Anti-hero (1999)

A washed-up TV superhero steals an experimental type of synthetic heroin and must find a way to sell the drugs before the local drug lord's hitmen can find him!

Director:

Matt Jaissle

Writer:

Isaac Cooper

Stars:

Isaac Cooper, Craig Smith, Mark Arndt

Cast

Credited cast:
Isaac Cooper	...	Ace Baldwin
Craig Smith	...	Rick Beverly
Mark Arndt	...	Zamphir
Dave Bramwell	...	Darrell van Zant
Todd Tjersland	...	Hornsby
Steve Sheppard	...	Cosgrove
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ken Brocx	...	Ken
Sak Chamerouen	...	Shotasaki
Daniel Clark	...	Junkie #1
David Clark	...	Mall Rat #1
Jason Clark	...	Fan Boy
Nathan Clark	...	Gangster #2
Brodie Cox	...	Rock Star
Will Moe Dee	...	Rapper #2
Ben Dickie	...	Junkie #4

Storyline

Ace Baldwin is a washed-up TV actor who plays sidekick on the Magna Max and Wonderboy show. The disillusioned Ace hangs up his cape at night and prowls the streets, looking to score some drugs to kill the pain he feels inside. Zamphir, his main connection, reveals that he has stolen the only known sample of synthetic heroin from Gunnar, the local crime boss. Zamphir soon turns up dead and Ace steals the heroin from its hiding place and attempts to sell it... Gunnar quickly finds out what Ace is up to and dispatches a team of hitmen, Cosgrove and Hornsby, to kill Ace and reclaim his drugs. This leads to a bloody battle between the costumed "superheroes" and the mafia!

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Plot Keywords:

independent film

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Taglines:

I'm not a hero, but I play one on TV.

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Also Known As:

Antihero

Filming Locations:

Olympia, Washington, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kashmir Motion Pictures, Metro City Entertainment

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Cosgrove: I don't clean toilets... I clean toilets my own way!

User Reviews

Bizarre and obscure superhero film

This obscure, no-budget superhero movie tells the story of Ace Baldwin, who plays WonderBoy on the "Magna Max and WonderBoy Super Power Hour" TV show. Ace is fed-up with his life as a D-list celebrity in tights, and sick of his leading man co-star getting all the chicks and fan mail. So Ace decides to drown his sorrow in booze, drugs, and bad decisions.

Things get bad when Ace steals a gallon of "synthetic heroin" (which looks suspiciously like watered-down milk) from a local drug lord and tries to sell it for some quick cash. The middlemen he uses to front the deal all get killed, but not before ratting Ace out. A trio of bumbling hit men are hired to murder Ace, and they try to snipe him off the set of his TV show. This leads to a brief high-speed car chase between the criminals and the two actors playing Magna Max and WonderBoy (both in costume and driving their Magna- Mobile super car). The TV heroes hit a dead-end and are forced to bail out on foot in the woods. There's a bloody shoot-out and then it seems like the movie just ran out of money by the abrupt way it ends. Then we get like 10 minutes of the slowest-scrolling credits in film history. I don't even think the rest of the film's an hour long.

It's a bizarre, uneven movie that's never quite sure whether it's supposed to be a comedy, drama, or action movie. Still, it has a weird kind of charm to it (even if sometimes you are laughing at it instead of with it). The best parts are the random cutaways to clips from the superhero TV show. These are hilariously cheesy and pay obvious heartfelt homage to the old Adam West Batman series from the 60s. Honestly, if the whole movie had been about the superhero show (or better yet, a real superhero movie) instead of obsessed with so much lame drug angst, this would be a much tighter, more focused film.

To be fair, there are a few other good parts to the movie—the three hit men are pretty funny but don't show up until about 45 minutes in, which is when the pacing finally speeds up. The action-packed shootout at the end is probably the most dynamic and polished section of the film. It's also surprisingly gory. For example, there's a great juicy head shot that takes one of the killers out using old school gore FX, not CGI.

The film was made by some of the same cast and crew who did The Necro Files (1997). It is also the last film the director, Matt Jaissle, shot before 300 Killers (2010).