Elaine Hendrix and Molly Shannon "Superstar."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Molly Shannon and Will Ferrell Director: Bruce McCulloch Rated: PG-13, with profanity Length: 82 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(Oct. 8, 1999) -- Saturday Night Live's bespectacled Catholic school girl with the small plaid skirt and the big dreams gets the overblown big-screen treatment in Superstar.

SNL regular Molly Shannon recreates her popular Mary Katherine Gallagher character. But, like the Roxbury guys, Pat, and the Coneheads before her, Mary can't get our interest -- or laughs -- beyond the 10-minute span of TV sketch comedy.

(It's a hard thing to do -- most SNL graduates succeeded on the big screen with full-fledged characters, not SNL caricatures.

Superstar begins promisingly with a colorful credit sequence involving the synchronized swimming of pink-clad little girls. Then we're introduced to Mary, a rambunctious young girl all too willing to jump joyously into the deep end of the pool.

The film then moves to Mary's teen years, and to the Catholic school where she's a bright but nerdy student.

She fantasizes about an impossible romance with Sky (the school's most handsome athlete and best all-round dancer -- played by her SNL co-star, Will Ferrell).

Mary has one heartfelt wish: to be kissed passionately, like in the movies. And Mary knows her movies -- she holds down an after-school job as the rewind person at a local video store.

But with no guy on the horizon, Mary resorts to rehearsing her kisses on the bark of trees or in the mirror.

When Catholic Teen Magazine sponsors a talent contest, Mary decides to enter. First prize is a trip to Hollywood for a role as an extra in a new movie "with positive moral values." Mary figures that's when she'll get her long-awaited kiss.

Working with her nerdy friends and her reluctant grandmother (Glynis Johns), Mary fashions a song-and-dance routine.

And that's about all there is to Superstar, despite efforts to pad the enterprise with unfulfilled references to other movies, especially Carrie.

Shannon offers a one-note performance that's ultimately more silly than sustaining. It certainly wasn't enough to keep me from checking my watch every 10 minutes.