# Mystery Men (1999)

### reviewed by
Frankie Paiva

    Mystery Men (PG-13) ** 1/2
    Starring William H. Macy, Ben Stiller
    Directed by Kinka Usher
    A Review by Frankie Paiva

Mystery Men was supposed to be one of the biggest box office draws of the summer. It had a hip cast, (get this cast list: Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, William H. Macy, Kel Mitchell, Paul Reubens, Ben Stiller, Wes Studi, Greg Kinnear, Lena Olin, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Waits, Eddie Izzard, and Pras just to name a few) an interesting premise, and great special effects, but somewhere in the midst, someone had forgotten about the script.

Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear) is losing his superhero pop deal with Pepsi, he's almost wiped out all of the crime in the city and is losing publicity fast. What he needs is one of his old evil villains to battle with, the only one still alive is Cassanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush) and he releases him immediately. But Cassanova is smart, and soon captures Amazing and holds him in his mansion of evil.

Enter Mr. Furious, (Stiller) the Shoveler, (H. Macy) and the Blue Raja, (Hank Azaria) they are your b-movie type superheros. They go around each night and try to protect the citizens of Champion City from extreme evil. When their idol Captain Amazing is captured, they soon make it their quest to rescue him before the entire city is blown to a pulp. They hold superhero auditions for more people to join their gang and go to an old carnival where a man sells lots of weird weapons.

That's exactly what Mystery Men is, the film has some extremely inventive situations but smothers them in stupid, unfunny dialog. The performances are surprisingly mediocre with only Rush and Garofolo standing out from the crowd. It's also full of characters that we are supposed to find amusing that come off more annoying than funny. Universal put $68 million into the picture, and so far it's only made about $25 million, and it's probably not going to make $35 million either. While well cast, Mystery Men can't make the cut, so it gets **1/2 stars.

The Young-Uns: The film contains a scene of someone's eyeballs and face being disoriented and burning (it's not that bad) it also contains some gross humor and language. Good Age: 9 & Up

A Review by Frankie Paiva The 12 Year-Old Movie Reviewer E-Mail me at SwpStke@aol.com Visit my website at: http://expage.com/page/teenagemoviecritic

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