Mystery Men
In the never ending race to get just about every comic book ever made adapted into a “comic book movie”, there are a select few that get made that just slip right under the radar (many times deservedly so) into semi obscurity, almost never to be spoken of or brought up again when people talk about the best of the genre. This 1999 release with an enormous cast was one such film that never quite broke out into being a big hit, but it still remains an offbeat spoof of comic book superheroes with a lot to offer (think of something like Kickass only a lot cornier). It’s certainly a lavish looking production that had a lot of time and money put into it and was put into the hands of a no name director like Kinka Usher (with a long standing urban legend that due to this director having no other feature film credits that this was actually an alias for Tim Burton which has since been shot down) who had so much trouble wrangling together his ensemble cast that he swore off full length feature films for good and went back to doing commercials and industrial shorts. As stated, the cast was said to have argued constantly amongst themselves on set as to how the comedic tone of the film should be, with Ben Stiller and Greg Kinnear allegedly having such a severe falling out that Stiller (who had considered directing it himself before seeing just how huge an undertaking the film would be) literally begged the producers to release him from his contract and allow him to quit the film. That didn’t happen though and the film did get finished with seemingly every one of the major stars getting a compromise of one kind or another (usually when it came to adlibbing lines that were kept in the movie). The film takes place in a fictional comic book city (like Metropolis or Gotham) where the big dog superhero is a guy named Captain Amazing (Kinnear), an extremely cynical hybrid of Batman and Superman who nonetheless is just so thorough and efficient in his superhero duties that all of the major supervillains whom he used to take on are either dead or locked away for good. That leaves a very big problem for him (and one of the film’s major original ideas) as being a top superhero like he is, Captain Amazing does accept endorsement deals for which the companies then have their decals plastered onto his uniform (not unlike NASCAR drivers or MMA fighters) and with no great battles appearing on the horizon, Amazing (despite his secret identity being that of a rich Bruce Wayne type billionaire who hides his secret behind Clark Kent like glasses) now risks losing his sponsors unless he can find an old nemesis that he can dredge up from his past and put into position for another showdown that would bring him more media attention and coverage. That old rival he chooses turns out to be Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffery Rush), a disco loving madman who is already one step ahead of the game going into his parole hearing at the mental hospital by (in an obvious nod to Harley Quinn) turning his female psychiatrist (Lena Olin, given two lines in her first scene in the movie and then getting no dialogue for the rest of the film all while being at Rush’s side and not even getting a proper death or capture scene as she was obviously lost in the shuffle here) into being somebody on his side who pronounces him cured and advocates for his release, but even that’s not enough until Kinnear’s Lance Hunt (Amazing’s secret identity) saunters into the parole hearing and declares that both he and Captain Amazing believe that Frankenstein should be released, drawing ooos and ahhs from the parole board and thus convincing them to let this madman go. Frankenstein wastes little time in blowing up the mental hospital where he was kept at(!) and successfully kidnapping Amazing (who seems to act like this is a preplanned affair like a pro wrestling match would be only to find out that he is in way over his head with this brilliant psychopath who has already detected and used his archenemy’s vanity against him), leading to the forming of the Mystery Men, whom in some ways can draw comparisons to The Watchmen until we realize that these guys are almost completely inept not just in being superheroes but at life itself, which is where much of the humor comes from, keeping in mind that the comic book incarnation of The Mystery Men is said to have had the highest casuality rate of any superhero group on record with various members constantly getting killed off early and often. We start off with Stiller’s Mr. Furious, a guy whose superpower is said to come from his boundless rage with just one small problem: He can’t really fight, usually getting his ass handed to him no matter how much he huffs and puffs (a stark contrast from the Furious character in the comic book, said to be a legit badass who many times has to be pulled off of a bad guy by his comrades before beating them to death); William H. Macy’s The Shoveler, a guy with an apparent miner gimmick whose great ability is to hit people over the head with his shovel in order to knock them out during hand to hand combat, but he still has to deal with having a wife and kids at home with his wife being most disagreeable about his chosen life; Hank Azaria’s Blue Raja, a truly pathetic sort who lives at home with his mom (Louise Lasser), speaks in a badly put on British accent (which suits a brilliant mimic like Azaria), dresses in a turban and what appears to be Indian garb and as his superpower he possesses the ability to throw forks (yes, forks); Kel Mitchell’s Invisible Boy who apparently becomes invisible when nobody else is looking, a convenient way of hiding the fact that you don’t really have a superpower and are just filling in a sidekick role; Paul Reubens’ Spleen, a creepy misfit type whose power is that of amazing flatulence that is powerful enough to knock out anybody who is unfortunate enough to be close to it; Wes Studi’s Sphinx, a guy who just assumes The Jedi Master role of the group for no real reason and constantly speaks in fortune cookie style dialogue, but yet turns out to be the most useless one of the whole bunch especially during the final battles; and Janeane Garofalo (in the most likable and appealing performance of her career) as The Bowler, a hot alternative babe whose gimmick is that of carrying around a bowling ball containing the skull of her dead father (himself a famous bowler) that when unleashed, causes major damage to any bad guys caught in its path, a genuinely supernatural power that also proves her to be the most effective of the bunch. Whether it be arguing hilariously with her father’s skull (presumably through telepathy) or just utilizing her own trademark dry sense of humor throughout, Garofalo succeeds in stealing the movie from just about everyone except for Rush, who is not onscreen nearly enough as he should be but still proves fascinating to watch as a sly supervillain who almost appears to be generic except for his love of using his fingernails for a weapon. We also get Tom Waits as a “mad” scientist who supplies the heroes with (nonlethal) weapons and has a predilection for little old ladies; Eddie Izzard as the discoed out top henchman for Frankenstein; Claire Forlani as the cute diner waitress for whom Stiller has developed a puppy dog crush on (which Frankenstein uses to his advantage) and offbeat cameos from people as diverse as Artie Lange, Ricky Jay, Riki Rachtman, CeeLo Green, Dane Cook, Doug Jones and even director Michael Bay getting in some onscreen time. The film suffers from some characters being overdeveloped a bit (Azaria) and others being underdeveloped (the aforementioned Olin and Garofalo probably could have easily carried the whole movie by herself) even though it does have brisk pacing, keeping things moving along over a two hour running time. But it’s the idea that the business of being a superhero is something that falls upon the shoulders of a bunch of social misfits who already appear to have struck out in life to begin with even before donning their new personas is where the film manages to get both its funniest and most potent themes, with Kinnear’s Amazing being the counterpoint of playing the superhero as the perfect media darling complete with perfect hair and perfect teeth (and who fails to realize that the supervillain he has personally set up as being his next opponent was playing for keeps this time). Although long ignored and even blasted by some of its own cast members, this remains an underrated alternative to the overblown parade of bloated comic book adaptations that never seem to end…
8/10