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Review by Susan Granger
3 stars out of 4
This feeble spoof tells the saga of seven aspiring
superheroes, each possessing a unique - and bizarre - superpower, who
band together to save Champion City. The ragtag group consists of Ben
Stiller as Mr. Furious, a leather-clad neurotic with a foul temper
("I'm a ticking time bomb of fury!"); Janeane Garofalo as the bitchy
Bowler, whose weapon is a clear bowling ball with her father's visible
skull inside; Paul Reubens (a.k.a. Pee-wee Herman) as the Spleen, who
farts noxious gas; Hank Azaria as the effete Blue Raja whose specialty
is throwing silverware ("May the forks be with you!"); Kel Mitchell as
Invisible Boy, who can't disappear when people are watching; Wes Studi
as the Sphinx, who spews sage-like homilies; and William H. Macy as
the Shoveler, whose superweapon is, you guessed it, a spade. The
villain is the psychotic Cassanova Frankenstein, played by Geoffrey
Rush, who has invented the deadly "Frakulator" beam which fragments
and warps everything - from people to buildings - into a weird state
that reflects what's going on within Cassanova's maniacal head - like
Picasso's cubist renderings. His conspirator is Greg Kinnear,
a.k.a. Captain Amazing, Champion City's bona fide arrogant superhero,
who is afraid he'll lose his product endorsements if there isn't a
villain on the loose. The preposterous derring-do in Neil Cuthbert's
deliberately formulaic screenplay, based on the Dark Horse comic book
series created by Bob Burden, must have looked better on
paper. Utilizing every camera trick, director Kinka Usher exaggerates
the obvious, which is not surprising since his background is in
television commercials. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10,
"Mystery Men" is a muddled 3. It's a superhero sendup that snickers
and deflates quickly.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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