Super Sucker (2002)

Fred Berlow (Jeff Daniels) grows up loving vaccums crying more for the prospect of losing a vacuum than when his mom dies. When he's a grown man he becomes a Super Sucker (NEVER call it a vacuum) salesman, in competition with a fellow seller and fighting to keep his distribution rights. The owner gives them one more contest to see who gets more sales. The loser will be fired. Of course Fred's Super sucker group of salesman don't do well at all at first against the rival salesman group's flashier tactics, but thanks to a super sucker attachment that thanks to it's size is a hit with women and gay men they might stand a chance. This film is quaint, but cant help but fall apart as time goes on. There's a few (VERY few) laughs scattered here and there, but "Used Cars" is still so much better.My Grade: D+

After watching this movie, I decided that all movies that I do not finish will be given a "1" rating on IMDB - after all, if someone who wants to watch a movie is watching one, and then stops it because it's horrid, there's something seriously wrong.I stopped after 25 minutes. The biggest allure of this movie was personal, as the lead character looked like an awful boss I had, and I enjoyed watching him live a sad existance as a door to door salesman. If I hadn't of been for this fact alone, I think this would've held my intelligence for 18 minutes. Maybe 19.This is a bad movie due to the fact that you can only make so many jokes about a door to door salesman, and when they're not good, the entire idea collapses. Yes, we understand his life is pathetic, but that's not good enough to make a movie. The lives of the people in Office Space were pathetic (wait, I'm like those people), but I'd consider that movie to be about a nine on the laughs scale, while this movie got a 1.If I had a kid sister, she could've done better for a 3rd grade english project. Pass on this one.

Being a fellow Michigander (with Jeff Daniels), I can see part of where this movie came from. It's a satirical look at Midwestern family values and sexual mores (like Daniels' other, more well-known, and overall better "Pleasantville"). Unlike "Pleasantville," where the attacks on sexual puritanism are subtle enough for some casual viewers to miss, "Super Sucker" is blatant.The premise: A down-and-out vacuum cleaner distributor (Daniels) in a moderate-sized Midwest town (based on and shot in Jackson, Michigan) has been given 30 days to outsell his overbearing and obnoxious competitor. Whoever sells the most systems gets sole rights to distributorship. Daniels seems destined to lose -- the competition has much more advertising money, and is willing to throw any rules of fairness out the window -- until he discovers a special use for a long-discontinued attachment. He puts the attachment into rapid production, and offers it as a "special bonus" that only his distributorship has available. His fate changes radically, buildi ng up to a raucous farce of a climax.The buildup is, in my opinion, slow, and bits are ham-fistedly predictable; the "cat" scene belonged in a Farrelly Brothers movie (and that's not a compliment), but it was thankfully brief. But once it gets going (around the midpoint), and writer/director Daniels decides that whatever real world logic he had been attempting to follow should be thrown out the window in favor of over-the-top absurdity, it has some truly comedic scenes. In a time when Michigan's sexual more pendulum appears to be swinging back to the left, the film is a nice push in the right direction. And, sociosexual politics aside, it's a darn fine piece of unpretentious independent comedy -- something we can never have enough of.TV buffs will likely enjoy a cameo from Gilligan Island's Dawn Wells, making fun of her own stereotyping as Mary Ann.Purple Rose fans will note that, except for bits of body-humor comedy and Daniels' affably hapless good guy (a persona he started with "Something Wild"), this is a much different film than Escanaba in Da Moonlight (also a good movie, although I enjoyed the play more). Like "Pleasantville," it has more national appeal ("Escanaba" was rife with Michigan in-jokes), and despite some of its stageplay-like shots, it's obviously based on a screenplay, with many more scenes and a much larger cast. I hope Purple Rose works out its own kinks in distributorship (leaving me wondering if Daniels' frustration here didn't contribute to "Super Sucker"'s premise), because these films deserve a larger audience than they seem to be getting.

Which is a compliment, if you've seen it. Its plot is puerile in nature and a base in concept, which will offend the gentle viewer. However, for those who are comfortable enough deal with the nature of the show will find themselves wanting to roll on the floor laughing.I am particularly delighted how they put the fifties vacuum salesman into today's world, but gave the movie a fifties look and feel. The lighting, styling and many of the mannerisms of the characters had you jumping back and forth between the eras.This movie, like Escanaba in Da Moonlight, had the strong sense of having been a play. Many of the stagings and acting parts jumped out and said this is a play stage scenario.Go see this movie and enjoy it. Don't let your insecurity chase you away.