Film #113 - Mystery Men (1999)
Mystery Men is one of the most underappreciated comic book movies of all time. Really, I don’t understand why people don’t like this film more.
First, it has a brilliant, sublime performance by William H. Macy as The Shoveller. He brings such pathos and resonance to what could have been an extremely silly role. It’s Macy that provides the backbone for the film, keeping things real, despite the silliness all around him.
Next, there’s a wild, over-the-top, yet loads of fun villainous performance by Geoffrey Rush as Casanova Frankenstein. Like Macy, he can play to the sillier aspects of the part, yet he is able to make Casanova a true threat, no less viable than Jack Nicholson’s Joker or Willem Dafoe’s Goblin (and a damn sight better than a lot of other recent villains).
The rest of the cast isn’t quite as brilliant, but are marvelously entertaining, nonetheless. Hank Azaria’s Blue Raja is a bit too much of the cliched “closeted” super-hero, but he gets lots of good moments and makes the most of them. Janeane Garofalo (who blows hot and cold on screen) uses her best anti-social persona for The Bowler and, I think, was never better. Paul Reubens (The Spleen), Eddie Izzard (Tony P.), Wes Studi (The Spleen) and Artie Lange (Big Red) have smaller roles, but are memorable. Lena Olin is great as Casanova’s psychiatrist/lover Dr. Annabel Leek, but it’s tragic how little she is given to do. I’d love to see her given a chance to really run wild with a character like that.
Finally, there’s the polar opposites of the super-hero world: Greg Kinnear’s Captain Amazing and Ben Stiller’s Mr. Furious. Kinnear has the uncanny knack for being able to make his character just slimy enough to recognize that he’s fallen from his altruistic calling, but still have a core of decency that points to days when the Captain was a better person. (We don’t really see him as a truly good person, but you get the idea that he once was.) Mr. Furious, on the other hand, is all about the noble sacrifice, he just lacks the ability and the knowledge of how to use what he does have. Far from crusing along like Amazing, he’s always reaching beyond his grasp. It makes him an object of humorous ridicule, but provides the character with the appealing nature that causes an audience to root for him.
The plot is pretty good, given the film’s basic set-up as a super-hero parody. It’s a strong story of power corrupted and rising above the place the world has decided for you. There’s plenty of silly jokes and comedic bits, but at its heart, Mystery Men is a real action-adventure movie and it handles that aspect as well as the comedic.
Perhaps it is this schizophrenic nature that makes it hard for audiences to park to the film. Those looking for a straightforward action picture would be put off by the fact that this is “just a parody”. Those looking for comedy would see it as just another “comic book action film”. The fact that it is both and could appeal to both audiences would be easily missed. But for those who give it a chance, Mystery Men is a quality production.