Mystery Men (1999)

 Originally Reviewed

Thursday June 29, 2006

If you're tired of the same old superhero action flick with the, all loved, ever so popular, untouchable hero who fights the mutant bad guy set on conquering the world, then maybe you should give Mystery Men a try. Mystery Men is one of the rare superhero films that dares to give you something different...wannabes.

The setting is Champion City, the local hero Captain Amazing has pretty much put himself out of a job. He's locked away all the evil villains and is now reduced to stopping robberies at the old folk's home and being a sponsor for Pepsi and Reebok. Meanwhile you have those "superheroes" on the bottom rung who really aren't that super, such as Mr. Furious whose anger usually leads to him getting beat up rather than him beating up others; Blue Raja who ironically wears no Blue, speaks in a fake British accent and hurls forks (sometimes spoons); and finally The Shoveler whose main weapon of choice is of course a shovel which usually finds its way upside the head of one of his colleagues rather than a villain.

These three misfits are beginning to get depressed when all the do is lose, and then Captain Amazing comes in and takes all the thunder. But Captain Amazing is tired of taking down petty thiefs. Therefore, Captain Amazing decides to do something to boost his career, its time he had another huge battle. He has Casanova Frankenstein, one of his evilest adversary's, released from the insane asylum, only to quickly be outwitted and find himself in the hands of Casanova and leaving the city at left at bay.

Now with the disappearance of Captain Amazing our three foolish friends Mr. Furious, Blue Raja, and The Shoveler take it upon themselves to find and rescue him from the clutches of Casanova, but they have no chance alone, they decide to recruit some more misfits to join their rag tag band. Those include: The Bowler whose weapon is the skull of her dead father encased in a bowling ball; The Spleen who has been cursed with the ability to fire knockout blasts of fart at will; The Sphinx who cuts guns in half with his mind and has an arsenal of wise sayings, and finally Invisible Boy who can only become invisible when no one is looking at him. This group must learn to trust each other, work together, and most of all believe in themselves if they wish to save Champion City from the destruction of Casanova Frankenstein.

Mystery Men is a supremely corny film, but that's what makes it so great, to take a heavily worked genre and spoof it into a different style of an action hero story. It's quite logical that if there are some very popular superheroes, somewhere in the streets lurks the ones that dream of being so famous and skilled, this is their story.

The casting in the film is outstanding, and all the Mystery Men should be recognizable, from the most popular Ben Stiller all the way to the has been Paul Reubens aka "Pee-Wee Herman", yes Pee-Wee Herman and he also plays one of the funniest characters... The Spleen! What makes this film so great is it's not afraid to be stupid, and in fact the stupider it is the funnier it becomes. Another one of my favorite characters is the Sphinx who has a lot of "wise" sayings, which Mr. Furious refers to as "formulaic", for example:

The wise man knows that he is weakest when he thinks himself strong.

You were not ready to face so great an enemy. Not until you have vanquished the enemy within yourselves.  

He who questions training, only trains himself at asking questions.

When you care for what is outside, what is inside cares for you.

To summon your power for the conflict to come, you must first have power over that which conflicts you.
 

Until you learn to master your rage, your rage will become your master.

Overall, if you're a fan of action hero films, give this one a shot if you haven't already, its fresh, its funny and it's a different side to the world of superheroes. Everyone does a great job, the soundtrack is great, and the creativeness of the film is excellent. Some of the lines are classic to the point that you'll find yourself repeating them in conversation for weeks later!

8/10