Mystery Men (1999)

Directed by Kinka Usher. Starring Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, Paul Reubens, Geoffrey Rush, Kel Mitchell, Greg Kinnear, Wes Studi, Claire Forlani, Eddie Izzard, Tom Waits, Louise Lasser, Jenifer Lewis, Lena Olin. [PG-13]

The defender of Champion City, Captain Amazing (Kinnear), has been kidnapped by his archnemesis, Frankenstein Casanova (Rush), so a rag-tag team of wannabe superheroes with “lesser” talents come together to save the day—Mr. Furious (Stiller) is a ticking time-bomb of rage, the Blue Raja (Azaria) hurls cutlery with pinpoint accuracy, the Spleen (Reubens) breaks debilitating wind, etc. This goofy action-comedy offers scattershot laughs and novel twists on superhero genre conventions, but has a tendency to get strangled by its own extravagant production. The narrative sputters when it oughta flow (even while favoring set pieces and comic vignettes), and Rush’s eccentric criminal genius doesn’t have much in the way of personality or motivations, just another one of the actor’s batch of exaggerated vocal mannerisms. Most of the second-string heroes boast amusing traits, be they blue-collar workhorses or overdressed weirdos, but the story is simply too overcrowded with characters, and a lot of them end up as one-note (or one-joke) caricatures. Did most of Lena Olin’s performance end up getting cut from the final edit? The first and only film from commercial director Kinka Usher, inspired by Bob Burden’s irreverent underground comic books (aside from a store sign, Flaming Carrot is nowhere to be found, though). And remember: it was this film, not Shrek, that gave us Smash Mouth’s cheeseball anthem, “All Star”. Features appearances from Ricky Jay and Artie Lange, as well as bit parts for Sung Kang and Dane Cook when they were relatively unknown.

56/100