Superhero Movie *

I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe it was Leslie Nielsen that made me want to see "Superhero Movie." I was thinking fondly of the "Naked Gun" series, I suppose. I was definitely not thinking of writer/director Craig Mazin's execrable "Scary Movie" series, in which Nielsen also appeared. This movie has minimal thought, juvenile humor, lots of fart humor, and a dependence on "Spider-Man" that is slavish, with a scene or two of "X-Men," "Fantastic Four,"and "Batman Begins" thrown in so as not to make it a one-movie rip-off. The best thing I can say about this film is that it is better than "Date Movie," which still holds its place as the worst movie of this millennium. Eight-year-olds will love it. If you want a take-off on a genre that is actually funny and affecting, go see "Run, Fat Boy, Run."

Rated PG-13. 85 Minutes. Craig Mazin- Director / Writer / Producer, Robert K. Weiss - Producer, David Zucker - Producer, Thomas E. Ackerman - Cinematographer, James L. Venable - Composer, Bob Ziembicki - Production Designer, Craig Herring - Editor. Distributed by Dimension Films.

Principal actors: Drake Bell, Sara Paxton, Christopher McDonald, Pamela Anderson, Tracy Morgan, Regina Hall, Craig Bierko, and Leslie Nielsen.