An eclectic cast and impressive production design add a quality sheen to this mildly diverting superhero spoof, based on the Dark Horse comic. The joke is that these saviours of Champion City possess abilities that are of no use whatsoever - fork-throwing expertise, shovel-wielding skills, noxious bodily odours and so on. At a shade over two hours, Kinka Usher's film is much too long to sustain the script's slender humour quota. However, with actors of the calibre of William H Macy, Greg Kinnear, Ben Stiller, Wes Studi and Geoffrey Rush, it's never short of quirky appeal.

When Champion City's hero Captain Amazing is kidnapped by the recently paroled supervillain Casanova Frankenstein, a trio of average, everyday superheroes -- Mr. Furious, the Shoveler and the Blue Raja -- assemble a new super team to save him.