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©1999-2000
DigsMagazine.com.
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flick pick |
Mystery Men
1999
Directed by: Kinka Usher
Starring: Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, Greg
Kinnear, William H. Macy, Kel Mitchell, Paul Reubens, Geoffrey
Rush, Ben Stiller
Language: English
Look for it at the video store under: new
releases, comedy, action
Watch it when you’re in the mood for something:
action-packed, dumb but fun, fantastical,
whimsical |
Plot synopsis
Second-rate superheroes Mr.
Furious (a volcano of boundless rage), the
Shoveler (battles evil with his trusty shovel), and the Blue Raja
(flings forks and the occasional spoon), work hard
to fight crime in Champion City, but are constantly upstaged by the
suave, multiple -product- endorsed Captain Amazing. When Captain
Amazing manages to get himself kidnapped by arch-enemy Casanova Frankenstein, it’s up to
the trio to save the
city’s number one protector. Trouble is, they just don’t have what
it takes to do the job. After holding a superhero audition (at a barbecue/pool party), they enlist the aid of the Spleen
(his flatulence is a near-deadly weapon), Invisible Boy (can become
invisible, but only when no one’s looking), and the Bowler (possesses a
magic bowling ball containing her dead father’s skull). Now they've
just got to learn to trust one another enough to work as a team, so that they can rescue Captain Amazing and save their city.
Review There’s
just something so endearing about this ensemble of crimefighters, whose
not-so-super powers never stop them from throwing their hearts and souls
into what they firmly, albeit probably misguidedly, believe are their
life’s missions. The movie actually works a lot better on the small
screen than it did on the big screen … this is a movie about the
little guys, true underdogs and surely the most ordinary superheroes
ever to have slipped on spandex to fight evil, and you love them all the
more when they’re seen at an appropriately small scale rather than
blown up to larger-than-life movie screen size. The cast, boasting the
comic talents of the nutty Ben Stiller, earnestly straight-faced William
H. Macy, and über-cool Janeane Garofalo, among others, is pretty
uniformly stellar. The movie’s got its flaws – a somewhat sluggish
pacing, for one, means the story sometimes seems to drag – but there
are enough absurdly, brilliantly funny bits thrown in along the way to
keep you very well-entertained. Mystery Men is both goofily
hilarious and ultimately touching – you’re a cold, cold person if
you don’t cheer just a bit when these superhero wannabes, blessed with
neither talent nor luck, nonetheless manage to pull their act together
enough save the day.
o
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