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Maybe I am truly a mental case and should find myself locked up in a padded room instead of pursuing an eventual career in film. But for some reason, I thoroughly enjoyed "Mystery Men" in the theaters and even more so now that I own the DVD. I found the film to be incredible and completely hilarious. Public and critical reception was chilly and the poor theatrical showing nailed shut the franchise coffin. This is disappointing because I would love to see the further adventures of the "Mystery Men."
This mockery of comic book superheroes is well done. A top-notch cast has been brought together and first time director Kinka Usher brings these comic book misfits to life on film. The film succeeds wonderfully and achieves its goals. I find myself having great troubles trying to find the failure in this picture. I have never been a fan of comic book superheroes and only "Batman" sparks my interest. I feel "Superman" is silly and "X-Men" complete overkill. Perhaps my general dislike of comic book superheroes is why I bonded with this film. I still laugh at just the thought of the scene where two characters discuss that a wealthy citizen cannot be the superhero because he wears glasses.
Incredible actors William H. Macy and Geoffrey Rush join notables Hank Azaria, Claire Forlani, Jeanne Garofalo, Greg Kinnear, Paul "Pee Wee" Reubens, Ben Stiller, Wes Studi and Tom Waits in this well acted picture. Each actor brings their character a set of flawed traits that adds to the films direct hit of mocking the popular comic books. Macy is incredible as usual and how many people ever thought that Pee Wee Herman would flatulate in the face of Academy Award winning actor Geoffrey Rush. I have seen knocks on Ben Stiller for his role, but he was just fine as a man with no powers but an inflated ego and bad temper. Wes Studi is simply marvelous as an advice given superhero, but perhaps the only flaw in the film is that he fails to use any of his powers in the climax.
"Mystery Men" is about a band of misfits who believe they have powers. They band together to save the heavily promoted and only true superhero of Champion City, Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear). The original three heroes consist of The Shoveler (Macy), the fork throwing Blue Raja (Azaria) and their leader, Mr. Furious (Stiller). Eventually they recruit more members and come under the teaching of the Sphinx (Studi). Finally, after they make some new outfits they are ready to confront Captain Amazing's nemesis, Casanova Frankenstein (Rush) and save Amazing.
I tell you again, the film succeeds. It is completely hilarious. The cinematography and set design work perfectly for the picture and Usher shines at the helm of his first major motion picture. Everything comes together well in the film. It looks and sounds great and is full of laughs. I want to blame marketing on this picture and critical backlash from too many critics who need a broom pulled from their rectal area. Don't listen to anybody but me on this one and go see the picture. It's a wild ride that far from disappoints.
Video:
One of the strengths of "Mystery Men" is in its visuals. A definite comic book look has been achieved with this picture. Bright colors and foreboding dark scenes both make up the look of "Mystery Men." This film takes the visual approach of "Batman Forever" and "Batman & Robin" and puts them where they belong. The two Batman films that tried to achieve a comic book look failed partly because of the visuals, but in "Mystery Men," the look strengthens an already solid film.
This great looking film is presented on DVD with an anamorphic widescreen transfer that properly represents the films original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The plentiful and brilliant colors that make up the picture are wonderfully preserved and show absolutely no signs of color bleeding. They are well saturated and "Mystery Men" is a title that can easily be used to show of DVD technology because of its colors. Contrast and skin tones are dead. The film also contains many scenes that take place in the dark. The black level of these scenes is very good. Shadow detail is excellent. There is no jagged edges or compression errors to be found. This film pushes what can be done with color and lighting and the DVD succeeds perfectly.
Audio:
"Mystery Men" is a film that can be quite noisy. There are a few action scenes and a heavy rock and roll soundtrack. The climax has so much going on audibly that a solid transfer is certainly required. The 5.1 Dolby Digital mix is wonderful. Every channel is used to its fullest in "Mystery Men." The .1 LFE channel bellows some truly deep bass that succeeded in knocking a CD jewel case from a shelf in the next room. The soundtrack makes excellent use of the split surrounds and this is certainly apparent in the climax where the soundtrack places you in the action. The already mentioned soundtrack sounds great and Smash Mouth's "All Star" sounds better during the end credits than the CD. Besides films such as "The Matrix" and "Saving Private Ryan," this is nearly reference material when it comes to the ears.
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[release]3745[/release]