Pfft! Super spoof goes splat! Ow!

Leslie Nielsen has been playing incontinent on the screen for so long it's no wonder that, ahem, there's no gas left in that tank. So it's also no wonder that the 81-year-old funnyman passes (ahem) that cheese-slicing trademark on to Marion Ross, Richie Cunningham's TV mom, for

Superhero Movie

, the latest winded (ahem,

ahem

) installment in the movie-spoof genre that wore out its welcome as far back as

Scary Movie 2

.

It's a movie for the inner 9-year-old in us all. That's the age that most people move on from flatulence jokes, and sniggering at the "s" or "f" words.

That's a demographic that doesn't apparently include

Scary Movie 3

and

4

writer Craig Mazin, writer-director on this tiresome take on

Spider-Man

,

The X-Men

,

Batman

and

The Fantastic Four

. Mazin can barely muster enough script to reference all of those movies in this spoof, which leans almost entirely on

Spider-Man

. He certainly can't find anything funny to say about those movies.

Drake Bell plays Rick Riker, a would-be Empire City photographer bitten by a radioactive dragonfly on a class field trip. It gives him super powers. It gives him a shot with the lovely Jill Johnson (Sara Paxton). It doesn't help him save his aunt and uncle (Ross and Nielsen) from the city's criminal element.

The movie's highlight is actually available for free, all over the Internet. Actor Miles Fisher replicates Tom Cruise's "I am the Way, the Thetan, the Light" Scientology recruiting video of last year to hilarious effect.

But that's all that's hilarious in this movie. And you can see that bit for free on YouTube.

Directed by Craig Mazin. With Drake Bell, Sara Paxton.

Running time:

1 hours, 16 mins.

Parent's guide:

PG-13 (crude and sexual content, drug references and profanity)

Playing at:

area theaters