Mystery Men (1999)
Directed by Kinka Usher
When Champion City's hero Captain Amazing is kidnapped by the recently paroled supervillain Casanova Frankenstein, a trio of average, everyday superheroes -- Mr. Furious, the Shoveler and the Blue Raja -- assemble a new super team to save him.
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What critics compared Mystery Men to
That the reigning superhero of Champion City employs a flack, and that the flack is indeed played by America's greatest magician, Ricky Jay, says a lot about this larky gig: Directed by ''Yo quiero Taco Bell'' adman Kinka Usher as if Joel Schumacher's Batman blueprints had been left out to bleach and crinkle in the L.A. sun, the movie throws together a hipster cast in the service of deconstructing the superhero lifestyle.
"Mystery Men" is set in a futuristic metropolis called Champion City that borrows elements from the "Batman" movies and pictures like "Blade Runner" and "The Fifth Element" -- it has a sleek, dark, deco-modern look but also seems vaguely seedy.
Mystery Men is better than Batman, which it resembles.
For a movie that seems to be spoofing such comic-book based action films as "Batman," etc., "Mystery Men" is a delightful change of pace.
If nothing else, "Mystery Men," a chaff on the "Batman"-style event movie, has impeccable timing.
It has an entirely kooky and original plot fueled by crack up dialogue, mesmerizing scenery, (which is reminiscent of the Batman movies) and an awesome cast.
Unfortunately, the assortment of bad guys is almost laughable reminding one of the misfit heroes in the almost successful 1999 film “Mystery Men,” but without the self-deprecating comedy.
They’re not your classic heroes, they’re the other guys: Thunderbolts* is Marvel’s Mystery Men.
Schreier, tasked with making his characters interesting enough to carry a film without turning them into Mystery Men-like repositories of loser-ish comic relief…
22 years ago we called this stuff Mystery Men.
The bigger DC movies have heroes with godlike powers; Gunn is more interested in the Mystery Men -style niche acts struggling to compete.
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Based on a comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., the movie opens a bit like the 1999 comedy Mystery Men, with its nerdy protagonist (Aaron Johnson) who dreams of becoming a superhero and celebrity.
Es por ello que ¡Shazam!, más allá del film ingenuo que podría haber sido de haberse rodado en otra época, juega a una baraja que películas como Mystery Men, Los Increíbles o Super ya han jugado antes que él: una donde la sociedad ya es plenamente consciente de la existencia de los espantajomanes, consume productos protagonizados por ellos, y por supuesto sabe reírse de sus lugares comunes mientras le dirige un guiño cómplice a un espectador no necesariamente hastiado, pero sí predispuesto a lanzar la carcajada del listillo.
The film has a lot of tonal similarities to comic book movies from the 1990s like The Mask and Mystery Men , embracing the fun of being a superhero so many contemporary examples forget to address, but with a modern and grounded perspective that keeps the zaniness in check.
The line of misunderstood superheroes starts behind the X-Men, the Justice League Unlimited TV show took a more serious (and rather brilliant) approach to spandex-based PR problems, and satires of the genre still have The Tick and the badly underrated Mystery Men as standard bearers.
Hancock is the kind of flawed, superhero send-up tale Mystery Men was supposed to be and Smith is the perfect guy to pull it off.
A close second is Paul Reubens (1999's "Mystery Men"), stunningly deft in a rare dramatic turn as Derek.
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William H. Macy brings a suitable Mystery Men-like weariness as a caring black-market dealer…
Our favorite Superhero is The Sphinx, played by Wes Studi, the bad Huron Indian from The Last of the Mohicans.
Among the helpers are Spleen (Paul Reubens, formerly known as Pee Wee Herman), Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell) The Bowler (Janeane Garofalo of "The Truth About Cats and Dogs") and The Sphinx (Wes Studi of "The Last of the Mohicans").