|
This topic contains:
- overall comments and recommendations
- details about My Super Ex-Girlfriend's classification
and consumer advice lines
- a review of My Super Ex-Girlfriendcompleted by Young
Media Australia (YMA) on 23 July 2006.
Overall comments and recommendations
| Children under 8 |
Not recommended for children under 8 years due to adult themes,
violence, scary scenes and coarse language |
| Children aged 8–15 |
Parental guidance is recommended due to frequent sexual references
and coarse language |
About the movie
This section contains details about the movie, including its classification
by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the
associated consumer advice lines.
|
Name of movie
|
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
|
|
Rating
|
M
|
|
Consumer advice lines
|
Moderate sexual references
|
|
Length
|
96 minutes
|
YMA review
This review of the movie My Super Ex-Girlfriend contains
the following information:
A synopsis of the story
Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) works as a project manager, with his
sex-fixated friend Vaughn (Rainn Wilson) and the pretty but ‘taken’
Hannah (Anna Faris). On the way home after work, Vaughn goads the
‘unlucky in love’ Matt to ask a woman on the train out
on a date. While doing so, the woman has her bag stolen. Matt gives
chase and through a series of lucky breaks, retrieves the bag. Matt
earns the gratitude of the woman, Jenny Johnson (Uma Thurman) and
she agrees to a date, but what Matt doesn’t know is that she
is G-Girl, the city’s superhero.
Over the course of a few dates, Jenny tells Matt of her true identity
and the story of how she got her powers. However, Matt senses that
all is not right with Jenny/G-Girl, as she becomes increasingly
neurotic and jealous of his relationship with Hannah. To make matters
worse, he is kidnapped by Professor Bedlam (Eddie Izzard), super-villain
and nemesis of G-Girl, who tries to convince Matt to help him lure
Jenny/G-Girl into a trap that will strip her of her powers. Matt
feels it is all getting too much for him and attempts to break up
with Jenny. Not surprisingly, she is none to pleased and uses her
powers to make his home and work life a misery. As Matt’s world
spirals out of control, he realises who he truly loves and agrees
to work with Professor Bedlam to stop G-Girl before everything he
values is destroyed.
Themes
Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages
to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death,
serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent,
animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural
disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes
that some parents may simply wish to know about.
Adult relationships, sexual jealousy
Use of violence
Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence
is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised,
performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences,
is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male
characters with female victims, or by one race against another.
Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message
that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated
exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised
to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view
about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.
There is some violence in this movie including:
- a robbery takes place in a jewellery shop in which four masked
bandits with guns burst into the shop, push the owner to the ground,
steal the jewellery and get into the getaway car. As the car races
away, people on the streets appear afraid and have to jump out
of the way. G-Girl stops the thieves, picking up their car and
dumping it, bonnet first, into the pavement outside the police
station. One of the bandits shoots at her, but she is bullet proof
and unharmed.
- after being kidnapped, Matt is slapped in the face several
times by one of Professor Bedlam’s henchmen. This is shown
in a comic light.
- Jenny is hit by a car and thrown across the street. She is
unharmed.
- Professor Bedlam tests the strength of G-Girl’s hair using
a small hacksaw. The strength of the hair is such that the blade
flies off, ricochets about the room and lodges in the chest of
one his henchmen. The henchman is not impressed, but not seriously
injured. Again, this is depicted humorously.
- while driving home after a date, Jenny breaks Matt’s car
window in a fit of jealous rage
- when Matt tries to break up with her, Jenny becomes enraged
and throws a tomato at him, beats her head against the fridge,
blows him up against a wall, upturns a table on him, tries to
boil his pet fish and then flies away through his ceiling.
- Jenny later returns to taunt Matt further and burns the word
“Dick” onto his forehead
- Professor Bedlam enters Matt’s apartment, and in the process
of throwing the door open, one of the doors flies back into his
henchman’s head. He is not seriously injured.
- G-Girl and Hannah get into a fight over Matt, with hair-pulling,
pushing, punching, throwing, choking and hitting each other with
objects. This is quite violent although shown in a comic manner.
Material that may scare children
Under eight
Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary
visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death
of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children
or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some
scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under
the age of eight, including:
- in the robbery bandits are shown with balaclavas and guns. People
appear afraid as the robbers escape and one of the bandits shoots
at G-Girl.
- Matt attempts to catch a bag-thief, but instead becomes pursued
himself. He appears afraid and jumps into a giant rubbish bin..
- a building is on fire and people on the streets appear worried.
G-Girl arrives and puts the fire out.
- Professor Bedlam kidnaps Matt and hangs him upside down from
the Statue of Liberty. He appears very scared and shouts for help.
The rope loosens and he begins falling and screaming. Jenny/G-Girl
saves him.
- Jenny gets hit by a car and is thrown several metres. She is
unharmed.
- Jenny tells the story of how she got her powers through a mysterious
meteor. She is shown to approach the meteor and it explodes, throwing
her to the ground. She is not injured but has a glow about her
body and is transformed into G-Girl. She does not appear afraid,
and instead, is pleased with her new appearance.
- while on a double date, Matt, Jenny and Hannah see on the news
that a rogue missile has been launched and is heading to the city.
It will possibly kill thousands. Jenny tries to ignore Matt’s
increasingly anxious hints that G-Girl should probably stop the
missile. People in the restaurant appear afraid. Jenny eventually
goes to stop the missile.
- when G-Girl returns to Matt’s apartment, she menaces him
further by blowing his power supply and showing him (through a
telescope) that his car is orbiting in space.
- G-Girl throws a huge shark into Hannah’s apartment. It
terrorises both Hannah and Matt, destroying furniture and chasing
Matt, then finally crashes out of a window in the apartment. It
is seen to fall and thudding sound is heard when it hits the ground.
Aged eight to thirteen
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened
by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence
and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.
Some of the above-mentioned scenes could also scare or disturb
children aged eight to thirteen, particularly:
- Matt falling from the Statue of Liberty
- Jenny’s violent reaction when Matt tries to break up with
her
- the shark in Hannah’s apartment, and
- the fight between Jenny and Hannah.
Over the age of thirteen
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened
by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault
and / or threats from aliens or the occult.
There are no scenes that would be particularly scary for children
over 13 years.
Product placement
None
Sexual references
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
- Vaughn refers to his desire to “gratify myself orally”
- Matt is caught looking at Hannah’s bottom and her supervisor
states “You were staring at her butt”
- Jenny reports that “I’m good at sex. I think I’m
good at sex”.
- Vaughn is seen to be ogling at girls in a gym class.
- Vaughn states that “neurotic women are wildcats in bed”;
that is “pure carnal nirvana” and it is “Coitus
maximus”.
- there is a sculpture at Jenny’s art gallery of a deer with
a person’s feet in its bottom
- while recounting how she got her powers, Jenny tells how she
wanted to get the “whole virginity thing over and done with”
during high school. During her transformation after being hit
by the exploding meteor, Jenny’s breast are shown to enlarge.
- at the gym, Vaughn likens one of the girls to a “cheerleader
from Spank Me University”.
- Matt’s supervisor states “that boy has a major case
of the hornies”.
Nudity and sexual activity
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
- after their first date, Jenny and Matt return to his apartment
kissing. They both undress to their underwear and get into bed.
During the sex scene, only their faces are shown, but the bed
goes back and forth, hitting and damaging the wall and floor.
The bed eventually breaks and Jenny says that she will get Matt
a new one. He responds by saying “A bed or a penis?!”
The next day, Matt is shown to be limping to work.
- after telling him of her powers, Jenny takes Matt flying and
decides to have sex with him in the sky. They are fully dressed,
but she is shown to unzip his trousers.
- G-girl goes to Matt’s workplace and blows his clothes off.
Matt is shown naked from behind.
Ý Matt goes to Hannah’s apartment and they begin kissing.
They are later shown in bed in pyjamas/underwear. Matt refers
to the sex as “great, and it didn’t hurt at all”.
- Hannah and Matt are shown having sex in his apartment. Again,
only their faces are shown, but the bed moves back and forth,
and then crashes into the next apartment.
Use of substances
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
- several scenes in which Matt, Vaughn and Hannah are having beers
in a bar
- during their dates, Jenny drinks wine and becomes a little disinhibited.
Coarse language
There is some coarse language in this movie, including:
- asshole
- bullshit
- idiot
- you lucky SOB
- I’m screwing with you
- crap
- Goddamn
- what the hell
- “Chainsaw shoved up your ass”
- whore
- bitch
- sick bastard
- dick
- pissed off
The movie's message
My Super Ex-Girlfriend is a. is a light-weight romantic comedy
about a man who gets into, and then wants out of, a relationship
with a neurotic superhero. The content of the movie is more suitable
for older adolescents and adults who may enjoy the comedy, the plot
premise, the comments on relationships and an appealing cast and
characters.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their
children include:
- equal gender roles: women in the workplace and as superheroes
- caring and being loyal to friends.
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with
their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences,
such as:
- using violence to resolve conflict
- seeking revenge for perceived wrongs
- not respecting women, including treating them as sexual objects
- being disloyal to those close to you.
|
