Theme Song: Huge miss in that there’s no ‘80s AOR song in which the chorus goes, “He-ro at large, he’s a Hee-ro at large,” over and over.
Interesting Dated References: Everyone with a cool apartment having a drafting table even if they weren’t in marketing or architecture; Someone using their finger to brush their teeth being a huge comedic moment.
Social Context: Hero At Large attempts to lampoon superhero tropes and, to a larger degree, societal hero-worship at a time when superhero pop culture was on a relatively small scale. The safe assumption is the film was a reaction to the popularity of the first Superman film in 1978.
Summary: During the height of Three’s Company, John Ritter (Strong Kids, Safe Kids, The Comeback Kid, Real Men) ventured onto the big screen for his first top-billed starring role. He’d had roles prior to this, but Hero At Large was largely billed as a Ritter-vehicle.
In that regard, the movie is totally enjoyable. Ritter as down-on-his-luck actor Steve Nichols, fumbles his way into real-life superherodom and the ensuing celebrity. His charm and comedic chops are definitely on display, although dialed back a bit for a younger audience.
Nichols takes a costumed role promoting the new hit film Captain Adventure outside movie theatres. On his way home one night, he thwarts the robbery of a bodega and things snowball from there. Ritter’s loveable schlub can’t manage to pay rent, but somehow captures the attention of the entire city as they await more exploits from the real-life Captain Adventure. It’s all a charming exercise that’s totally derailed in the 2nd and 3rd act.
A miserable subplot about the town mayor trying to exploit the whole scenario is pointless and eats up at least 35 minutes of runtime. Added to this, the romantic subplot with his apartment building neighbor, J. Marsch (Anne Archer), is poorly paced. In fact, there’s a point mid-movie in which she spends so much time in her apartment debating relationships with Nichols, all momentum is lost.
Eventually things wrap-up when, after deciding to leave town, Nichols rescues a child from a burning building and walks off with Marsch without the aid of a blazing theme song.
Worth Mentioning:
– Tons of 1980 New York street scenes, which look surprisingly clean. Even the bodega where the initial robbery takes place (identified as the still-in-business Village Cigars by On The Streets of New York) looks spotless and organized.
– Kevin Bacon appears briefly in a non-speaking role as “2nd Teenager,” although I didn’t spot him.
– It’s worth noting (as Roger Ebert did in his initial review) Leonard Harris, the actor who portrays Mayoral Candidate Charles Palentine in Taxi Driver, appears here in his only other acting credit as “Mayor.” It’s fun to imagine these two films existing in the same universe, especially given the odd subtext about the detriment of hero-worship that pops up sporadically in this movie.
Poster and Box Art: Credit due for sticking with this single design throughout all print campaigns.
Other than slight formatting variations, I couldn’t find any other posters for this movie. Nice title treatment as well.