User reviews

It may be strange that a mockumentary crew follows a random underachiever guy who just lost custody of his son and sent to community service. After a while it turns out he has special power, a straight up X-Men material also accompanied by his best buddy in wheelchair. The movie later follows his squandered life, which is quite identifiable because he struggles with daily problems even with his superpower, although the cycle of his drug abuse can be monotonous at the end.

Superheroes movies usually opt for mix of fantasy, using outlandish power, and connection to the character, displaying their flaws to humanize them. American Hero clearly leans towards the latter as Melvin (Stephen Dorff) stumbles even on ordinary problems, let alone crime fighting. He looks stoned and disheveled almost the entire time. There's a good quality in his character, though one must look deep enough.

I remember Stephen Dorff from Blade as the cool named antagonist Deacon Frost, as Melvin he's the complete opposite, albeit ironically still with super power. Melvin is talented and smart even without the gift, yet he's using the telekinesis power to grope women with random objects and score drugs. The movie invests so much on establishing that he's a screw up, it has repetitive party montage for a good portion of the runtime, which tends to get stale after a while.

Eddie Griffin as Lucille, the sidekick in wheelchair is also Melvin's moral compass. He's a charismatic comedian, cracking jokes and having tendency to flirt with women, but he presents good brotherhood relationship for Melvin. It's also nice that the movie adds some interviews with supporting chars to establish heroic or mundane atmosphere as well as adding slight realistic flavor.

This is in heart, a comedy drama, not an ambitious use of super power like Chronicle. It does have solid special effect for some sequences, but it's still limited and might not look superbly authentic. The ones that work better are those seemingly happen out of nowhere and its use of mockumentary serves these tricks well.

American Hero might not be as grand as the title or premise suggests, but it brings more connection with the characters than larger sci-fi or action movies. Melvin is not the hero we deserve, he's the one we will have to make do.

Based on the description, I was expecting something similar to Hancock about a superhero with deep character flaws and an alcohol problem that gets his life together. While this movie can be described as such, it really isn't. The hero of this movie primarily used his power as a parlor trick and only fights crime for like 3 minutes. The remainder of the hour and a half you are bored to tears waiting on the superhero to show up while being subjected to watching a waste of oxygen get drunk and high over and over. The powers seem more like an afterthought than it should be for a movie billed as a superhero movie. In fact they could have completely left out any powers at all, deleted the 3 minutes of action and had essentially the same movie.

I will say that the actors and director did a good job with the script they had, and if this wasn't pushed as a superhero movie, I might have rated it higher. Based on what I was looking for I found it slow and boring.

Bottom line: If you are looking for a superhero movie like Hancock this isn't it. If you are looking for a movie about overcoming addiction, then this might fit the bill.

And no crime fighter!

Was this flick put together by a committee? I ask because you get lots of Melvin partying, drinking, doing drugs, fondling sexy women and hanging out with stupid drunk dudes. Then there's the scenes of Melvin reading from classic writers of philosophy and playing the piano. Then the sci-fi Melvin levitating objects as a fun pastime but he never seem able to use this magic act when needed. Example - when a bunch of drunks carry the wheelchair Lucille upstairs to party!

All I can imagine is whoever produced this boring chopped up story tried to pacify everyone on the committee! Each had an idea of what Melvin was supposed to be - a drunk, a homeless guy, a piano player, a literary genius, a father, a crime fighter, a superhero with super powers. But the crime fighting was barely noticeable.

A confusing mashed up mess of a movie.

I really enjoyed watching this movie. That said, I went in with very little expectations and I did not expect it to be Man of Steel or even Hancock. If all you want to see is a Hollywood superhero action movie, then this is not the movie for you.

This movie is about a guy with superpowers, not a superhero. It's depiction is much more down to earth, mundane, and realistic compared to the glamorous and romantic depiction of people with super powers in other movies like The Marvel and DC films.

It's about a pretty average, albeit really irresponsible guy who deals with his own personal issues.. he also just so happens to have telekinesis. I say give it a chance unless you want an action packed "superhero" movie.

this film SUCKS. in fact, it SUCKS so much that it also actually BLOWS. there is not much of a story and you can see why the budget was under one million dollars. mr Dorff and mr Griffin have lost interest in their careers to be starring in this garbage. there are some interesting effects but nothing that has not been seen before. most of the film centers around mr dorff getting drunk or high. this is somehow supposed to interest the viewer. the ending is also quite stupid. we are left saying is that all? this is just a cheap attempt to cash in on the superhero craze that has overtaken the latest films. someone who actually had the powers shown here would find a way to make some money with them instead of becoming a street bum.

Stephen Dorff plays Melvin, an underachiever/slacker who is loved/worshiped by everyone in his community even though he has nothing to offer, does nothing all day, and spends most of his time partying (which is just wasting time, FYI.) Sooo much of this film are composite shots of him partying, freebasing, then screaming at the camera. "YA DUDE!" You'd think the filmmakers would trust us to understand the fact that Melvin spends his time getting wasted, but nope, they hammer montage after montage after montage down our throats juuuust in case. It's okay that nothing in this film is subtle, but that doesn't mean the film has to be brainless.

What kills me about "American Hero" is its blandness. Its premise is original and a fun take on the current super hero trend of movies, but its originality is criminally wasted. This movie is just plain boring, and annoying, given the many plot points brought up but not explored. For example, Melvin learns that if he uses his super hero powers too much he may die. After this revelation, it's never mentioned again and has no effect for the rest of the film. Oi!

Melvin's character is meant to appeal to slackers, underachievers, guys who think they're above work... you know-- men who live in fantasy worlds. Melvin is truly fictional, as he is someone who gets to have his cake and eat it too. He's loved by all, has a beautiful wife and son, and by the film's end he undergoes no arc, gets no job, no training, no nothing. The filmmakers had a demographic in mind for their audience--ie, loser men-- and knew they couldn't insult them by daring to suggest that Melvin changes his wasteful ways.

But Melvin's like, way smart, you guys. He listens to Tchaikovsky ("The changes! The notes! The way it *crescendos!*" Gag, retch) and reads random passages from Guy de Maupassant, out of context in vain attempt to fool the audience into thinking that Melvin has a *clue* as to what he's talking about. This "appreciation" for literature, and everything about Melvin—from the way he dresses, interacts with others, slumps over, tries to look cool, and wastes time just feeds into the slacker mindset: "I've got, like, *loads* of potential, man. I'm just not interested in joining the rest of the world. Now excuse me as I go and play as a character who offers essential skills to a world in a video game or D&D."

Despite that "Undercover Brother" may be one of the worst movies I've seen (the gag throughout the whole thing: white people are lame! Get it?!) Eddie Griffin is a highlight in this movie. He's a charming guy with real charisma. However, there's one scene where Eddie's character (Lucille) is in a hospital and hits on a nurse. I... gaped, watching that. The nurse laughs his chat up lines off, but in reality, they were so creepy she would have either flown out of the room or called security. The wheelchair Melvin gifts Lucille with at the end of film too was another awful touch. Just because Lucille is loud doesn't mean you should put streamers on his chair's handles, man.

Ever listen in on a tedious, empty, dumb conversation between a gang of spoiled, pretentious gits? That's the tone of this movie.

Avoid.

Griffin and Dorff are great. They deliver. Music fits, camera works. Urban landscape is realistic and true. I' don't know, but this movie surprised me.

Ignore the sucky reviews such as, just because someone expects Hancock mainstream money making style of a movie and then gives it bad review cause of that. Or I liked this one: "It says comedy, but it's not, so I gave this movie a bad mark".

Loose the expectations. Nothing dramatic happens, but its realistic enough with good acting, music, shots and screenplay to make it a solid movie that doesn't fail at the end. It most definitely does not suck and subjective remarks like that should not be implemented.

Peace

When your friend invited you to dinner & said you will eat an expensive unique food & you are so interested & when you remove the food cover you found a burger sandwich..that's exactly what happened to me when I watch this movie, this is one of the worst films & blacklisted for me.

The story came out to us or to me incoherent & in-compact.

The movie does not meet my expectations, also we didn't see any super hero in the movie. If I want to be kind to this movie I can say only one point that may intercede the movie & it was the message I received personally from it which says even if you are in the land of dreams(USA) & you don't have the capability to succeed nothing will help you even if you have supernatural powers, but after all don't call this movie "American hero" you can call it "idling" instead.

That's the story of my life, as it is for many. "I could quit bad habits and write a novel, but I'm stuck in my couch watching other peoples dream instead, as the years go by." I'm going to show this movie to my young neighbour following the same path: "I'll be an astronaut one day, but right now, I'll just have a joint in the bath tub." Steven Dorff is great in this role: sincere and sober (his acting, not the character). He is highly credible as a drunk cokehead and pothead. The realism is reinforced by the handshake camera and a couple of winks at the cameraman. I'm a fan of inclusions of supernatural into a realistic story: a movie is a fiction, so why being limited by the lows of physics? On the other hand, when a movie starts talking supernatural, it usually becomes a central point, leaving the characters soulless. Making digressions from a realistic comedy into a magical world is not common, except in some Latin American movies. They are often misunderstood by the viewers, as they aren't complying to knows standards. When lows of physics are breached to serve the story, I find it perfectly acceptable. Aren't teleportation, flying and telekinesis common in night dreams?

There's a reason this movie was straight to video with a bunch of B list actors. The first issue I had was the main characters are in their 40s and behaving like they're 20. The entire story line was haphazard and thrown together with a bunch of cheesy special effects. The entire thing feels like it's building up to something, then it just doesn't.... There's a reason you've never heard of this movie, and you should keep it that way.

I saw the trailer on youtube and I'm a bit of a sucker for indie superhero movies though there have only ended up being a couple good ones. Before I recommend this one I have to really recommend Special(2006) with Michael Rapaport. Its probably the ultimate superhero movie on a budget. The comparison with this is that both of these have figured out that if you can force people to make a connection with the hero in question budget becomes quite secondary.

On the surface there's a lot of reasons not to like this movie and give it a pass. There's not really a story at all. No climactic ending, the characters are all derelicts with no ambition of nobility. Not even any real charisma.

Its basically a movie where we follow some poor white/black people around what appears to be new Orleans with a camera. They go through some good and bad times ultimately with a semi-cathartic ending.

I grew up in Germantown a ghetto of Louisville Ky. Everybody you knew had gotten drunk and high by the time they were 12 and there were more stories of losers than winners so the people in this movie were my people through and through(yeah I even once jumped off a house and missed a pool.). None of it is condoned or celebrated. They clearly show the downward spiral and the redemption in the trailer.

However if you're like pleasantville middle class and the only time you've ever encountered someone drinking a 40oz can of miller highlife is when you rolled your windows up at a traffic light when approached for change you probably wanna skip this one. You are so not the target audience.

So no surprises here just a charming and sometimes sad story of a drunken loser with powers. Its worth a watch.

When I saw the title and a short description I hoped someone took the movie Will Smith tried to act in (and failed miserably) and fixed it to make a much better movie.

Loving Dorff as an actor I sat down with high expectations. And saw them CRUSHED. This movie is so boring, the interactions so nonsensical and this all leading up to a short scene in which this "superhero" actually does anything worthwhile ... it seems like no one involved was interested in making a good movie. Very,very disappointing result, I would stay far away from this yawn. Unless you are suffering from severe insomnia. In that case this movie will solve all your troubles.

Been fans of them since the 90's I also watched to see parts of New Orleans which I did recognize lol I do love it there and can't wait to go back. So so movie at least it don't look like it was filmed with a potato.

IDK Man I thought fake Eddie Murphy was funny as hell in this. Especially in the beginning. I was cracking up, but I was stoned. This movie had so much potential. But they just squandered what could have been excellent. They let it stew in the Melvin is addict. Crimefighting would've made him likable. I was hoping you'd kill him off.