The Meteor Man

Jefferson Reed is a shy, mild-mannered schoolteacher in Washington, D.C., whose neighborhood lives under the shadow of gangs that rob and intimidate its residents. One night he is struck in the chest by a chunk of meteor and wakes up with strange abilities: he can fly, though heights frighten him, and he absorbs the contents of any book for a short burst of time. While he would rather put the whole thing behind him, his students, friends and family press him to use his powers against the gang known as the Golden Lords. He ends up taking on a masked identity to do it.

Robert Townsend directed, wrote and produced the film and stars as Jefferson Reed, leading a cast that includes Marla Gibbs, Eddie Griffin, Robert Guillaume, James Earl Jones and Roy Fegan, with 39 credited performers in all. It followed Townsend's earlier work behind the camera on Eddie Murphy Raw and Hollywood Shuffle, and came before Jackie's Back! and Up, Up, and Away. The film was released on August 6, 1993 and runs 100 minutes.

Made for a reported 20 million dollars, it returned about 8 million worldwide, a result well short of its cost. On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 4 out of 10 from 16 reviews, while on TMDB it sits at 5.8 out of 10 from 203 votes, so audiences rated it somewhat more kindly than critics did.