# Mystery Men (1999)

### reviewed by
Michael Elliott

    MYSTERY MEN
    ** out of ****
    ==============

DIRECTED BY: Kinka Usher STARRING: Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, Greg Kinnear, William H. Macy, Paul Reubens, Geoffrey Rush, Ben Stiller WRITTEN BY: Neil Cuthbert RATED: PG-13 for comic action violence and crude humor SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: 2 Corinthians 2:11, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, 1 Corinthians 12:18-27

For every super hero there are a hundred wannabees. In the super hero business, wannabees are those good hearted men and women with something less than superpowers who nonetheless have a burning desire to fight crime and avenge the righteous. MYSTERY MEN is a film about them.

Champion City already has its resident protector. But Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear, AS GOOD AS IT GETS), his uniform tattooed with product endorsements, has done his job so well, there simply aren't any super villains left to vanquish. Enter Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush, ELIZABETH) who easily tricks the captain and holds him captive while he makes plans to destroy the city.

With Captain Amazing incapacitated, the only ones standing in Frankenstein's way are our would-be heroes: Six kooks in funny looking costumes. They are: The Shoveler (William H. Macy, A CIVIL ACTION), expert with a spade, not so good explaining his pastime activities to his wife; Mr. Furious (Jerry Stiller, THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY) whose only talent seems to be in getting mad; The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria, GODZILLA) who flings his mother's flatware (forks and spoons only) with pinpoint accuracy; The Bowler (Janeane Garofalo, PERMANENT MIDNIGHT) who converses with her father's skull encased in her bowling ball; The Spleen (Paul Reubens, PEEWEE'S BIG ADVENTURE) whose flatulence is so noxious it literally knocks out his opponents; and The Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell, GOOD BURGER) who can only turn invisible if no one looks at him.

Together, these dimwitted defenders of truth and justice, under the guidance of The Sphinx (Wes Studi, DEEP RISING) who talks in a fortune cookie language, ("He who questions training only trains himself to ask questions"), must rise to the challenge of saving their city and their city's hero from certain doom.

MYSTERY MEN is based on the DARK HORSE comic books by Bob Burden. With such an unquestionably talented cast as has been assembled, it is disappointing to say that this is not a better film. The problem lies primarily with director Kinka Usher who is making his feature film debut. Mr. Usher is perhaps best known for his award winning talking Chihuahua Taco Bell commercials. No doubt he has learned that capturing an audience's attention for 30 seconds is a lot easier than doing the same over a 90 minute span.

The script is weak, the humor rather puerile, and the actors, excepting the work of Mr. Kinnear and Mr. Macy, seem lost in a sea of good ideas gone bad. Mr. Kinnear is amusingly smug as the corporate sponsored Captain Amazing. Mr. Macy, as the crewcut wearing, shovel-wielding epitome of a working man, wears his idealistic values on his sleeve. His consistency, as a character, is part of the glue that keeps this movie from falling completely apart.

A film of this scope needed a much firmer hand and clearer vision than Mr. Usher provided. The concept is one that is actually quite appealing... Working class men and women who have unusual yet obviously developed skills, acting out the role of "super-hero" to benefit a society that barely is aware of their existence. Their success comes only from their working in unison. They must combine their various talents in order to have any possibility to defeat their common foe.

Followers of Christ must work in the same manner. By combining our individual talents, knowledge and abilities, we lend support and strength to each other's weaknesses. Together, with God, we have the prevailing strength necessary to stand against our spiritual enemy. The scriptures say:

    "Lest Satan should get an advantage of US: for WE are not ignorant of
    his
    devices." 2 Corinthians 2:11 [KJV]

It is folly to enter into the spiritual competition alone. As the Sphinx might say: "He who fails to stand with team, will stand to fail alone."

    Michael Elliott
    August 1999
    http://www.christiancritic.com

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