Mystery Men

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Mystery Men
Directed by Kinka Usher
Produced by Lawrence Gordon
Lloyd Levin
Mike Richardson
Written by Comic Book:
Bob Burden
Screenplay:
Neil Cuthbert
Starring Ben Stiller
Hank Azaria
William H. Macy
Paul Reubens
Janeane Garofalo
Kel Mitchell
Wes Studi
Greg Kinnear
Geoffrey Rush
Claire Forlani
Tom Waits
Eddie Izzard
Lena Olin
Ricky Jay
Louise Lasser
Music by Stephen Warbeck
Cinematography Stephen H. Burum
Editing by Conrad Buff
Distributed by Universal
Release date(s) August 6, 1999
Running time 121 min.
Country USA
Language English
Budget $68 million
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Mystery Men is a 1999 comedy film directed by TV commercial director Kinka Usher. It starred William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, and Hank Azaria as a trio of lesser superheroes with fairly unimpressive superpowers who need to save the day. The film's two great strengths were considered to be the art direction and the dialogue, much of which was improvised by the cast. Despite its list of stars, Mystery Men was widely considered to be a flop with a final box office gross of just $29,762,011 domestic and $3,699,000 foreign[1].

It has since garnered something of a cult following.[citation needed] The soundtrack prominently featured the Smash Mouth song "All Star" and clips from the film form the basis of the song's video.

Contents

[edit] Plot synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie opens in Champion City, a metropolis in a slightly altered comic book-style reality, where costumed crimefighters (many with somewhat mediocre 'powers') are in oversupply, to the point that many of them are looking for work. Three such individuals are 'The Shoveller' (William H. Macy), who can wield a shovel very well; 'Mr. Furious' (Ben Stiller), who has the 'ability' to get very, very angry; and 'The Blue Raja' (Hank Azaria), a self-described "effete British superhero" who throws silverware, but refuses to use knives, and wears a green turban (a running joke being that, despite his name, his costume has no blue in it whatsoever; also, his accent is completely faked). Arriving to foil a robbery in an old-folks home by a similarly gaudy band of villains, the three are soon shown to be largely incompetent at what they do, and are quickly upstaged by Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear), a genuine superhero, who arrives in the nick of time to save the day and hopelessly upstage the 'wanna-bes', who are treated as a joke by the police officers and civilians on the scene.

Despite being the most respected and admired person in the city, however, Captain Amazing himself has a problem: he is so good at what he does, he's gradually putting himself out of business. As a result, both his public image and the corporate sponsorships he wears emblazoned on his uniform are at risk. Realizing that only a villain who can actually challenge him can reverse his fortunes, in his secret identity (the bespectacled 'Lance Hunt') he secretly arranges for the release of his greatest adversary, the insane, devillish Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush), from the insane asylum where he has been imprisoned since Amazing defeated him. Unfortunately, Frankenstein manages to get the drop on Captain Amazing, imprisoning him and putting into motion a devious plan to destroy Champion City, with the help of the 'Disco Boys', a 1970s-themed criminal gang led by Tony P (Eddie Izzard).

Ironically, the only people who are aware of what is happening and who can rescue Amazing are Mr. Furious, Shoveller and The Blue Raja; unable to do it alone, they audition many other (even worse) superheroes until they manage to find 'The Bowler' (Janeane Garofalo) who carries the skull, and soul, of her murdered father in a bowling ball which can fly; 'The Invisible Boy' (Kel Mitchell) who could only become invisible when no one is watching, including himself; 'The Spleen' (Paul Reubens), who, due to a gypsy curse, can aim his highly noxious flatulence with deadly precision; 'The Sphinx' (Wes Studi), who can cut guns in half with his mind, but as a mentor to the misfit superheroes spends most of his time uttering 'cryptic' but ultimately unhelpful aphorisms; and the eccentric scientist 'Dr. Heller' (Tom Waits) who invents strictly "non-lethal" weaponry (e.g. Blame Thrower). As well as improving their 'powers', the three must also battle their own basic insecurities; The Shoveller (or Eddie) must face the disrespect he receives from his skeptical wife; The Blue Raja (Jeff) must keep his secret hidden from his suspicious mother; and Mr. Furious (Roy), in reality a rather mild, gentle person despite his tantrums, must deal with both the fact that he is being increasingly sidelined and ignored in the larger team (partly due to the fact that he is the only one who can see through the various formulaic clichés uttered by the Sphinx) and his shy crush on Monica (Claire Forlani), a jaded but goodhearted cafeteria waitress who treats the boorish, posturing 'Furious' with disdain but likes the sweet, shy 'Roy'.

After a brief crisis when Furious storms off following a heated argument, the superteam manage to work through their various issues and prepare themselves to challenge Casanova Frankenstein's devious schemes; a bungled rescue attempt, however, sees Captain Amazing fried to death in the most remarkably horrific manner imaginable by Frankenstein's doomsday device; the psychofraculator, which Frankenstein intends to turn onto the city. It soon becomes apparent that our heroes are the only ones who can save the city, and matters are not helped when Monica - having fallen in love with Roy - tells Furious to just 'be Roy'; this, unfortunately, leads Roy to the realization that his powers are pathetic, and that he's not a real superhero.

The heroes, though plagued with self-doubt, nonetheless manage to storm Frankenstein's mansion and battle his various accomplices as Frankenstein activates his machine, which begins to devastate the city. When they manage to overpower his various henchmen, and Tony P is killed by the Bowler's ball in vengeance for his murder of her father, Frankenstein produces Monica - whom he has had kidnapped to assure that the heroes will not stop him. Driven into a genuine super-rage by Frankenstein threatening his girlfriend, Furious defeats Frankenstein in combat, hurling him into the psychofrakulator to his death, and rescues Monica. As she escapes, the heroes sabotage the machine and flee as it explodes and destroys Frankenstein's mansion. Having saved the city and earned the admiration of their families, friends and fellow citizens, the heroes then turn to their next great challenge - finding a name for their team that's better than 'The Super Squad'.

[edit] Style

The characters' home lives are portrayed as thoroughly middle class American with the suburbs and outer regions of Champion City being a prime example if this middle classness; however Champion City more closely resembles the multicultural metropolis of Blade Runner than the purely American locations of other superhero movies. Signs and newspapers are in a mix of English, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian and the occasional Hebrew lettering representing a world with total globalization, or an extreme mix of cultures all rolled into what is called in the movie, "Champion City."

[edit] Basis

The movie was loosely based on the independent comic book series Flaming Carrot Comics by Bob Burden, who also gets Writers Guild of America writing credits, though some characters were greatly changed from the original material. The Flaming Carrot was a member of the team and with the exception of Captain Amazing and Invisible Boy, all the heroes from the film appeared at least once as members (though there were many others as well-- the comics team had a high casualty rate). Casanova Frankenstein also once battled The Flaming Carrot.

[edit] Other Influences

  • The main plot vehicle of seemingly average people with semi-useful powers donning costumes to become crime fighters also bears a strong conceptual similarity to the comic series The Tick, which spawned both an animated TV series which aired in the 1990s and a live-action TV series in 2001.
  • The movie and comic also have similarities with Marvel's Great Lakes Avengers and DC's Legion of Substitute Heroes both of which feature comical and largely ineffective heroes.
  • The scene in which Casanova Frankenstein rallies the different gangs together is a parody of a scene from the film The Warriors. Frankenstein even uses the same catch-phrase uttered by the gang leader Cyrus: "Can you dig it?"

[edit] Cast

[edit] Mystery Men

[edit] Superheroes

[edit] Bad guys

[edit] Citizens

[edit] See also

[edit] External link

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