Mystery Men (1999)

Anytime you team up Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo, I'm there. This film, while cute and clever and amusing, as well as a spoof of a modern genre ("Burton-esque" superhero films), is only mildly entertaining. It has a lack of real spirit and scripting to make it truly unique. Instead it is rather acceptable plot and dialogue, though not ground-breaking, acted out by entertaining and familiar faces that makes us want to like it. So, it's worth the time and money, when your lack of entertainment choices are running thin.

The cast is huge. In addition to the dark haired, urban whining of Stiller and Garofalo, none other than PeeWee Herman (Paul Ruebens), Kel Mitchell (TV's "Keenan and Kel"), William H. Macy, Hank Azaria, Greg Kinnear, Lena Olin, Tom Waits, and Geoffrey Rush appear here. Of these, Kinnear seems to have the most fun, spoofing a modern film superhero genre that has run amok with product placement and media whoring. He is sorely missed in the film's final reels. Macy, meanwhile, has a subtextural theme here when he comes home to a houseful of black children and an Africa-American wife. What is perfect is that the role is played and scripted exactly as if she were white. The family lives in a aluminum sided pink suburbanite home with children's toys cluttering the yard and Astroturf around the pool in the backyard. It's beautiful, man. A truly interracial couple that does not call attention to the difference and does not make any bones about the fact that there IS no difference. It's perfection in it's simplicity.

Based on a comic book, the film is directed adequately with more attention paid to the big-budget effects of "Champion City," where the supergroup toils, than to any true plot or theme. Oh sure, we get the expected, tired, cliche themes of teamwork and friendship, but these are poorly worn ideals foisted on is in lieu of a real script. Still, it's fun to watch and satisfying mind candy; Stiller and Garofalo whip in enough of the ol' zingers for the literate set to keep us interested while the comic book fans delight in the usual comic book schtuff. There's even a ton of pop and disco music coursing through the film to distract us from any of it's flaws. Who would complain?

Exactly.

Notes: Also with Eddie Izzard, Claire Forlani, Louise Lasser, and Wes Studi. Cameos from Michael Bay, Artie Lange, Mark Mothersbaugh, Jody Watley, Dana Gould.

Directed by Kinka Usher.

Written by Neil Cuthbert.

Based on the comic by Bob Burden.

Report Card

Script: C+

Acting: B+

Cinematography\Lighting: C

Special Effects\Make Up: A-

Music: F

Final Grade: C