The Meteor Man

Writer-director-actor Robert Townsend hits paydirt with the first black superhero. An equivalent of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne (Townsend), the hero 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 energetic–also 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 cameos–by Big Daddy Kane, Bill Cosby, Nancy Wilson, and Frank Gorshin, among others. Bricktown Square, Burnham Plaza, Golf Glen, North Riverside, Plaza, Ford City, Bel-Air Drive-In, Double Drive-In, Esquire, Hyde Park, Pipers Alley. Read more