I have to tell you that there were parts of The Super that are quite funny. But sad to say that at times the characters in the film become caricatures.

Vincent Gardenia is a landlord from hell. He owns several buikldigs and like many landlords the NYC Housing Department can't keep up with his shenanigans. He's raised his son Joe Pesci to be like him.

But when Pesci essentially taking a fall for dad is given house arrest in landlord and tenant court. Pesci is confined to one of Gardenia's slumlord properties and slowly but surely starts seeing his tenants as people.

In some ways this isn't a topic for humor. There are a lot of terrible landlords out there and there are tenants from hell as well. I've been in one role and had an opportunity in life to become a landlord. I've never regretted declining the role.

Best performance in the film is that of Ruben Blades who hustles and cons Pesci with 3 card monte and basketball. Also young Kenny Blank bonds nicely with Pesci as the grandson of one of the tenants.

The Super is a nice film, but will never be a top five for Joe Pesci.

Louie Kritski (Joe Pesci) is a money-grubbing heartless NYC slumlord who learned it from his father Big Lou (Vincent Gardenia). Housing authorities lawyer Naomi Bensinger prosecutes him. He is sentenced to bring his building up to code and forced to stay in an apartment in his building for 120 days. Louie has to stay in the building and Big Lou commands him not to fix one single thing.

The movie is pretty bad and it has to do with Joe Pesci. He's a good comic relief sidekick as this annoying character. Usually the lead characters can show solidarity with the audience and ridicule Pesci. The whole movie is ridiculous and unreal. The slums have no real problems because all of the tenants are saints. Louie cluelessly leaves his expensive car parked in the ghetto. For such a crass person, he is also completely naive. Pesci is aggressively annoying. Of course, he learns the expected heart warming lesson but what else is there?

Louie Kritski (Joe Pesci) is an incorrigible slumlord, but don't blame him, he got it from his father. OK, blame him, but blame his dad too. He was such a miserable slumlord that the judge sentenced him to 120 days confinement in one of his vacant units not to be released until 120 days or he makes all necessary repairs. Louie was going to go down fighting not to improve the multi-unit New York City property.

The movie was funny at some points, but nothing sustainable. Louie was an insufferable vulgar jerk whose best pick up lines involved mentioning sex. He tried unsuccessfully to score with the lawyer that took him to court. She was all too nice in her rejections considering the crassness of his advances. I was actually worried she was going to fall for him, thereby further skewing the already slanted view of some guys that women like a straightforward and forceful guy. She had been rebuffing him time after time as he made his tenants suffer and subjected her to his insufferable sexism. Then, he handed out heaters to his freezing tenants and all of a sudden there was a slight twinkle in her eye like, "Maybe he's not such a bad guy after all." For God's sakes, he only handed out heaters, it's not like he solved world hunger. I think he may have had a chance if he didn't once again put his foot in his mouth by mentioning cohabitation yet again.

The point of the movie was that people deserve to be treated like people, and that means giving them heat, electricity, running water, and no rats. Louie learned that by the end and so did his dad in a very afterschool-special type of way.

His father was going to burn down the building to free his son from living there and he revealed the plan to his son in the most obtuse way. "It's only a roof fire," he said sincerely. Oh, so we're admitting to arson now? Louie saved the building from ever being set on fire and had a heart-to-heart with his father immediately thereafter that seemed to change the old man's entire outlook on life. It was exactly what you'd see in a half hour sitcom.

"The Super" had flashes of goodness while the bulk of it was just OK. Pesci was good at being the obnoxious ahole that became his calling card while the rest of the cast was unmemorable. I know "The Super" is referring to the superintendent, but I think that title was just a little too lofty.