Mystery Men (1999)
A Film Essay by Mark O'Hara
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I'd say the studios needlessly delayed the release of many movies, out of fear of losing money to George Lucas' institution back in May. There's a spate of above-average and solid ones out now, too many for me to justifying paying to see! The one we shelled out for last night is "Mystery Men."
You know the premise if you go to movies regularly. Or perhaps you know it because of hype that permeates other media. Skip the next paragraph if you don't need it.
Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear) is such an efficient superhero that he has virtually cleared the gothic streets of Champion City. Because he is commercial-minded, he wears sponsorship patches, a la race car drivers, plastered across his rubber armored suit. The problem is he's lost the big account, the Pepsi endorsement, so he decides to finagle the early parole of his nemesis, Cassanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush). This way he'll have an arch-villain to quash again, and his name will stay in the news. Well, Frankenstein captures Amazing rather easily. So it's up to a group of clumsy vigilantes to protect the city from Frankenstein and the group of disco-themed henchmen that surround him. The original trio is comprised of Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), The Shoveler (William H. Macy) and the Blue Raja (Hank Azaria). Because their numbers and skills are not a match for the insanely bad Frankenstein, the eccentric crimefighters begin to interview. With whom do they end up? A revolting, zit-covered schmendrick called the Spleen (Paul Reubens), Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell) and The Bowler (Janeane Garofalo). Faced with the task of rescuing Captain Amazing and stopping Frankenstein from destroying Champion City with his souped-up death ray, the team of wannbe superheroes goes under the tutelage of the "terribly mysterious" Sphinx (Wes Studi). They also enlist the help of Dr. Heller (Tom Waits), a brilliant but grizzled scientist who specializes in creating non-lethal weapons. Will they prevail?
What's funniest is the self-reflexive jokes. The film works best as a send-up of all the cliches and conventions of superhero stories you've read and heard and watched. The premise turns post-modern in the sense that so many elements are parodied -there's so much subtlety. When Mr. Furious, tired of the Sphinx's trite Yogi-isms, beats him to the punch line, we see also the off-center skepticism that marks so many works that recognize viewers-have-seen-this-before- so-let's-do-it-a-different-way. Ben Stiller's humor functions so well here because of his style, at once deadpan and dumb, seems funnier when it fails the first time; like a Letterman monologue, Stiller's jokes plod on until they become self-conscious and hilarious. Any character who holds his breath and pushes and talks in stilted phrases like "rage building, blood pressure climbing…" gets laughs out of the sheer stupidity of his shtick. Mr. Furious is also the most well-rounded of the team, Stiller causing us to like his character because he is the neglected underdog.
William H. Macy is even more droll as the Shoveler, the self-effacing crimefighter whose wife threatens to leave him. This guy wears leather work clothes and a catcher's chest protector and a lighted hard-hat, and carries a chrome shovel that he uses deftly as a weapon. "I shovel," he says. Macy's sincerity comes across perfectly; he's perhaps the most humorous one of the bunch because we don't think of him as a comedian.
The Blue Raja is "an effete British superhero" who dresses in cape and turban (with no hint of blue) and throws forks and an occasional spoon. Never knives, though. As with the personal life of The Shoveler, we get to see behind-the-scenes with Raja, and watch his officious mother ask what is going on in her grown son's room. In a turn-about that's good for several chuckles, she ends up proud of him, giving him heirloom flatware to throw and asking him to do his British accent again. Hank Azaria' voice and eyes, full of exaggeration, are also perfect in the role.
A casting coup was done with Geoffrey Rush. This Academy Award winner goes just enough over-the-top with the fiendish Frankenstein, who dresses like a gothic transvestite and makes his ridiculous pronouncements in a German accent. Too bad not many comic roles are nominated for Best Supporting Actor!
Worthy of mention is the vehicle used by the team - which is not called by the title epithet until very late - in their assault on the gates of Cassanova Frankenstein. It's a Herkimer Battle Jitney, a half-sized bus that Mr. Furious pinches from the scrap yard where he works. What a great name for a vehicle that looks both silly and awesome.
It's only in a couple of places that the film falls into the same potholes of cliché we've been fed by other stories. There's a half-hearted romance between Mr. Furious and a waitress at a diner where the heroes eat and schmooze. Claire Forlani is woefully underused as Monica the waitress, giving Mr. Furious first scowls and then looks of longing. Further, for ordinary people who dress up in outlandish outfits, a couple of them actually seem to have super powers! The Bowler, for instance, pulls out a Lucite ball in which the skull of her father is entombed. She throws the ball with near-deadly effect, but many times the lurid-looking thing floats around by itself. And you tell me: doesn't Invisible Boy actually disappear, even though no one is watching?
Director Kinka Usher paces the film well, and the comic timing is what seals the success of the film. Based on the Dark Horse comic, "Mystery Men" blends action and satire so smartly that it reaches a very wide audience. It's the kind of movie that piles up one-liners and visual jokes one on top of the next, so that a belly laugh is followed by a series of chuckles before the next belly laugh. And it's surely a tribute to say there's not much laugh down-time. If you want to see a knock-down funny film, you must be willing to knock down a film with funniness!
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