Mystery Men

This movie is a lot of fun. What makes it great especially are two things: one is the straightforward way the characters embrace the stereotypes, with discussions of their costumes and superpowers. There's an endearing earnestness to the parody that's very appealing; the second is basic sweetness of the characters and the quality of the chemistry. Claire Forlani deserves particular note as the object of Mr. Furious's desires. There's a boatload of talent here. I realize some with high expectations may have been disappointed, but this movie is a lot of fun, and kind of sweet.

This was different, that's for sure. Just look at the cast! Talk about oddballs.

William H. Macy and Ben Stiller were the stars, although a bunch of actors almost share the spotlight, in this farce about superhero-wannabees. The most outrageous was played by Paul Reubens of "Pee Wee Herman" fame.

There is lots of humor, garish colors and no lulls. It's a pretty entertaining, lightweight comedy with nothing but goofy characters, all of whom want to be heroes a la Superman, Batman, Spiderman, you name. They have talents in strange areas, however, that the real heroes don't (and don't want to!). It's silly, but you know that going on.

It's also a film you can watch in installments and not really miss any continuity. It's a long movie for one so hectic, so taking a break here and there is okay. The language was tame so kids could enjoy this, too. In fact, I don't recall any swearing in here, except the guy in the theater next to me who kept uttering, "What a dumb, f---ing movie." I thought it was fun two hours but I'd rather watch it on DVD and take a few breaks.

I thought this movie was hilarious when I first saw it and even bought it. I'm surprised that there is so much controversy over this film, because everyone did great performances, especially Ben Stiller as Mr. Furious. Quotes like "I need a compass to show me which way the wind shines." are just a small fraction of the hilarity in this film.

Grade: A+(One of my favorite comedies of all time)

Looking at some of the reviews on here its clear that this movie did not find the audience it deserved at the time. In 1999 many people were simply not quite ready to understand a superhero movie which was based more or less in reality and was a send up of the genre. Anyone expecting a run of the mill superheroes with superpowers movie would be disappointed. However this is a much smarter movie in which we have average guys with alot of heart but zero abilities who try to fight crime with hilariously incompetent results. They are more likely to hurt each other than any criminals. These heroes dont have cool names, cool costumes and don't even have cool pretend powers. Another huge disappointment for the average comic book hero fan as whats the point if they cant do anything we cant? Watching this movie post Megamind, Deadpool, Watchmen and Kickass this movie makes total sense. What also seems to make sense is that every one of those movies, all seem to have borrowed heavily from Mystery Men. What you do get is a fantastic cast, laugh out jokes, crazy set pieces, many quotable lines all wrapped up in a fairly family friendly package. Think of this as a live action Megamind or PG version of Kickass. The story is quite straight forward but it does still make fun of the usual comic book tropes in a fresh way. I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed any of the movies I compared Mystery Men to, you will wonder why you had previously let this one slip by and also just how many of the current crop of "original" and "smarter" comic book movies have ripped off Mystery Men? Deserves to be seen.

With a different director, this coulda been a contender. It is a flawed masterpiece (that's right, I said the word 'masterpiece' in conjunction with this film). Despite some dodgy editing alongside a director known for making commercials (and it shows!), it actually has many ingenious concepts. The idea that Champion City's most successful superhero is obsessed with his own celebrity and is therefore portrayed as a bad guy ties in perfectly with the anti-capitalist themes in the film. The problems arise when the style of comedy reaches juvenile level, and though at times that brand of humour is funny there is perhaps a little too much of it. There are, however, many hilarious moments, some of which are incredibly subtle for such an 'in your face' production. For example, when Captain Amazing is complaining to his agent about losing his pepsi endorsement he talks about what it means to him, in his heart, and he promptly hits his chest where his heart would be only to hear the hollow sound of his suit's exterior. Pure anti-capitalism! Finally, a mention of the cast. The film has a wonderful cast: Ben Stiller, Bill Macy, Hank Azaria, Greg Kinnear, Geoffrey Rush, Jeanne Garofalo, Eddie Izzard, Paul (Pee-wee Herman) Reubens and, best of all, the deep-voiced singing legend that is Tom Waits. So, a masterpiece? a silly but funny superhero spoof? or a superhero spoof that is unsure what it really wants to be? It is rather open to interpretation but one thing is for sure, it's funny!