Review: Superstar (1999)

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Superstar

Rating

Director

Bruce McCulloch

Screenplay

Steven Wayne Koren

Length

1h 21m

Starring

Molly Shannon, Will Ferrell, Elaine Hendrix, Harland Williams, Mark McKinney, Glynis Johns, Jason Blicker, Gerry Bamman, Emmy Laybourne, Jennifer Irwin, Rob Stefaniuk, Natalie Radford, Karyn Dwyer, Tom Green, Chuck Campbell

MPAA Rating

PG-13

Review

Saturday Night Live is a terrific show, but when you stretch its sketches out to full-length movies, you’re in for a boring, uninteresting time.

Molly Shannon plays Mary Katherine Gallagher, a socially inept schoolgirl with no charm and no style, but plenty of imagination. She wants to become a star…a “Superstar.” Not only that, but she also wants to win the heart of young football stud, Sky Corrigan (Will Ferrell), but she has to go through snobbish ice princess Evian (Elaine Hendrix).

Her big chance comes when a talent contest is being held at the school. The grand prize is a trip to Hollywood to appear as an extra in a big production. Mary jumps at the opportunity and doesn’t seem to care how she gets there. Unfortunately, neither does the audience.

Mary is sometimes loveable, Evian is easily evil and Glynis Johns as the wisecracking grandmother is priceless, but the rest of the cast is flat and uninteresting. Ferrell is a cookie cutout, Mark McKinney as the Catholic school principal is atrociously annoying and while Evian does play her part well, she only plays lip service to the character adding very little depth.

Sure this can be attributed to the director and the screenwriter, but it is an overall mess that can be easily spread around to everyone involved. The big, talent show dance number at the end is obvious and not the least bit interesting. If I were a suicidal man, this would put me over the edge. The film is dull and lifeless saved only by the delightful Johns and an interesting love affair that doesn’t involve Mary and Sky.

Predictable is the word for “Superstar.” It starts out innocently and uses up all the funny gags in the previews, then expects the audience to sit idly by and watch the train wreck unfold with no reasonable fanfare or excitement. If there were an award for worst picture of the year…wait, there are the Golden Raspberries…it should be the front-runner.

Awards Prospects

There are no hopes for Oscars, but PLENTY for the Razzies. Worst Picture, Actor (Ferrell), Supporting Actress (Hendrix), Director, Screenplay and several other awards are within arm’s reach.