Superlópez

More often than not, Spanish cinema is a matter of hollywood rehashes, really terrible humour, and forced drama.

Superlopez a superhero parody. Here we have some of the finest in Spanish comedy (although the bar is very low, so it's really not much of a compliment) and it really makes use of some native tools that can make Spanish films stand out from Hollywood films in a good way.

First, much of the humour centers on critiques of Spanish society. As an example, Superlopez' adopted father says at one point "in this country, you have to be mediocre to get ahead." Like in Hercules (1997), rather than being celebrated for his super abilities, the townsfolk revile him as a freak. In that movie it didn't make sense (wouldn't people want to be friends with a freakishly strong person?), here it is critiquing Spanish society as complacent and uniform to the extent that any deviation from the norm is seen is undesireable.

Granted, there is the obligatory "make fun of regional Spanish accents" scene which occurs in most Spanish comedies. That's not funny, but we can overlook it since I assume there's some law requiring such scenes to be in every Spanish comedy.

Secondly, because Europeans are not so socially developed as the USA, they're able to get away with being less PC. Here the Latin American characters are not shown in a positive light. All are in very low-ranking employment positions compared to the Spaniards and some are stereotyped as violent or lecherous. It's offensive and it wouldn't fly in today's USA, but the outrageousness of it is pretty funny. Now, whether or not it's responsible or desireable to have this sort of thing in the media is a good question for debate.

Ultimately it's got laughs and it's effective as a vehicle for satire, outrageous humour, and physical gags. On the other hand, it has its longueurs here and there and the plot is silly and inane in the extreme.

Honourable Mentions: Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994). A hilarious action parody. It's similar to this movie but more surrealist in its humour.