Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, Paul
Reubens, Greg Kinnear, William H Macy, Geoffrey Rush and Tom Waits!
How can you go wrong with a cast like that??!!
The premise is interesting enough: a group of lame super hero wannabes get their big break. I enjoyed the opening sequence the most, with it's curious ambience (reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil"). Blue Raja (master fork thrower played by Hank Azaria), The Shoveler (William H. Macy) and Mr Furious (Ben Stiller with a seemingly ineffectual super-temper) are wonderfully pathetic.
Unfortunately, it only stretches so far. The cast was really super and there were a lot of good one-liners, but there was something missing. It's that spark of recognition that all the great comedies seem to have. Can you really buy into to the plight of a bunch of guys who go out to fight evil armed with forks, a shovel and a temper, and get their asses kicked a lot? I didn't. After flogging the whole "illusions of grandeur" scene to death, the movie shifts gears into "massive suspension of disbelief" mode. I suppose that's to be expected in a super hero movie that doubles as a lowbrow comedy.
Even if it's not a classic, "Mystery Men" has some redeeming features. Did I mention the cast? Geoffrey Rush makes a fantastic cheesy villain. Greg Kinnear was funny as the amazing but vain big shot super hero: Captain Amazing (Very nice touch with the corporate sponsor logos all over his costume). Wes Studi (who the hell is Wes Studi) was fun as "The Sphinx", a super hero mentor with an super endless supply of corny, meaningless snippets of inspirational wisdom. Janeane Garofalo is mighty handy to have around for the dispensing of sly wisecracks, and my personal hero Tom Waits made a very fine contribution.
Don't see "Mystery Men" for the sake of witnessing the greatest cinematic comedy masterpiece of the later twentieth century. See it to kill two hours, see it for the cast and see it for the assorted, scattered nuggets of good humor.