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From the life of Bryan comes a look at MYSTERY MEN
Harry here with a review from the Life of Bryan... and here's his impressions of MYSTERY MEN (there should be many looks on the site tonight)...
Hey Harrry, long time reader first time writer. As luck would have it I
found my way into an invitation only screening of "Mystery Men" on this
lovely evening, and here's how it went:
Before the film started, a guy from Universal spoke to us and said the
print we were seeing needed to have the colour fine-tuned and end
credits added, but the actual content was all there.
For those of you unfamiliar with the story, a group of superhero
wannabes who live in Champion City must rescue Captain Amazing, a real
superhero, from the evil Cassanova Frankenstein and save the city.
The Mystery Men are as follows:
Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller): Mr. Frious is prone to fits of extreme rage,
which he uses against criminals. Stiller was hilarious, particularly in
one scene where he tries to wreck Frankenstein's car.
The Shoveler (William H. Macy): The Shoveler hits people with a shovel.
Macy was good in the role, and his quiet acting provided a good contrast
to Stiller.
The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria): Raja throws cutlary, speaks with a British
accent (even though he isn't British) and lives with his mom. Azaria,
along with Stiller, stole the movie.
The Bowler (Janene Garafalo): The Bowler throws a bowling ball containg
the head of her dead father. Garafalo was fine, I was pretty indifferent
to the character.
The Sphinx (Wes Studi): The Sphinx cuts guns in half with his mind, and
dispenses cliched pieces of advice. Studi was excellent, a nice
surprise.
The Spleen (Paul Reubens): The Spleen passes lethal gas. The character
was pretty annoying and didn't add anything to the film.
Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell): Turns invisible when no on is looking. The
film would have been better without him.
The film was very entertaining and enjoyable, but not without problems.
Kinka Usher's directing was poor, using way to many close ups and not
nearly enough wide shots to show off the graet sets. It was as if he was
trying to imitate Shumacher's direction of "Batman and Robin". Keep the
camera still, damn it! Also the film trails off in the second half when
they train and actually become good superheros. The first half is clever
and original, while the second is formulaic. Finally, I wish Cassanova
Frankenstein had had more of a character. Rush didn't have much to work
with, which was probably why he ended up doing a cheesy German accent.
The film's visuals and performances are it's strong point,
especially those by Stiller, Azaria and Greg Kinnear who was hilarious
as the conceited Captain Amazing.
Overall, it was fun and I enjoyed it. It's fun to go visit a place
as original as Champion City for 1h and 45 minutes, regardless of
problems with the directing etc. "Mystery Men" is good, quirky summer
movie fun, the type of movie "Wild Wild West" wanted to be. It's worth
your 8 bucks and ***/*****.
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I dunno... I find satire heroes (think The Tick) far more interesting than regular Super Heroes....
Mystery Men looks like it's gonna be a barrel of monkeys, but the theatrical trailer doesn't look half as good as the television trailers. WHO'S CUTTING THE THEATRICAL TRAILERS OVER THERE?! I'D FIRE YOUR ASS!! ;-)
In any case, I'm lookin' forward to it... -
My very first post with tabula rasa before me, but I didn't want to be one of the a-holes that post just for the sake of being first. Ergo... I find this first look at MM to be refreshing. My first exposure to MM was staring at its poster hour after hour while waiting in line for Episode One at the Big Newport. Frankly, it looked super weak. However, as I learned more about the film, it began to look like an interesting idea that could make for a really good movie or a shockingly bad one (kind of like WWW, 'nuff said).
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First, it's opening in a WAY too crowded market, second, the trailers are awful, third, it had tons of buzz back in FREAKIN MAY when they released the Smash Mouth song and video (which now everyone is sick of). The campaign for this movie has been terrible. I don't care if it's great or not. I'm not seeing dollar signs on this one.
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Ummmm, with all this talk about "artistic merit" and the like, I am confused as to why the "business" of the "movie business" is even worth mentioning? First let me say that this was a terrible review from a barely literate half-wit! Wow, check the alliteration on that one. Anyway, go on and on about how badly the movie was directed, and finish up by saying it was definitely worth $8. It doesn't seem that it should be with all the problems you seemed to have with it. Also, I don't agree that all movies are art. I believe that some movies can be artistic, but most are funded by major studios, who are out to make a profit(and rightfully so, I mean it's their money that are financing these things, and they deserve a return on thier investment). It doesn't make them evil, but it does pretty much insure that they are not propagating "art"! I think it's too easy for a lot of film makers to scream about not compromising their art, but I think they would tend to sing a different tune if it was their money at stake instead of the studio systems. Now I realize that some film makers do put up their own funds, but I think this is more of an anomoly than the norm. Ok, I'm finished now.
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This sounds like a pretty interesting middle-of-the-summer go-to-your-theater-to-keep-cool movie. I didn't know what this movie was about till I saw a commercial for it on TV the other night. I like the idea of do-it-yourself superheroes. William H. Macy's "powers" involve hitting someone over the head with a shovel. Janene Garafolo bowling down enemies with a ball containing the head of her dead father (I hope the poster doesn't show any decapitated heads--wouldn't want to infuriate the MPAA). Ben Stiller's over-the-top character, etc. I will definetely check this one out when it comes to my local 12-screen theater.
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True, the first trailer blew chunks, and the first poster wasn't that impressive either. However, there's another poster out now that's pretty good, and the latest trailers have been really good, showing off the humor of the movie. The latest trailer, shown with American Pie, that has Captain Amazing trying to figure out the plural form of "nemesis" is hilarious, and pretty much perfect, except that it doesn't list the cast. The cast of this movie alone should sell the movie. However I think the movie would've been better opening Aug 6th like it was originally going to. On July 30th it's going to be up against Deep Blue Sea and Runaway Bride, so we shall see, but I hope it does well.
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Don't review a movie based on the trailer, for chrissakes!! Wasn't that a skit on Saturday Night Live or SCTV? Ben Stiller is amazing and he was, once again, hilarious in this movie. Sheer brilliance from everyone especially William H. Macy! Paul Ruebens is back! Paul Ruebens is back! Janeane, awesome. Cassanova Frankenstein could have been a better villain, but he did what he could. Greg Kinnear was hilarious! This film looked fantastic! Loved the the movie (can you tell?). Second only to The Matrix for the year. Don't miss this movie!
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Yes, this is very similar to a SNL skit years ago--Louis Gossett was the guest, playing a General who needs some superheroes to save the country from something or another. For some reason, no real superheroes are available, so he ends up with "The Interesting Four"...Brad Hall plays "The Human Stapler;" Joe Piscopo is "Mr. Wonderful" (bad lounge singer; superpowers unknown)...the best though was Julia Louise Dreyfuss as "Weather Woman"--with the ability to RAISE OR LOWER THE TEMPERATURE BY UP TO 9 DEGREES!! ...
Minor skit, could've done a lot more with it... -
The Mysterymen originated in a comic called Flaming Carrot. The Carrot tended to hang out with strippers and carried jelly sandwiches in his utility belt. A favorite Mysteryman was BondoMan, who didn't make the movie. I'm looking forward to the movie and hopefully quality merchandising.
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