Super - Shut up, Crime! - Blu-Ray

Movie: Actually, Frank D`Arbo (Rainn Wilson) is just a simple cook in a fast food restaurant. But when his formerly drug-addicted wife Sarah (Liv Tyler) leaves him for criminal nightclub owner Jacques (Kevin Bacon), who puts her back on the needle, Frank goes crazy. Completely helpless in the face of Sarah's disappearance and tired of always being the loser, he slips into a superhero costume and henceforth wields a wrench to keep law and order as The Blood Red Flash - or at least what he thinks it is. While his nemesis Jacques is completely unimpressed by this and Frank is just a crazy criminal for the law enforcement officers, the psyched comic book saleswoman Libby (Ellen Page) sees him as a great hero. She not only supports him with lots of helpful superhero tips, but also stands by him faithfully as sidekick Blitzie. But in real life, unfortunately, rarely everything goes as in a comic...

Super - Shut up, Crime! reminds in some moments strongly of the movie Kick-Ass. But although that one already didn't come across as completely slick and well-behaved, Slither director James Gunn's film feels like the superhero parody's dirty little sister. The tone is much darker and the line between bitter humor and sad tragedy blurs more than once. Despite some really good laughs, James Gunn has not directed a straight comedy. Rather, the film is a dark portrait of a loser who has had life spit in his face one too many times. This is embodied magnificently by Rainn Wilson (known from The Office, the US version of Stromberg). Wilson does a first-rate job of showing how Frank desperately fights his helplessness and compensates for it in extreme outbursts of violence.

Homegrown star of the film, however, is Ellen Page (Juno, Inception), who delivers a great and damn funny performance as a comic book saleswoman who is a bit too wound up and slightly nymphomaniac from her admiration of Frank. But the supporting cast is also top notch with the likes of Kevin Bacon, Liv Tyler and Michael Rooker. And the guest appearance of Nathan Fillion, who had played the main role in Gunn's horror-comedy Slither, is just too delicious.

The production surprises not only with a good portion of black humor, but with a partly very drastic depiction of violence, which is appropriate for the subject but still somewhat comic overdrawn. Nevertheless, especially the last third and the bloody finale make the viewer stop laughing once in a while. But that's exactly what makes Super - Shut up, Crime! so special. It's just an abysmally bad movie that's fun to watch and despite a certain dreariness doesn't depress. Great actors, amusing dialogue and original characters - this is American independent cinema at its best. For not too squeamish lovers of the slightly more whimsical humor absolutely recommended!!

Picture + Sound: The technical implementation of the Blu-Ray is on quite a high level. The picture is very clean and has a high level of detail sharpness. The color mixing underlines the sometimes very dirty look of the film, which also comes into its own well in the darker scenes. The sound also leaves little to be desired, especially since the German audio track is also in a rich DTS-HD Master Audio mix. While many scenes come along rather quietly mixed and dominated by the dialogues, especially in the last third some very good surround effects can unfold in the home theater. But also smaller sound effects and atmospheric ambient sounds come here well to the fore. Very good!

Extras: In terms of bonus material, the handle to the double DVD or the 2-disc Blu-Ray is not only worthwhile, but an absolute must. The extras on the first disc are also included on the respective single-disc versions. It starts with a very amusing audio commentary by director James Gunn and lead actor Rainn Wilson. The only downside: the commentary has no German subtitles and can therefore only be enjoyed by fans with a good knowledge of English. The other extras, on the other hand, are all optionally equipped with German subtitles. This includes the 19-minute look behind the scenes, which offers an amusing and informative insight into the making of the film. In addition, there are the original trailer and a TV spot for the film. But that was by far not everything.

For who reaches for the Mediabook edition, gets a bulging bonus disc in addition. This offers almost three hours of extras. It starts with a 34-minute interview given by James Gunn during his visit to Berlin. After that, the camera accompanies him for 10 minutes on his first visit to a German comic book store, where he discusses, among other things, the works that have had a direct influence on Super. Comic connoisseurs should be unsurprised to learn that Watchmen played a major role in this.

In addition to these extras, which are exclusive to Germany, there are also 5 minutes of cut scenes, a making of the title animation (approx. 4:40 min.), an amusing instructional video on how to fight crime (approx. 4 min.), and a small making of the filmlet (approx. 2 min.). A highlight is the panel discussion at ComicCon, which can be seen here in its entirety (approx. 60 min.). Supplementing this is an interview with James Gunn and Rainn Wilson at the premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival (approx. 25 min.) While there is some overlap in the various interviews and audio commentary, overall all the featurettes are so entertaining that there's hardly any repetition to bother with.

After the trailer and a poster gallery, there is a very special treat on the bonus disc: all 8 episodes of James Gunn's internet series PG Porn. The clips are between 2 and 5 minutes long and look like very bad 70s porn movies. But whenever things would really get down to business in such, there is always a surprising, usually very macabre twist in PG Porn. For these funny shorts Gunn has gathered, in addition to erotic stars such as Sasha Grey or Beladonna, actors such as Nathan Fillion (Castle, Firefly), Alan Tudyk (Tucker & Dale vs. Evil), Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville) or even his brother Sean Gunn, known as Kirk in the series Gilmore Girls, in front of the camera. A simply wonderfully funny extra in its absurdity.

With so much bonus, the higher price of the double-disc editions is definitely money well spent!

Conclusion: Super - Shut up, Crime! is the dirty little sister of Kick-Ass. A bitterly wicked black comedy that will have you laughing in your throat at times. Great acting and refreshingly unconventional realization, this home cinema premiere is a real must for all lovers of a little more weird, dark and bloody humor. The technically well implemented Blu-Ray leaves nothing to be desired, especially in the 2-disc Mediabook edition, as here most entertaining bonus material is offered in abundance. Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp