Clean carpets and dirty minds find a common ground in this comedy written, directed, produced, and distributed by leading man Jeff Daniels. Fred Barlow (Daniels) is a hapless door-to-door salesman who scrapes together a living selling and distributing the Super Sucker Home Cleaning System, a deluxe vacuum cleaning unit, in the small Michigan community of Johnson City. While Barlow and his dedicated but inept staff believe in their product, they don't have much luck in actually moving the
merchandise, and hotshot fellow distributor Winslow Schnaebelt (Harve Presnell) is eager to take over Barlow's territory. Super Sucker prexy Cy Suckerton II (John Lepard), tired of the squabbling between Barlow and Schnaebelt, decides to settle the matter once and for all with a contest -- whoever sells the most vacuums in 30 days will have all of Johnson City to themselves. Barlow and his right-hand-man Howard Butterworth (Matt Letscher) try to gear up their staff to make an all-out sales assault on Johnson City, but it turns out that the deciding factor may well be the "Housewife's Little Helper," a little-used vacuum attachment for "cleaning those hard-to-reach places" which Barlow discovers has a surprising use that has nothing to do with sweeping the rug. Super Sucker also features a guest appearance by Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island) as the official Super Sucker spokesperson; longtime Bob Seger sideman Alto Reed contributed to the film's soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Daniels obviously loves the medium and knows how to assemble a movie, but he needs to flesh out a story that could easily have been told between beers and burps at the Escanaba hunting camp.
Daniels turns to hackneyed stereotypes and easy plot lines, choosing to see the Midwest as a place where door-to-door salesmen rule the streets and bored housewives all lead unfulfilling cookie-cutter lives.
Writer-Director Jeff Daniels comes up with about forty-five minutes of inspired silliness, but, eventually, Super Sucker winds up being a one-joke film, though, admittedly, that joke is often funnier than it should be.
Daniels shows his affection for Middle America in every Super Sucker scene and he proves he knows this turf down to the barn-wood paneling of Jackson City's steakhouse.
No quotes approved yet for Super Sucker. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'Super Sucker'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
Top Critic
