Review: Mystery Men (1999)

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Mystery Men

Rating

Director

Kinka Usher

Screenplay

Nei Cuthbert (Comic Book: Bob Burden)

Length

2h 01m

Starring

Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, William H. Macy, Kel Mitchell, Paul Reubens, Ben Stiller, Wes Studi, Greg Kinnear, Geoffrey Rush, Lena Olin, Eddie Izzard, Artie Lange, Prakazrel Michel, Claire Forlani, Tom Waits, Louise Lasser, Ricky Jay, Jenifer Lewis, Ernie Le Banks, Gerry Becker, Ned Bellamy

MPAA Rating

PG-13

Review

Comic book heroes have been coming out of the woodwork lately and the list of films coming up seems to grow longer every day. “Mystery Men” is yet another in he long line, but isn’t like others in its genre.

Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear) is the super hero of Champion City and has done away with almost every criminal that exists. Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), the Shoveler (William H. Macy) and the Blue Raja (Hank Azaria) are small-time heroes trying to break into the scene, but aren’t very successful.

When Captain Amazing realizes he has no one else to thwart and that he might continue to lose endorsements, he decides to ensure the release of one of his old enemies, Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush), from the asylum. What does Casanova do the first night? Blow up the asylum.

Amazing decides to visit with Casanova and perhaps challenge him or thwart him, his goal isn’t sure. What is sure is that he’s not a bright super hero. He not only tries to insult Casanova and fails, but he falls right into his trap and winds up captured.

Casanova begins a small crime spree. Furious and his friends find out that Amazing has been taken prisoner and they decide they need some help. They look up Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell), whose skills only work when no one is watching him. Another local hero happens upon the group at a small diner and wants to get involved. His special talent is one reason the group doesn’t want him, but they can’t stop the Spleen (Paul Reubens), who displays his prowess with little effort and quite a bit of noise.

The next stage is to hold a recruitment party where they pass over dozens of strange wannabe heroes such as Waffle Man and Wonder Woman (not THE Wonder Woman, just a girl dressed like her). After an exhaustive search, they aren’t any close to finding others.

Just after the party, a young woman with a bowling bag arrives. They turn her away without much thought or courtesy. In her anger, she unzips her bag, takes out the ball with a skull floating in it, and tosses it at them. It zings around the entire yard before returning to her bag. Then, in traditional Janeane Garofalo fashion, she says “I guess I’ll take my ball and go home.”

After some effort, they convince her to join as the Bowler and their group seems complete. One evening, they see Casanova driving around and they pursue him in their beat up car. When they stop, the crew gets out and wreaks havoc on Casanova’s car.

Casanova decides to exact revenge and sends a group of thugs to take care of them. This time they aren’t as prepared and are nearly killed when something causes their weapons to break. Through a little foreshadowing, we had already heard of what was going on. It was the Sphinx (Wes Studi) who can break things with his mind. The group asks for his help and begins working towards achieving the perfect balance as a crime-fighting team.

Garofalo, Azaria, Macy and Reubens are the best parts of the film. They aren’t just funny, but they are the most three-dimensional of all of the characters. Rush, too, is quite good as a villain, but Kinnear can’t pull off his role. As for the rest, including Stiller and Studi, they are two-dimensional and occasionally funny, but they never truly shine.

The best part of the film is the terrific art direction. Each set is a vibrant, living entity. One of the most unique visions this year, the sets are enhanced equally by the terrific costume design. We may not get to see their final outfits until the end, but it’s well worth the wait.

The big problem with “Mystery Men” is the horrendous editing. Conrad Buff, who did wonders with “Titanic” seems burned out or disinterested. Several sequences are so poorly jointed together that they draw the viewer out of the film.

Perhaps complementing this is the rather annoying choice of shots. It may be cinematographer Stephen Burum’s fault, but it is more likely the director who is at fault.

Kinka Usher has never directed a feature film before and it shows. His choice of shots and decisions on pacing are atrocious. The plot and dialogue, which are halfway decent at times, are lost in the wave of annoying cuts and slow pacing.

What disappoints me most is that with all the money they spent to make this film, they couldn’t hire a better director who could have used Stiller and the others in a better way. A way that might have made this one of the best tongue-in-cheek comic book features in history.

Awards Prospects

Art Direction and Costume Design is the only hope this film has, unless the Academy has pity and votes it a Sound, Sound Effects or Visual Effects nomination.