Trailer:
“You see, my partner has super powers, but the thing is, every time he sees the color red he loses them.”
The date says 80’s and that is right on the money for Super Fuzz, a film that fully embraces the cheesy B-movie filmmaking of that era.
Somehow Super Fuzz is now considered a classic of the HBO early years. When the network first started out its library was very limited and one of its few selections that seemingly played in a constant loop was this campy cop film. So by no accounts is it a classic by its own strengths but rather by repetition. It’s theatrical release was actually pretty mediocre and under preformed. That's most likely why the young HBO was able to get their hands on the TV rights so easily. No one else was going to put up a fight for it.
The story is a simple one and by no means serious. It is very clearly self aware about its own corny nature. However, unlike Superman it fails to deliver anything but that and becomes a tedious comedy without any thrills or that many laughs.
The story follows the character of Dave Speed who is a cop right out of training and eager to prove himself. While serving up a traffic violation in the middle of a swamp, he gets caught in an explosion of a red uranium bomb. As is expected, he comes out with a wide variety of inconsistent superpowers that seem to come and go on a whim. They never really solidify exactly what his powers are, the only thing they make explicitly clear is the fact that he loses them whenever he sees the color red. And you thought Superman losing his abilities over a rock was bad.
He is accompanied on his adventures by his demoted sergeant, Will Dunlop (played by Ernest Borgnine) who for the majority of the film denies the existence of his partners powers even though he is clearly using them right in front of his face. Those who have ever seen Borgnine in any of his other films, such as Marty which he took an Oscar for, you’ll know he is an old but talented actor (yes he was even old in the 80’s). Here he is given nothing though, forced to run around looking like a fool and getting in the way. It makes you feel almost embarrassed that such a talented guy got stuck doing this second hand sludge part.
Terance Hill, who plays the super powered copper gives and even more underwhelming performance that would have done Keanu Reeves proud. Though he has a semi-successful career over seas, he fails in almost every other level to make Dave Speed compelling or even interesting. He is simply a bumbling clown with powers.
Where it exists the entire plot is a convoluted mess, but seeing as it is so thin anyways, it hardily even merits a mention in this review. Pretty much to give you the basics of it; Speed is trying to stop a group from counter fitting money and hiding them in frozen fish. A lot of action to be had there (that was sarcasm).
Yet this was meant to be a comedy so that is the most important thing to address. Is it funny? In short. No. In long, it has its few rare moments of charm, but for the most part it’s laugh free, action lacking and uninteresting as possible.
FINAL RATING: 3/10 (30%)
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