MYSTERY MEN A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
As superheroes, it's hard enough fighting vicious villains without having the local cops ridicule you as being merely a group of wannabes. And with Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear) garnering all of the television coverage and concomitant product endorsements, it's almost enough to make you want to hang up your kitschy costume and return to a normal lifestyle.
Kinka Usher's hyperactive spoof of comic book action heroes, MYSTERY MEN, is never less than cute. Its shortcoming is that Neil Cuthbert's superficial script never goes beyond cute. You can count the big laughs on a single hand, but the movie never fails to provide good entertainment. And even if it never wows you, at least the risk taking and imaginative story with its good-spirited hijinks will never disappoint you either. Think of it as BATMAN with a heart. The production design and art direction by BLADE's Kirk M. Petruccelli and Barry Chusid are reminiscent of the look of the Tim Burton BATMANs.
Captain Amazing, who has just lost his Pepsi endorsement but not his power, has a predicament. Thanks to his effectiveness, there just aren't enough evil challengers left in Champion City. Forced to lower himself to fighting minor bad guys at a nursing home, he needs a better class of opponents. Otherwise, more of his sponsors, whose logos he wears on his black jumpsuit, will drop him like they would a soap opera with falling market share.
Captain Amazing turns to his old nemesis, Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush), to save the day. Although Frankenstein is currently imprisoned in a mental institution for his dastardly deeds, this proves little impediment to Captain Amazing's plan for battle.
While the titans are contesting the high ground, the story's ragtag band of wannabes are winning the hearts of the audience, if not the citizens of Champion City, as their track record does not inspire confidence.
The founders of this unnamed band, later to be referred to as the Mystery Men, are some very unlikely heroes. The original members of the group include: the Blue Raja (Hank Azaria), the master of cutlery -- throwing forks and spoons but eschewing knives; the Shoveler (William H. Macy), who wears a yellow miner's hat and swings a mean shovel; and Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), an angry, biker guy who drives a "Harley-compatible motorcycle." (For the record, I drive a Rolls-Royce-compatible automobile.)
"We're the other guys," the sincerely serious and sweetly shy Shoveler explains, "We're the guys nobody bets on." When the need arises, he's willing to rise to any challenge, even though his wife keeps threatening to divorce him because of all of his silly superhero stuff. "We've got a blind date with destiny, and it looks like she's ordered the lobster," he says to arouse his fellow wannabes to battle. The movie has the good sense to never take itself seriously, making the most ridiculous lines the best.
Some even weirder recruits join them. Kel Mitchell plays a comic-worshiping kid known as Invisible Boy. His claim to fame is that he can make himself invisible. There is only this one small catch. While he's invisible, he can see himself, but if anyone else looks, he becomes visible again. The creative story manages to find a use for this highly limited talent.
The Spleen (Paul Reubens) produces noxious gas as his weapon, which attracts an amorous skunk. It's a good sign when a movie is able to find something a little different to do with the overworked flatulence jokes.
Wes Studi plays their new leader, The Sphinx, who trains them in everything from group hugs to sewing. Most of all, he provides them with words of wisdom to speak to their inner superhero child. ("You must be like the wolf pack and not the six-pack." "He who quits training, only trains himself to quit.") All of this cliched wisdom drives the word-challenged Mr. Furious into his signature fits of anger. "I don't need a compass to tell me which way the sun shines," he tells the Sphinx.
As perhaps the funniest of the lot, Janeane Garofalo plays the Bowler. She is interviewed last on a day when the guys talk to a host of superhero pretenders (the Waffleman, the Pencilhead, the Squeegeeman, the Ballerinaman and the PMS Avenger among others). Stiller doesn't do much with his part, except in his scenes with Garofalo. Together, their snappy, sarcastic chemistry steals the scenes.
There's a plot, but it doesn't really matter. The movie just jumps from one nice visual to another. Every once and awhile, the scenes are funny enough to produce outright laughter. The now moribund BATMAN series could use some doses of MYSTERY MEN's self-mocking humor. There isn't much to MYSTERY MEN, but what there is will keep a smile on your face.
MYSTERY MEN runs 1:52. It is rated PG-13 for comic action violence and crude humor and would be fine for kids 8 and up.
My son Jeffrey, age 10, liked it and gave it ** 1/2. He thought it was an imaginative film with a lot of action.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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