Defendor

Woody Harrelson constantly amazes me. And it is not just because I had very low expectations of him. There was that aspect, but I have long since realized that his role on 'Cheers' did him a serious disservice. He is a wonderful actor with an astonishing range. The troublesome thing in this movie is that I am not sure what his psychiatric diagnosis is (really, I need neuropsychological testing to even make a viable stab at it)--he is too niave and engaging to be Aspbergers, we have no known history of head injury, and he seems more childlike than intellectually impaired. Hard to say.
In any case, he is the hero of this movie in every sense of the word. By day, Arthur Poppington is a construction worker with a below-average IQ. By night, he's Defendor, dishing out justice with unexpected weaponry. It happens that the movie starts out light and funny, but it quickly evolves into something both dark and sad. Real life, it turns out, is not all that it is cracked up to be. And it is not the way that Arthur sees it wither--there is a little bit of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night' about this as well--we hear how Arthur thinks about his mission, but we see another truth through our own eyes.
A sub-story here is the unlikely friendship between Defendor and a drug-addicted teenaged prostitute, and in his ongoing mission to take down Captain Industry.
For this being his first directing gig, Peter Stebbings hits a bullseye. There's great cinematography and lighting, and Stebbings playfully throws out a few superhero flick cliches. John Rowley serves up a great movie score, with a powerful and dark superhero soundtrack. The supporting cast is also top-notch, from Elias Koteas and Sandra Oh to Clark Johnson (The Wire/Homicide). Recommended.