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Mystery Men

Mystery Men

List Price: $9.99
Your Price: $9.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Don't Judge a Book . . .
Review: I passed this on the shelves for months then rented on the recommendation of a friend. Boy, am I glad I did -- it is freaking hilarious! Ben Stiller is always funny, Macy is brilliant and there is nothing bad I can say about the rest of this funny cast. Wes Studi (Sphinx) is perfect. Azaria, Garafalo, Reubens . . . they shine. And Tom Waits! What movie can go wrong with Tom Waits?!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What a Riot!
Review: This is a 4-star movie increased to 5 stars with Janeane Garofalo's riotous inclusion as "The Bowler". With her father's skull, Carmine, imbedded within the flying bowling ball, not only does she wield a wicked strike on every toss, her witty banter keeps the movie alive.

I am not particularly a Ben Stiller fan, but he does a sound job as the dubious "Mr. Furious". His claim to fame was that he once pushed a bus ... that was already moving. Imbued with dubious super-strength whenever he gets furious, his jumping upon the antagonist's limosine is a riot as he couldn't really do anything else in comparison to his teammates.

William Macy is amazing as "The Shoveler". He can wield a mighty mean shovel and was the most physical member of the team. His job as a construction worker was where he primed his talent.

Hank Azaria as the "Blue Raja", a fork and spoon tosser with a supposedly far east Indian background was a riot. He was anything but "blue" while covered mostly greens and browns, coupled with his fake British accent while he is an American demonstrated a character completely quirky.

With the capture of Greg Kinnear's "Captain Amazing", the group held a tryout where more wanna-be heroes came to audition. Ranging from "Pencil Head" and his sidekick, "Son of Pencil Head" to "The Waffler", the audition was a complete bust. However, the late arrival of Janeane's "The Bowler" awed them with her talent and capability.

Other eventual teammates included Paul Ruben's "The Spleen", the boy who could only become invisible when no one was watching, and the mysterious man from New Orleans whose claim to fame is an ability to cut guns in half and speak phrases along the lines of "Control your fears, or your fears will control you" and "Work for good, and good will work for you."

The assault upon Casanova Frankenstein's home was difficult with the various gangs he had brought to his banner. From the fellas stuck in the disco era, to the "Frat Boys", and the all-woman dance gang, our heroes have their work cut-out for them.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun. Maybe not quite a four, but fun.
Review: Mystery Men is an amusing movie, and well worth watching. Sure, it has a semi-schmaltzy ending. But, the concept is fun; the performances are spot on; and the story is inventive and silly. William Macy plays the deadpan "Shoveller," a man who wields a shovel like D'Artagnon with his blade; Paul Reubens, as the spleen, has nuclear-power flatulence; Ben Stiller is Furious--not strong, just furious; etc. They must rise to the supreme challenge after the reigning superhero, a corporate-sponsored, Ken Doll-esque Greg Kinnear, gets vaporized by one of the good guys. Geoffrey Rush, as the villain, Casanova Frankenstein, puts his hi-tech disco powers to work on a plan of mass destruction. Can six quasi-heroes defeat him relying strictly on non-lethal weapons--like a blame thrower and tornado in a can--and flying silverware?

Pleasant fun and ripe for a sequel.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A great cast wasted
Review: This could have been a really funny movie, considering the talented cast in it. Unfortunately, it's fitfully funny, and the cast is mostly wasted. Therefore, it's mostly unfunny. It was amusing to watch Garafolo attack villains with her dad's head (encased in a bowling ball), with which she holds conversations.
But the rest are wasted--Hank Azaria as an effete British superhero, William Macy as a guy who carries a shovel, Paul Ruebens as some fella who attacks people with his spleen (I think you can figure it out, although I think a better name for him might have been the Bile). Dang, this really could have been a truly funny movie. As it is, I think most would be disappointed in it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: In My Opinion: Hilarious
Review: Champion City is the home of one of the greatest superheroes of all time: Captain Amazing. Unfortunatly for him, his crime fighting skills have left him without any publicity left except for the odd toothpaste commercial. Reduced to fighting gangs at nursing homes and steadily loosing his sponsers, Captain Amazing comes up with a plan. Using his alterego, the millionaire Lance Hunt, he bids for the release of one of his favourite arch-villains to be released in the hopes of defeating him and gaining some much-needed recognition. Thus, Casanova Frankenstein is released.

But there is another level to the superhero regime: the Shoveller (whose weapon is various types of shovels), the Blue Rajah (who throws forks, has a fake British accent and still lives with his mum) and Mr Furious (whose power comes from his barely controlled temper and has trouble coming up with suitable comebacks) are all wannabe heroes, who usually emerge from a fight with black eyes. Yet when Captain Amazing goes missing, they agree that it's up to them to stop Casanova and rescue the city from whatever terrible scheme he's cooking up.

To do this, the boys need reinforcements: after a rather dismal audition for new recruits to the team, the trio install the Bowler, whose murdered father's skull she keeps incased in a bowling ball, the Spleen whose power comes from the awful potency of his flatulence, and the Invisible Boy...who can only turn invisible when no one's looking at him. Rounding it off is the Sphinx, who takes the superheroes in for some physcho-babble training ("control your power, or your power will control you", and so on), and Professor Heller, who provides the team with the non-lethal weapons he invents. Its a somewhat troubled team, but one that has the rousing speeches and slow-motion walk down cold - they just might pull this off!

In my opinion, "Mystery Men" is hilarious, and is the long awaited spoof of superhero comics that we've been waiting for. The reason the humour works so well is in the performances of the top-notch cast, who perform with such seriousness that even the most rediculous moments come across as likely senarios. There are many moments from comic books that are easily familiar, such as the Shoveller's inability to believe Furious's theory that Lance Hunt and Captain Amazing are one and the same because: "Lance Hunt wears glasses. Captain Amazing *doesn't* wear glasses. He wouldn't be able to see!" Likewise, the good guys' distain at the evil henchmen who don't even have a theme to their costume and the many wannabe-heroes that turn up to the audition are continously funny.

Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo in particular carry their roles across with droll humour, and Geoffry Rush looked as if he had the time of his life playing the evil Casanova Frankenstein. All the characters, such as the Shoveller's long-suffering wife, Furious's waitressing love interest, and the Rajah's mother fit into the movie perfectly, creating a "real" backdrop for the heroes to work against.

It won't be everyone's cup of tea, and I admit that certain scenes (such as the fork-sitting, Spleen's farting and the skunk encounter) could have done with a little editing, but it suited my sense of humour perfectly, and had just the right amount of mockery and reverence toward the comic book heroes that makes it one of my favourite spoof movies.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: funny
Review: this one is off the wall with its wannabe superheroes and its villians galore. the one who shines in this movie is Ben Stiller(Mr. Furious)he was so hilarious. theres a funny superhero at that barbeque called The Waffler(hilariously played by Dane Cook, a stand up comedian on Comedy Central)

Favorite Lines

Mr. Furious(Ben Stiller)- what kind of a crazy person blows up a crazy house

Mr. Fruious(Ben Stiller)- that little sucker just saved your life(he says this after squeezing a ball)

Blue Radja(Hank Azaria)- may the forks be with us( of course pitted after Star Wars)

Casanova Frankestien(Geoffrey Rush)- can you dig it?!!!(of course pitted after The Warriors)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It gets better with every viewing
Review: Lots of critics said this movie was too long. When i saw it for the first time i somewhat agreed but although its long it never felt tedious. This is a move thats seemed to be made for me since it has many of my favorite actors from my favorite films of all time,Stiller "Meet The Parents" "Zero effect",Gacy"Fargo" Ruebens"Pee Wee's Big Adventure","Pee Wee's Playhouse",throw in Hank Azaria"Simpsons" throw in Janeane Garofalo and James Woods and youve got an all-star comedic and versatile cast with nary a dull moment in the film. Yes it was long but the cast had great chemistry. The part where they accidentally fried captain amazing was unexpected and hilarious.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: very funny.
Review: THE STROY:
some loser "super"heros try to rid the world of evil. Mr. Furoius who gets really mad. The Sholver who hits people with shovel. the spleen ........ the bowler who hits people with bowling balls. the invisible boy who can only become invisible when no ones watching. the blue raja who throws silverwere but not knifes because that could hurt som one. and the sphinkx who is terribly mysteryouis.

THE HOW IT WAS:
very good laugh out loudn funny pg-13 for voilence but mostly stays clean. I would have rated it pg if not g. well not g there was some bathroom humour. but pg. Id let little kids watch it its pretty good.

THE DVD: I HAVE VHS but i still want the dvd.

OOVERALL:
excellent and only 1 dirty joke.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Only The Funniest "Black Comedy" Ever Made!
Review: Only in this movie could several wanna-be's go out to save their city's superhero and end up killing him instead. How funny is that? And of the course my ultimate favorite line of the movie when The Shoveler (Bill Macy) is confronted by a gold pipe-wielding "Disco Boy": "....What are you? The Disco Plumber?"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My favourite ever movie...
Review: I wrote a review about 'Mystery Men' in 2001, when I had only seen it once and it was one of my first reviews, and it was three lines long. Since then, I have literally seen it again hundreds of times, and wrote over a hundred more reviews, so why do I like this movie so much?

It doesn't have much of a storyline, but that's not what they concentrated the movie on, they concentrated it on stúpid comedy, dúmb quotes and unique charecters. Basically, what happened was that these three wánnabe superheroes that live in Champion City, but there is already another superhero, 'Captain Amazing' who is actually millionaire, 'Lance Hunt' in disguise. When he goes missing the Mystery Men have to try and save him, and save the world.

The comedy was very láme, and only some people don't find it funny, but some, like me, find it hilarious. I know four other people who have seen this movie, and only one of them liked it. I think it is just too stúpid for most people.

The charecters were the best part about the movie, and had nine main charecters. First, there was Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller: Zoolander, The Ben Stiller Show) whose secret power was being incredibly furious. The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria: The Simpsons) had a secret power of throwing forks at people. The Shoveller (William H. Macy: Jurassic Park III) had a secret power of hitting people with a shovel. They were the three original charecters, but after recruiting, they first got The Spleen (Paul Ruebens: Dr Dolittle [voice]) and his secret power was to fart. The next recruit was The Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell: Kenan & Kel), who could only turn invisible when no-one's watching him, and becomes invisible again when he looks at himself. Carol The Bowler's (Janeane Garofalo: The Ben Stiller Show) secret power is to throw bowling balls at people, and finally, and probably my favourite of the superheroes was The Sphinx (Wes Studi) whose power is to be 'terribly mysterious'. The other two main charecters weren't part of the other group. Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear: You've Got Mail) is the famous superhero, and Cassanova Frankenstein (Geoffery Rush: Shakespeare In Love) is the supervillain who has just been released from a nut house. Other charecters include Monica the Waitress (Claire Forlani) and Dr. A Heller (Tom Waits).

The DVD version of the film offers these extras: Spotlight on Location, Directors Commentary, Deleted Scene, The Origin of the Comic, Theatrical Trailer, Music Highlights, Interactive DVD, Production Notes and Cast & Filmmaker's Notes.

The Directors Commentary is basically a version of the film with the normal sound dulled down a little with the Director of the film, Kinka Usher, saying what they were trying to achieve with the scene. The Deleted Scenes are what you might expect, these are those scenes edited out. I feel with these scenes in the film it would have made a lot more sense, oh well the editor knows best I guess!

I would say that I wouldn't buy the DVD version of the film just for the extras, but at the time I couldn't actually find a video version of Mystery Men. But I am sure that they must have released a copy on Video Tape.

The special effects in this film are great. The most fun special effect I think was the Tornado in a Can non-lethal weapon. This managed to lift the person off the ground and land them on a car!

Hope this review helps,

Mr. Gospel


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