Review: Mystery Men

Esther says, "I'm curious: We all know Mystery Men was just awful, but what's your unique take on it this time around?"

This time around was also the first time around for me: I had never seen Mystery Men before this summer, and really, when it first came out I didn't really have any desire to see it. As a rule, I don't go in for superheroes (though recently my explorations of the comic book medium have led me to some exceptions to this rule. Also, the spectacular TV show Heroes, which breaks both my aversion to superheroes, as well as my aversion to TV shows.) In school, when Mystery Men first came out, my main take on comic books was that it was a novel and promising medium which had been utterly wasted 99% of the time due to Superheroes. I find that still sums up my feelings fairly well, though there are a number of people doing their level best to change the situation, and a fair number of people who are working to redeem the Superhero genre as well. Partially, too, I find the situation made more complex from learning the history of comics, particularly the bit where people afraid that comics were corrupting children effectively castrated the entire medium (in America), via the self-censoring Comics Code Authority; which also managed to excise virtually every burgeoning genre apart from the Superhero comics (horror comics, for example, were right out in that environment), *and* also so limited the story possibilities that for the next few decades the superhero comics (which had never been particularly compelling storylines, mind) descended even further into the realms of the ridiculous.

I mention this as background, but also because I note a particular analog being played out with another novel and promising medium, the video game, and the recent attacks on it by the like of Jeff Thompson and Hillary Clinton. If you'd like me to go into more detail on this, just ask.

But I should get back to Mystery Men. The term Mystery Men is actually taken from the early days of comics, before the term Superhero came into wide usage. The movie concerns the lives of "wanna-be" superheroes, trying to create a niche for themselves in a city where the most famous superhero has practically eliminated all crime.

I hadn't actually realized that Ben Stiller was in the movie, despite him being prominently on the cover of the dvd case. (Not that knowing this would have increased my desire to watch the film at all). Mostly what I knew about the movie was that it was "VeryOdd", and that whats-his-name that played PeeWee Herman was in the movie. Actually, most of what I know about PeeWee Herman is that he is "Very Odd", and that the actor was arrested for some embarrassing crime or another. So you can imagine that going in, I was not anticipating much. In fact, I expected the film to be, "just awful."

So, really, I was pleasantly surprised when the movie didn't suck. Let me hasten to amend: the movie is not great cinema. As a film snob, I have some sense that I'm not allowed to like comedies o'er much, at least comedies not directed by Wes Anderson, if you can really call his films comedies (I'm not sure what else you would call them: clearly, they are meant to be funny, albeit in a sad kind of way. Sadly funny? Anyway, they usually have positive resolutions of some sort, though bittersweet sometimes.) Certainly Ben Stiller comedies are right out, at least Ben Stiller comedies not, yes, directed by Wes Anderson. One won't catch me lining up to see There's Something About Mary on opening night, and if one does one should be polite and warn me, since I'm probably trying to see The Thin Red Line and have wandered into the wrong queue by mistake.

That said, I would firmly place Mystery Men into the category of Guilty Pleasures. It is predictable. It is sentimental. It is cliched in places. It is occasionally crude. Its faults are many, and to list them all would probably be unnecessary, and they are so obvious they it may even be impolite.

But Mystery Men is also witty, and clever, and original. It is Very Odd, but in a way that I found novel. The characters are endearing (even though at some points they edge toward the Too Endearing of which comedies are often guilty. The archetypal example of this for me is the Disapproving Relatives Who Suddenly Turn into Approving Relatives as They Watch the Protagonists Succeed at their Dreams on TV. There are a couple instances of this here, but I'm always reminded of the end of Zoolander, where Ben Stiller's coal-mining father is in the Smoky Bar surrounded by other coal miners and, watching the fashion show on TV, proclaims "That's my son!" I felt in that context that it was ridiculous enough to be funny rather than touching, and so didn't mind it as much; though I did get the uneasy feeling that it was intended to be touching.)

An example of this is when the characters are talking about the big, famous superhero from whose shadow they want desperately to emerge.

The Shoveler: Oh yeah, well, maybe if we had a billionaire like Lance Hunt as our benefactor, then we could afford some advertising.

Mr. Furious: That's because Lance Hunt is Captain Amazing.

Blue Raja: Oh, here we go.

Shoveler: Oh, don't start that again! Lance Hunt wears glasses. Captain Amazing doesn't wear glasses.

Mr. Furious: [Long-suffering] He takes them off and transforms.

Shoveler: That doesn't make any sense. He wouldn't be able to see!

It's that sort of wacky cleverness that I think makes Mystery Men a fun popcorn movie. The other strength, I feel, is the cast. (I almost said "major strength", but that might be going a bit too far in relation to this film). While no-one is going to be considered for an oscar for their performances in the film (and really, what was the last comedy that earned anyone an oscar for acting? Even Wes Anderson comedies, really. Comedies are archetypal, and the Oscars like "realism" in the sense of specificity, at least insofar as awards for Acting are concerned) I thought that the characters were well established (if that's the right word choice). They were sympathetic, by which I don't mean that I felt sorry for them, but that I understood them and felt like I knew them. Anyway, I thought the acting did the material justice. And Geoffrey Rush never hurts a film.

I would also be remiss if I didn't at least mention the Disco-themed street gang, which was a constant joy.

So. Bottom line is, Mystery Men is not great cinema. It's probably actually mediocre cinema, but it is fun mediocre cinema, and deserves, if not a wide audience, at least a cult following. Perhaps to those not familiar with comic books or superheroes (which, after the recent string of Marvel and DC films, I can't imagine anyone being nowadays) it would be more obscure and thus less accessible; but I found it -- endearing, if not without its flaws.

Thus, I award it: **1/2 stars.

Go see it, if you are of the appropriate audience type and have an evening where you're more interested in fun than art.