My Super Ex-Girlfriend

My Super Ex-Girlfriend is a 2006 American superhero romantic comedy-drama film directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Luke Wilson, Uma Thurman, Anna Faris, Eddie Izzard, Rainn Wilson, and Wanda Sykes. The film received mixed reviews from critics.

"G Girl" redirects here. For the Romanian band, see G Girls.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Theatrical release poster
Directed byIvan Reitman
Produced byArnon Milchan
Gavin Polone
Written byDon Payne
Starring
Music byTeddy Castellucci
CinematographyDon Burgess
Edited byWendy Greene Bricmont
Sheldon Kahn
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • July 21, 2006 (2006-07-21)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30 million[1]
Box office$61 million[1]

Plot

After foiling a purse snatcher who steals Jenny Johnson's (Uma Thurman) purse on the subway, Matthew Saunders (Luke Wilson) becomes her "hero" and starts dating this shy stranger. After several dates, Jenny displays increasingly neurotic and aggressive behavior, becoming more demanding and ultimately injuring Matt and destroying his bed the first time they have sex.

Soon after, Jenny reveals to him that she is in fact the voluptuous blonde superheroine, G-Girl, who received the powers of flight, superhuman strength, speed, heightened senses, invulnerability, super breath, and heat vision after being exposed to radiation from a crashed meteorite as a teenager. She becomes more controlling after revealing her powers and Matt is overwhelmed.

Hannah Lewis (Anna Faris), Matt's co-worker, flirts with him, although she is going out with a handsome but shallow underwear model. As their friendship develops further, and after becoming aggravated with Jenny's escalating jealousy, Matt ends the relationship. An enraged Jenny vows to make Matt regret it. She uses her superpowers to publicly embarrass him, throwing his car into space and eventually causing him to lose his job as an architect by stripping him naked during an important meeting.

Meanwhile, Professor Bedlam (Eddie Izzard), Jenny's former friend, now G-Girl's nemesis, contacts Matt to enlist his aid in defeating her. Matt refuses and makes plans to leave the city. As he does, Hannah contacts him. She has broken up with her cheating boyfriend, and after confessing their feelings to each other, they end up in bed together.

Jenny (as G-Girl) finds them in bed the next day. Enraged and jealous, she attacks them with a great white shark. Fed up, Matt contacts Professor Bedlam and agrees to help him defeat her, as long as Bedlam retires from being a supervillain. He must lure Jenny to another meteorite that will draw away her powers, leaving her a normal woman. Matt agrees and meets her for a candlelit dinner at his apartment, under the pretense of wanting to resume their relationship. Hannah arrives to see Jenny sitting on Matt's lap. The two women fight, and in the struggle, Jenny's superhero identity is revealed to Hannah. Bedlam's trap is sprung, and Jenny's power is absorbed back into the meteorite, incapacitating her.

Professor Bedlam appears, but reveals that he has no intention of keeping his promise to retire from villainy and in fact plans to take the powers for himself. While he and Matt fight, Jenny crawls to the charged meteorite attempting to regain her powers. Hannah intervenes just as Jenny grabs the meteorite, which explodes in a burst of power. Both Hannah and Jenny are catapulted off the roof, apparently to their deaths; Jenny appears within seconds, powers restored, threatening even more mayhem. Hannah's unexpectedly reappears, having also been exposed to the meteorite, and now has the same powers as G-Girl, and saves Matt. The second fight between Hannah and Jenny is a full-on super-brawl, destroying part of the neighboring properties. Matt reasons with Jenny, making her realize that Professor Bedlam is her true love, she agrees and embraces her former nemesis.

The next morning, Matt and Hannah meet up with Professor Bedlam (now just "Barry") and Jenny. As cries for help are heard from afar, Jenny and Hannah, now partners in crime-fighting, take off to tackle the emergency. Matt and Barry are left holding their girlfriends' purses and clothes, and leave to have a beer together.

Cast
  • Uma Thurman as Jennifer Johnson / G-Girl: A confused, insecure young woman who also happens to be a superheroine, thanks to her contact with a mysterious meteorite. When she falls in love with Matt, she becomes controlling and demanding with him, and when he finally tries to break up with her, sets out to make his life a living hell through abusing her super powers.
    • Tara L. Thompson as Young Jennifer Johnson
  • Luke Wilson as Matthew "Matt" Saunders: He begins dating Jenny after capturing a thief who snatched her purse, but ultimately breaks up with her due to her controlling and demanding behavior. He also finds out that Jenny is in fact the superhero G-Girl.
  • Anna Faris as Hannah Lewis: Matt's co-worker who is secretly in love with him.
  • Eddie Izzard as Barry Edward Lambert / Professor Bedlam: G-Girl's ex-boyfriend and nemesis.
    • Kevin Townley as Young Barry Lambert
  • Rainn Wilson as Vaughn Haige: Matt's crude and sex-crazed best friend, who constantly gives him dubious advice about picking up women, despite the fact that he himself is hopeless when it comes to dating.
  • Wanda Sykes as Carla Dunkirk: Matt and Hannah's nosy and uptight boss who ends up firing the former thanks to a jealous Jenny.
  • Stelio Savante as Leo: One of Bedlam's hired goons.
  • Mike Iorio as Lenny: One of Bedlam's hired goons.
  • Mark Consuelos as Steve Velard: A handsome but shallow underwear model who is Hannah's boyfriend.
  • Tom Henry as the guy in the red cast
  • Margaret Anne Florence as the bartender, who works at the bar where Matt and Vaughn like to hang out.

Production

Writer Don Payne conceived of the idea of his first film while working on The Simpsons television series, saying that as a fan of comics, the idea of a romantic comedy with a superhero twist was "a fitting first feature". The spec script (at that time called Super Ex) attracted the attention of production company Regency Enterprises and director Ivan Reitman, and the film was fast-tracked for production. Filming took place over four weeks in New York City and featured Westchester high school Port Chester High School for the main characters' high school scenes.[2]

Release

Box office

My Super Ex-Girlfriend debuted in the United States and Canada on July 21, 2006 in 2,702 theaters. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $8,603,460 and ranked No. 7 at the American and Canadian box office. The film proceeded to gross $22,530,295 in the United States and Canada and $38,454,511 in other territories for a worldwide gross of $60,984,606.[3][1]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 40%, based on 130 reviews, with an average rating of 5.07/10. The site's consensus reads, "My Super Ex-Girlfriend is an only sporadically amusing spoof on the superhero genre that misses the mark with a nerd-turned-superwoman who embodies sexist clichés."[4] On Metacritic the film has a score of 50 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[5] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade C+ on scale of A to F.[6]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote: "If the script for this comic spin on Fatal Attraction were only a tenth as hot as Uma Thurman, director Ivan Reitman might have had something here."[7] Robert Koehler of Variety magazine praised Thurman's performance: "Uma Thurman, a female superhero with emotional problems and dating issues, doesn't so much fight the forces of evil as battle the wit-starved movie's torpor -- indeed, her perf suggests what the entire film might have been."[8]

Psychologist Stephen N. Gold, reviewing the film, has suggested that Jenny/G-Girl has borderline personality disorder.[9]

Home media

The film was released on DVD on December 19, 2006 with anamorphic widescreen and fullscreen presentations along with English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround tracks. Special features included deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes, and a "No Sleep 2 Nite" music video by Molly McQueen. The film was released on Blu-ray on May 28, 2013 sans special features.

References
  1. "My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006) - Financial Information". The Numbers.
  2. McNary, Dave; Brodesser, Claude (8 December 2004). "Regency, Pariah sign on the 'Ex' for laffer". Variety.
  3. "My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  4. "My Super Ex-Girlfriend". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 2019-03-22.
  5. "My Super Ex-Girlfriend". Metacritic. CBS. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  6. "Cinemascore". Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  7. Travers, Peter (20 July 2006). "My Super Ex-Girlfriend". Rolling Stone.
  8. Koehler, Robert (21 July 2006). "My Super Ex-Girlfriend". Variety.
  9. PsycCRITIQUES
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