Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, William H. Macy, Janeane Garofalo, Paul Reubens, Geoffrey Rush, Greg Kinnear, Kel Mitchell and Wes Studi
I Guess You Don't Have to be Very Mysterious to Call Yourselves the Mystery Men
Spoof comedies. They have become the newest trend in funny movies. Just look at the huge popularity of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and its sequel Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (two movies which happen to be two of my favorite over the last few years). So why not make a spoof of the superhero genre a la Superman (with its numerous sequels) and Batman (and its numerous sequels). So that is what the creators of Mystery Men did. This has everything that would accompany a great superhero flick along with some of the somedy that would make it a spoof, the problem is with all the acting talent they threw into this movie there is nobody that can really stand out among the crowd, making Mystery Men kind of a dissapointment.
The Mystery Men in their cool outfits
Champion City is everything you could hope for in a Gothic, superhero type of place. It has the high rises with millions of dark alleys, it has the neon signs in every language besides English, and it has its superhero. Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear, You've Got Mail, As Good As It Gets) has got it all, a super cool looking supersuit, with superpowers and the ability to foil supervillians. The problem is he has been so good at fighting evil that there are no villians left for him to foil and his sponsers (that's right, even Captain Amazing has sold out) like Pepsi and Rayovac are going to pull there endorsements because he is no longer in the news every day. To help put himself back in the spotlight, and using the influence of his normal identity, millionare Lance Hutton, he arranges to have his greatest nemesis Cassanove Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush, Shakespeare in Love, Elizabeth, Les Misérables) out of the insane assylum that he had him placed in years before. Of course his plan backfires and Cassanova captures Captain Amazing and plans to kill him the next evening. The whole while Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller, There's Something About Mary, Happy Gilmore), The Shoveler (William H. Macy, Pleasantville, Fargo) and The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria, Godzilla, Anastasia [voice], "The Simpsons" [voice], "Mad About You") all realize that they need to rescue Captain Amazing but they know they can't do it with there mediocre powers (Mr. Furious just thorws a temper tantrum, The Shoveler smacks people with his shovel and The Blue Raja, who doesn't wear blue, flings forks at a high speed). In order to help Captain Amazing they recruit Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell, Good Burger, "Keenan & Kel") who can only become invisible when no one is looking at him), The Spleen (Paul Reubens aka Pee-Wee Herman, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, "Pee-Wee's Playhouse") whose power is his flatulance, The Bowler (Janeane Garofalo, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, The Truth About Cats and Dogs) who flings a bowling ball with her fathers skull in it and The Sphinx (Wes Studi, The Last of the Mohicans) who acts as the groups spiritual trainer and guide on how to be a superhero. After training this new group of crime fighters must fight through such evil groups as the Disco Boys, the Frat Boys, the Mobsters et al to get to Captain Amazing. But do they have enough to rescue Captain Amazing, defeat Cassanova Frankenstein and become famous before the evening news?
Cassanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush) with the Disco Boys
There were a lot of things I really liked about this movie. Unfortunaly there weren't enough of them to make me stop wondering what was missing from this movie. The story was OK (which is about what you should expect from a comedy) and the acting was all right, which is what really disappointed me. Because of the big names starring in this movie (Geoffrey Rush, Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofelo, William H. Macy, Greg Kinnear) that the whole movie would be packed from stem to stern with great acting. The problem was the big names were too large to all fit on the screen together. There were a few exceptions: William H. Macy did play a pretty good straight man to the other characters comedians, although that is what he always does; Geoffrey Rush gave a fun to watch performance as the villian in a comedy, which is definitely new for him; and Paul Ruebens (aka Pee-Wee Herman), as much as I hate to say it, gave the funniest performance and pretty much stole the show. Overall I was slightly dissappointed by Mystery Men, but I still found it to be an enjoyable movie, and that has got to be worth something.
