sky high

THE FLICK: Get ready to hear this sentence a lot over the next few weeks: “Sky High is way better than you’d expect!” That’s because this clever teen movie / comic-book hybrid came on the heels of all the Incredibles hype and disappeared in a black hole when it hit theaters, a fate that was criminally unfair for a film this entertaining. The ad campaign was partly to blame – pitching the flick as something that might have shown up on The Disney Channel, not a feature film. Or maybe it was just the image of Kurt Russell in that silly looking super suit. But Sky High is a silly movie. And it embraces everything that a geeky middle-school (or middle-aged) comic book fan loves with genuine enthusiasm; a superhero-coated shell around a traditional teen flick fresh off the John Hughes assembly line. Only instead of the jocks and the nerds we have “heroes” and “sidekicks,” a student body separated by superpowers instead of raging hormones. Yet beset by the same angst and crises that every teenager suffers. As the son of the two biggest superheroes in town, Wil Stronghold (Will & Grace’s Michael Angarano) enters the halls of Sky High as a freshman burdened with the weight of too many expectations. And when the moment comes to display his powers (prodded by guest star Bruce Campbell as the blowhard gym teacher), Wil has nothing...nada...zilch, which puts him in sidekick school where kids with sup-par powers end up. The rest of the film follows the teen movie formula...with a twist. The school bully is a flaming hothead whose father was put in jail by Wil’s do-gooder parents. The love interest is a vegetarian who can control plants with her mind. And the big homecoming dance ends up as an all-out battle between a mysterious supervillian and the long-suffering sidekicks. From the all-80’s covers on the soundtrack to the inside-joke cameos (Wonder Woman herself, Lynda Carter, plays Principal Powers), Sky High delivers something funny, fantastic or familiar every few seconds. Mark this one down as one of the best movies that you missed this year...then go rent the damn thing! THE FEATURES: The movie is radioactive, but the extras are only average. An alternate opening goes along with some super bloopers and a couple of short featurettes on the stunts and relatively unknown cast. Bowling For Soup’s “I Melt With You” is the only one of the 80’s covers to earn a video on the Disney DVD.