The Meteor Man

Writer-director-actor Robert Townsend hits pay dirt with the first black superhero (1993). An equivalent of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, the hero (Townsend) is a mousy inner-city schoolteacher and part-time musician in Washington, D.C., who assumes extraordinary powers after being hit by an emerald green meteor and proceeds to do battle against a big-time drug syndicate that’s menacing the ghetto. The results are very funny, delightfully stylized, and euphorically energeticalso a bit slapdash in the manner of Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle, though I didn’t mind at all. With Robert Guillaume, Marla Gibbs, Eddie Griffin, James Earl Jones, Marilyn Coleman, Another Bad Creation, and loads of cameosby Big Daddy Kane, Bill Cosby, Nancy Wilson, and Frank Gorshin, among others. 100 min. (JR)

This entry was posted in Featured Texts. Bookmark the permalink.