Mystery Men (1999)

Mystery Men is a parody of superhero movies. If the current plethora of serious movies are not your cup of tea, then Mystery Men might be what you need.Of the entire cast, The Shoveler, the Bowler and Blue Raja were the most memorable characters. In particular, I liked seeing the Bowler interact with her father via the bowling bowl, plus some of her lines were hilarious to listen to. 'No, the guy at the pro-shop did it.' Heck, a lot of the dialogue in the movie had me laughing. It's easily one of Mystery Men's strong points.However, the fight scenes could have been better. 'The superheroes with lame powers' premise should have been played up to ridiculous and gut-busting levels by featuring over-the-top fight sequences with said powers. They had the right idea with the Disco Boys and their interactions with the protagonists, but ultimately, I feel the opportunity for laughs was squandered with the somewhat underwhelming fights, especially the one between Mr. Furious and Casanova Frankenstein.And speaking of him, despite having a cool name, Casanova Frankenstein doesn't really do anything memorable aside from keeping Captain Amazing hostage. I mean, he's got some funny lines of dialogue, but I also wanted to see him do more villainous things with a helping of comedy thrown in. I kind of wish he had fought the Mystery Men at least once before the climax at the mansion to show the viewer how threatening he can be. Instead, we mostly see him acting kooky with other villains. I think they could have made him kooky AND powerful, like with actually threatening powers. It would have been pretty awesome to see the Mystery Men defeat a super-villain despite lacking the advantage of, well, real superpowers.I give it a 5.5/10. The comedy is the main attraction here, and it mostly delivers. The two hour runtime can feel like overkill, but MM deserves be viewed at least once.

The Mystery Men is my favorited and beloved superhero movie. I saw this movie somewhere in 2001 or 2003 and I've watched it many times over the years and it still remains a favorite of mine, due mostly to fond childhood memories. It's not a perfect movie, but it definitely deserves another look and perhaps a cult following to this movie.I always have my 90s nostalgia movies and look back at them just like The Fifth Element, Ghost In The Shell and The City Of Lost Children as good movies to watch over and over again just like The Mystery Men.STORY: In the metropolis of Champion City, the would-be superhero team of Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), the Shoveler (William H. Macy), and the Blue Raja (Hank Azaria) attempt to make a name for themselves, but their suspect skills make them ineffective, and they find themselves upstaged by the city's most successful superhero, Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear). However, Amazing is finding that his effectiveness at fighting crime has practically made his job obsolete, and without any worthy adversaries remaining (some of them are either dead, in exile, or still in jail), his corporate sponsors are beginning to pull their funding. To create a need for himself, Amazing uses his alter ego, billionaire lawyer Lance Hunt, to argue for the release of insane supervillain Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush). The plan backfires; once reunited with Tony P (Eddie Izzard) and his Disco Boys, Casanova Frankenstein blows up the insane asylum, captures Amazing, and prepares to unleash a doomsday device: the "Psycho-frakulator", which lethally bends reality. Mr. Furious, while spying on Casanova Frankenstein's mansion, discovers Amazing's capture and informs the others.After an unsuccessful rescue attempt, the three realize they need more allies, and through word-of-mouth and try-outs, they recruit Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell), the Spleen (Paul Reubens), and the Bowler (Janeane Garofalo). The newly formed team "assaults" Casanova, which only succeeds in annoying him and damaging his car. While drunk from celebrating their victory, the team is nearly killed in retaliation by Tony P and the Disco Boys, but they are saved at the last minute by the Sphinx (Wes Studi). The Sphinx trains them, but his methods annoy Mr. Furious – he has them complete rote team-building exercises and speaks exclusively in Chiasmus. They also seek out mad scientist Doc Heller (Tom Waits), who specializes in non-lethal weaponry, to equip them for their battle.The group breaks into Casanova's mansion during a gathering of several of the city's gangs; but, while attempting to free Captain Amazing, they inadvertently set off the Psycho-frakulator, killing him instead. Without Amazing, the team despairs of saving the city, but the Shoveler delivers a pep-talk that succeeds in uniting and inspiring them.With new-found purpose, they assault the mansion and, by making effective use of their negligible superpowers and Heller's weapons, manage to subdue most of Casanova Frankenstein's henchmen. Unfortunately, as the heroes approach Casanova Frankenstein, he reveals that he is holding Mr. Furious' girlfriend Monica (Claire Forlani) hostage, and proceeds to activate the Psycho-frakulator, which begins to wreak havoc upon the city. While the team tries to stop the device, Mr. Furious takes on Casanova Frankenstein. After initially taking a beating, Mr. Furious unleashes his inner rage and manages to fight effectively for the first time. He defeats Casanova Frankenstein, who is thrown into the core of the Psycho-frakulator and killed by its reality-bending powers. The rest of the team helps The Bowler use her bowling ball to destroy the device and escape the mansion as it implodes.The team is interviewed by reporters, begging to know their team name. As they argue among themselves, one reporter states "Well, whatever you may call them, Champion City will forever owe a debt of gratitude to these 'Mystery Men'," but the others are too busy arguing to hear it.The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 60% based on 101 reviews; the consensus states: "Absurd characters and quirky gags are brought to life by a talented cast, providing this superhero spoof with lots of laughs." On Metacritic, the film has a 65/100 rating based on 24 critics, signifying "generally favorable reviews".Jonathan Romney said that it was "a desperately hit-and-miss affair". Michael Dequina of The Movie Report said that it "fails to come up with worthy gags and one-liners for the able cast." Steve Murray of Cox News Service gave it a negative review, saying "Mystery Men is like its hapless heroes. It's a wannabe that has the best intentions – including a pronounced anti-gun stance – but none of the knack it takes to save the day, or itself."British television channel Film4 gave it a positive review, saying it was "Hugely entertaining – especially for those with a thing for superheroes."I loved this movie at always in my 90s nostalgia side of me.I will give it AN BETTER MOVIE BESIDE THAT HORRIBLE SUICIDE SQUAD MOVIE out of 10.

I enjoy a good parody flick every now and then, and this would have been better if they kept the dopey juvenile stuff out of it. Paul Reubens in the cast with his gimmick was just asking for trouble; I was waiting for the zits on his face to move around like Marty Feldman's hump in "Young Frankenstein" and that didn't happen, so there was an opportunity missed. Hank Azaria as The Blue Raja and William H. Macy as the Shoveler were about the best the picture had to offer as they played their parts both ways, serious and funny.For old time TV and movie fans, let me pose a question - didn't the man under the Sphinx mask look like it might have been an aged Jay Silverheels? I know, he was long gone by the time this film came out, but that's the reaction I had. So I checked out Wes Studi's photo gallery here on IMDb and one can notice the resemblance.The thing that really surprised me in the story was how the evil Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush) rigged up that vaporizer to reduce Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear) to ashes, and he stayed dead! What!!?? That's not supposed to happen! Super-hero deaths are never supposed to be as certain as death and taxes, so I was shocked that no one thought of a way to reanimate his remains. Maybe in a sequel? Well, I don't know. I thought this would be a little better than it turned out to be, but I do appreciate some of the more clever gimmicks like Raja's silverware dexterity and the super-hero tryout routine. Seeing Louise Lasser as Raja's Mom once again was kind of neat too, doing a senior citizen rendition of Her Mary Hartman character. I guess if you're on the fence about watching this one, I'd have to say, 'What the fork, just do it'.

Mystery Men is one of the few movies that I remember being exceptionally excited about. Although I was not familiar with the Flaming Carrot comics, I remember seeing the huge advertising campaign for this movie and became exceptionally curious.My sister and I went to see this when it was released and I have to admit it is still one of my favorite cinematic experiences ever. I actually expected the Mystery Men to rescue Captain Amazing and let him save the day. Looking back, I realize how terrible that would have been. Captain Amazing was a total ass and solely responsible for every death in the movie. Rather than go such an off route, we got to see a group of people who may not be talented, but have heart and soul unlike any other super heroes. . As corny as it is, this movie reminded me a lot of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. There was an expected corniness about it, but you still find yourself routing for it.The performances are all amazing. This is William H. Macy's movie. He took the Shoveler from an unsure man lacking direction and made him into the leader of this team. He seems to lack the ability to see the obvious, being at first surprised at the idea of teamwork and then assuming incorrectly that the Sphinx would be a good leader. He becomes the leader when he realizes that they have to be heroes not for themselves, but to protect the people they love and the people they have never met. Ben Stiller, the most hated actor I have ever watched, was actually fun to watch as Mr. Furious. I don't think Geoffrey Rush has ever given a bad performance.I'll never understand why this movie bombed like it did. I love it and will remember it forever.