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Super Sucker

  • 2002
  • R
  • 1h 33m
IMDb RATING
4.4/10
992
YOUR RATING
Jeff Daniels in Super Sucker (2002)
Comedy

Two door to door vacuum cleaner salesmen hilariously compete against each other.Two door to door vacuum cleaner salesmen hilariously compete against each other.Two door to door vacuum cleaner salesmen hilariously compete against each other.

  • Director
    • Jeff Daniels
  • Writers
    • Jeff Daniels
    • Guy Sanville
  • Stars
    • Jeff Daniels
    • Matt Letscher
    • Harve Presnell
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    4.4/10
    992
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Jeff Daniels
    • Writers
      • Jeff Daniels
      • Guy Sanville
    • Stars
      • Jeff Daniels
      • Matt Letscher
      • Harve Presnell
    • 30User reviews
    • 13Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win total

    Photos4

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    Top Cast99+

    Edit
    Jeff Daniels
    Jeff Daniels
    • Fred Barlow
    Matt Letscher
    Matt Letscher
    • Howard Butterworth
    Harve Presnell
    Harve Presnell
    • Winslow Schnaebelt
    Dawn Wells
    Dawn Wells
    • Super Sucker Celebrity Spokesperson
    John Seibert
    John Seibert
    • Shelby
    Guy Sanville
    • Leonard
    Kate Peckham
    • Darlene
    Sandra Birch
    • Rhonda
    Will David Young
    • Clifford
    • (as Will Young)
    Michelle Mountain
    • Bunny Barlow
    John Lepard
    John Lepard
    • Cy Suckerton II
    Suzi Regan
    • Jill
    Phil Powers
    • Jack
    Sarab Kamoo
    Sarab Kamoo
    • Tamara Thompson
    Tom Spiroff
    • Anderson Brown
    Joey Albright
    • Red Jackets 1
    William Coelius IV
    • Red Jackets 2
    • (as Bill Coelius IV)
    Alan Ribant
    • Red Jackets 3
    • Director
      • Jeff Daniels
    • Writers
      • Jeff Daniels
      • Guy Sanville
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews30

    4.4992
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    Featured reviews

    6JohnMcClane88

    Laughed My Butt Off!!!!!

    Reading some of the other post here and I think there are too many prudes on here lol

    You can NOT take this movie seriously, it's just a dumb comedy and it is Funny!

    This movie is a strange combination of the 1950's, 1970's and today. Its like "Leave it to Beaver" meets a soft porn movie ..lol

    The laughs really begin when "Mothers little helper" is introduced in the movie :)

    Jeff Daniels is hilarious!

    I loved it and got a kick out of it!
    7brighn

    Fun, timely farce

    Being a fellow Michigander (with Jeff Daniels), I can see part of where this movie came from. It's a satirical look at Midwestern family values and sexual mores (like Daniels' other, more well-known, and overall better "Pleasantville"). Unlike "Pleasantville," where the attacks on sexual puritanism are subtle enough for some casual viewers to miss, "Super Sucker" is blatant.

    The premise: A down-and-out vacuum cleaner distributor (Daniels) in a moderate-sized Midwest town (based on and shot in Jackson, Michigan) has been given 30 days to outsell his overbearing and obnoxious competitor. Whoever sells the most systems gets sole rights to distributorship. Daniels seems destined to lose -- the competition has much more advertising money, and is willing to throw any rules of fairness out the window -- until he discovers a special use for a long-discontinued attachment. He puts the attachment into rapid production, and offers it as a "special bonus" that only his distributorship has available. His fate changes radically, buildi ng up to a raucous farce of a climax.

    The buildup is, in my opinion, slow, and bits are ham-fistedly predictable; the "cat" scene belonged in a Farrelly Brothers movie (and that's not a compliment), but it was thankfully brief. But once it gets going (around the midpoint), and writer/director Daniels decides that whatever real world logic he had been attempting to follow should be thrown out the window in favor of over-the-top absurdity, it has some truly comedic scenes. In a time when Michigan's sexual more pendulum appears to be swinging back to the left, the film is a nice push in the right direction. And, sociosexual politics aside, it's a darn fine piece of unpretentious independent comedy -- something we can never have enough of.

    TV buffs will likely enjoy a cameo from Gilligan Island's Dawn Wells, making fun of her own stereotyping as Mary Ann.

    Purple Rose fans will note that, except for bits of body-humor comedy and Daniels' affably hapless good guy (a persona he started with "Something Wild"), this is a much different film than Escanaba in Da Moonlight (also a good movie, although I enjoyed the play more). Like "Pleasantville," it has more national appeal ("Escanaba" was rife with Michigan in-jokes), and despite some of its stageplay-like shots, it's obviously based on a screenplay, with many more scenes and a much larger cast. I hope Purple Rose works out its own kinks in distributorship (leaving me wondering if Daniels' frustration here didn't contribute to "Super Sucker"'s premise), because these films deserve a larger audience than they seem to be getting.
    victoriawoodhull

    A Real Pick Me Up or a Moral Vacuum?

    This movie won't make a clean sweep at the Oscars. And maybe it does suck and blow at the same time. Still, plenty of women--and men--will love Fred Barlow's attachments just as much as his wife does. His housewives' little helper turned her into a real dust Bunny and put the "make" back in "homemaking."

    I don't know how Jeff Daniels did it, but somehow, in a movie where the hook is a vacuum cleaner used for women's pleasure, there are plenty of bare behinds, but none of them female! Sorry, guys. You won't get to see the Super Sucker panty hose directly applied. Oh, you'll see plenty, but this isn't triple X. The film is filled with innuendo; and yet, some people think the only thing dirty about the movie is the carpet.

    Despite its lack of profanity, Super Sucker isn't for everyone. Jerry Falwell will want to stay home, and we'll all be better off if Pee Wee Herman stays home, too.

    Believe it or not, this outrageous tale about two competing door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen actually has some basis in fact. According to the "Cyber-Space Vacuum Cleaning Museum," the Kirby vacuum cleaner used to come with a "Swedish Massage" attachment. But, kids, don't do this at home! If you're foolish enough to find out if it's really true that nobody does it like Hoover, you may not be able to reproduce--and that's a good thing for all of us.

    One movie-goer commented that the beginning of Super Sucker was great, but then it slowed down the rest of the way. My fiancé loved it, though, and I thought it really picked up in the end.
    7CAOP

    Good "dumb humor" movie

    In the vein of Kingpin, Office Space and Airplane. Super Sucker isn't as funny as any of those movies but, considering it's budget, is still pretty impressive. Fans of "dumb" comedies will probably like, not love, this move.
    tony_boling

    It Sucked!

    That would be a very good compliment in the Super Sucker world created by Jeff Daniels. This movie is F-U-N-N-Y and hopefully will be viewed by people other than just the cities of Jackson and Ann Arbor Michigan. I attended the second showing of the movie in Jackson on February 23rd 2002 hosted by Jeff Daniels.

    In a nutshell the movie is about two rival Super Sucker distributers in the same city (Johnson City) competing for total sales rights for that city. The result, a competition. Whichever distributer sells the most Super Suckers in a month wins, and the other bows out. Fred Barlows team (Daniels) isn't doing so hot because the competition has a bit more money an resources. With a new member on the team and doing poorer than ever, Barlow begins offering a "drapery attachment" with every purchase on a Super Sucker. I don't wanna give away what the attachment does for "lonely housewives" but there's quite a bit of sexual inuendo in the film, a lot actually. Needless to say this proves to be a very smart move for the Barlow team but as usual, things start to "suck" and the plot thickens.

    All in all I think this movie will appeal to a much wider audience than Escanaba in da moonlight ever did, or will, and will hopefully find a spot right up with your big hollywood summer comedies.

    There was quite a lack of verbal profanity, but many sexual references which earned this movie an R rating. It was kinda slow in the very beginning with a chuckle here and there, but when the "Homemakers Little Helper" (drapery attachment) hits the masses of Johnson City, it really starts to get good. There were so many moment comparable to "There's Something About Mary", Meet The Parents", and "Dumb And Dumber" that this independent movie will just HAVE to get pick up by someone and ready for a full theatrical release. The writing is good, the plot was good, everything was very good for it being an independent movie, but don't let that fact that it's not a big time hollywood release scare you, it's very much equal to your big summer releases and I hope to see it again.

    On a side note, this movie was kida special for me because my girlfriends mom had a small part as an extra in the fil as Housewife #4. During the scene where the salemen are trying to pitch the Homemakers Little helper door-to-door, Denise Weber was the first of the housewives to actually "use" the attachment excluding Fred Barlows wive in the beginning of the movie. I certainly hope all of you get to enjoy this film very soon.

    Tony

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    Related interests

    Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
    Comedy

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The first Super Sucker vacuum cleaner featured in the film is a commercial "Koblenz" upright. The later Super Sucker vacuum cleaner with the double headlights is a heavily modified "Fantom Cyclone XT" which was advertised on infomercials prior to this film's release.
    • Quotes

      Howard Butterworth: I shredded their cat!

    • Soundtracks
      THE BIGGER & THE BETTER (MOVIN' ON)
      Written by Jeff Bomarito and Alan Howard

      Performed and Produced by The Masquerade Band

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    FAQ19

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 24, 2002 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Purple Rose Films
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Daft as a Brush
    • Filming locations
      • Jackson, Michigan, USA
    • Production company
      • Purple Rose Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $137,628
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $89,551
      • Jan 26, 2003
    • Gross worldwide
      • $137,628
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 33m(93 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby SR
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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