Mystery Men (1999)

by Rizzy

This movie falls into one of my favorite categories of film: movies that know they are going to be bad and so roll with and don't take themselves seriously for a moment.  Seriously, I respect any movie that has fun with itself and this movie was all about seeing how much fun it could have with itself. Oh and The cast for this film is amazing! It's a comedian gold mine filled with talent that needs to work together more often. Among the cast are Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, William H. Macy, Janeane Garofalo, Geoffrey Rush, Paul Reubens, and Greg Kinnear. And this isn't even including the cameos and small parts which are all just as good: Tom Waits, Claire Forlani, Eddie Izzard, and Dane Cook. Seriously, all those awesome names in one little cheesey film.  What can get better? Movies like this are what B movie wet dreams are made of. The movie itself is based off a comic book before comic books were big budget films.  Though I think even if made today this film would still be more about the laughs than about the effects.

So anyway the film begins by showing us just how pathetic our heros are by watching them get their butts handed to them by a bunch of lame henchmen in front of the elderly at an Senior Citizen ball. Good times, this one is.  They show us each individuals faults and how they obviously don't work together and then in comes in Kinnear as Captain Amazing to save the day! Yeah, yeah, yeah stereotypical start, but done with good humor so we can forgive it.

The important thing here is that even though these guys fight a bit, they are still friends.  You believe they really do care about each other. You can see their connection right away and that's really important in this film.  Seeing how they have such a brotherly love for each other keeps the film from being just a spoof.  And as they get new people on the team there's just a near instant feeling of bonding beneath the minor grovels they have. This may be a pack of misfits hanging out on the fringe of coolness, but they hang out there together and I have respect for that.  Hell, I'd join them!

It's worth watching this movie just for the visual fun.  For starters, look at these costumes. How crazy bad are they? But you really have to love them.  The bad guys are just as atrociously dressed. And they constantly talk in the film all mockingly about the need to coordinate your clothing and your weapon and your abilities with your name, which is a lot of banter fun! The sets too are beyond unique and innovative. And those of you who've been paying attention know that I love a well coordinated set.  These sets all borderline absurd which seems to be the name of this game and that's a hard game not to love.

Another one of my favorite make or break a film items is characterization. I love strong characters in a film and this movie really nails that.  Each character is very unique, but very believable... well... as a personality at least in absurdia world, but that's the world we are in so it fits nicely. Janeane Garofalo's character is a great example of this. The girl plays a bowler who carries her father's head around with her in a bowling ball... and has full conversations and arguments with it... a little bit of crazy, yes, but a whole lot of fun. Each character brings that amount flavor to the table and that's hard to pass up.

All in all this is another one of those movies that I have a hard time actually Bviewing cause it really his so many marks as a good film that it's hard to says it's right for the site until you factor in the level of cheese and silliness that it has.  And really, we here at Bview are all about the cheese and the silliness so it fits perfectly, too. If you haven't seen this one yet, it's got more than its fair share of laughs and so I highly recommend it.