August 11, 2013

I picked this up in my local supermarket for a fiver, and really glad I did. A ninety-minute HBO documentary, it's a light yet loving look at a whole bunch of people across America who have chosen to spend their spare time patrolling the streets as "real-life superheroes". Try to think Defendor, Super or Kick-Ass, if they were real. Gently piss-taking - it's hard not to in fairness when some of these heroes are running into traffic or conducting … read the rest.

I picked this up in my local supermarket for a fiver, and really glad I did. A ninety-minute HBO documentary, it's a light yet loving look at a whole bunch of people across America who have chosen to spend their spare time patrolling the streets as "real-life superheroes". Try to think Defendor, Super or Kick-Ass, if they were real. Gently piss-taking - it's hard not to in fairness when some of these heroes are running into traffic or conducting interviews on random people's gardens ("Get the **** off of my property!") - but generally with a caring eye for these strange social outcasts who nevertheless undoubtedly mean well, the documentary mostly follows the fortunes of Mr. Xtreme in California (whilst watching Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers in his absolute tip of an apartment - the XtremeCave, he calls it - he proclaims: "Yeah! They're gonna MORPH now!" with the enthusiasm of a five year-old) as he tries to recruit new members into the XJL (the Xtreme Justice League, of course), and Master Legend in Florida, the leader of Team Justice (himself, Symbiote, Super Hero and a female who's name escapes me now; there are loads of these oddballs in this film) with a eye for the ladies and a stomach for a cold beer or three whilst on patrol ("I always keep beer for the night ahead in my van...Never drink to drunkenness though (gulp, gulp)... Now, if you don't mind, I need to quench my thirst in this bar..."). It intersperses the fun and games with numerous police/legal experts' concerns about what use if any these vigilantes are, and what probable dangers they're either walking into or inadvertantly causing themselves. The whole thing seems ripe for a Louis Theroux-style cautionary, told-you-so tragedy to occur, and indeed a quartet of Supers (The New York Initiative, featuring an openly gay hero) take to the street openly committing the act of entrapment (trying to entice potential gay-bashers). Fortunately it doesn't come to that ("Well, it's started to rain, so we're going home now") and the documentary retains its light heart throughout. 9.5/10, thoroughly recommended. It's a fiver well spent, I promise.

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