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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 16.89%
Worth A Look: 44.59%
Average: 25.68%
Pretty Bad: 6.76%
Total Crap: 6.08%
14 reviews, 64 user ratings
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| Mystery Men |
by Dan
"Not the Summer's Best Comedy!"
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Mystery Men is not the best comedy of the summer-- South Park still holds that distinction. But it's superior to over-rated fare like American Pie and Austin Powers 2. The humor is extremely hit and miss-- if it's not really funny, it's cringeworthy-- but works for the most part. The performances are great, and the stellar cast carries this movie moreso than the script. With a better script, this movie could have been great. As it is, it's still pretty good.The plot is very standard for a superhero movie, as it should be. Iconic hero Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear, who sports numerous corporate logos on his uniform-- a great touch) is kidnapped by supervillain Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffery Rush) and the "Mystery Men" (though they're never called that) team of Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller in the film's best performance), The Shoveler (William H. Macy, always good), and The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria, also great) to rescue him. To do so, they recruit other superheroes to assist them. They range from the annoying Spleen (Paul Reubens, insert your Pee Wee Herman/masturbation joke here) to Janeane Garofalo's Bowler, who turns out a good performance in an under-written role.
The team trains together and enters Casanova's lair. A number of fight scenes follow (including a full-out action sequence with William H. Macy), and the film makes a half-hearted attempt at a 'find the hero in you' theme. But, for the most part, it's just a comedy with a few action scenes and some good special effects. This isn't the kind of movie that changes the world, or that will save cinema as we know it, but it's the first superhero movie in many years that isn't a total waste of money.
Stiller gives one of the best performances of his career as Mr. Furious, whose 'powers' grow as he gets angry. A subplot involving his love interest-- a waitress who works at the restaurant the team frequents seems unneccessary at first, but helps enforce the film's themes of heroism. Anyway, what's a superhero movie without a love interest? Stiller is hilarious in this movie, avoiding the all-too-easy overacting that could have come with the part.Often very funny and only occasionally disappointing (a few of the gags ar just plain awful, and Garofalo's part is weak for such a talented actress), Mystery Men is one of the better action comedies of the summer.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=1329&reviewer=127
originally posted: 08/12/99 06:58:07
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USA
06-Aug-1999 (PG-13)
UK
N/A
Australia
13-Jan-2000 (PG)
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