had a non-speaking role, but let his facial
    expressions do all his talking.  But I expected more from someone
    as talented as Townsend.
    
    7 out of 10
    
    NAZZ

    re: -.1
    
    A lot of the paid reviewers said the same thing.