Review - Mystery Men

The journey to Mystery Men was long and hard, but nothing was more frustrating than its release date. First, long long ago in a galaxy far far away...oops, channeling the wrong movie. Well, first, back in May when I first discovered this movie in Entertainment Weekly, the release date was August 6th. This perplexed me. Waiting a whole 4 months to see a movie isn't fun, as I learned too well with Blair Witch. (That was a seven month oddessy...don't even get me started.) However, for Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo, I was prepared to wait.

A few months ago, the date was moved up a week to July 30th. I was overjoyed. Sure, it was only one less week, but it was ONE LESS WEEK!! I cleared my calendar for the 30th.

Sadly, two weeks ago, I heard, again from Entertainment Weekly, that due to the aforementioned Blair Witch Project, the date had been moved back to its original date of August 6th. *sigh*

And the $10,000 question: Was it worth all that? Answer: You bet your socks!

What? You don't yet know the tale of Mystery Men? You're lucky that I have it memorized! *Deep breath*

Champion City is home to many a superhero, but few can get work due to the overpowering super-persona Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear). This dude is the biggest sell-out this side of the Spice Girls. He's got endorcements all over his costume and a publicist to boot. Sadly, he's so successful that he can't even get much work. So, he arranges to have his greatest nemesis, Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush), released from the mental institution where he has been held for the past 20 years. Unfortunately, Captain Amazing's plan backfires when Casanova kidnaps him.

Enter Mr. Furious (Stiller, sweet as ever), The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria, a.k.a. Helen Hunt's sweetie), and The Shoveler (William H. Macy, showing a great deal of puppy-dog comic talent), who are, respectively, a "ticking time-bomb of fury," a silverware wielder (but never knives, because someone might get hurt), and a devil with a shovel. But they soon learn that they can't undertake this great task alone. They quickly, and sometimes reluctantly, enlist the help of Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell), who possesses the power of transparency, but only when no one's looking; The Spleen (Paul Reubens), who has the mighty power of flatulence; and The Bowler (Garofalo, showing the world just what they've been missing in those indie films), who could escape the nagging spirit of her father if his skull wasn't trapped in her bowling ball. This rag-tag bunch gets a clue from The Sphinx (Wes Studi), a mysterious fellow equipped with the power to slice guns in half with his mind and enough catchy sayings to title magazine articles for a month. Intrigued? You should be. I sure was.

This is my advice to the general movie public: If you see one movie this summer, see Blair Witch. But if you see two movies, see Mystery Men!

Grade - A

Review Archive
Reviews Main Page