Dumb and Dumber meets Batman. While Mystery Men isn’t a bad movie I was handicapped in enjoying it because I’m over 12 years old and have an I. Q. At its worst Mystery Men is really, really dumb; a fun kind of dumb, but dumb nonetheless while at its best it’s just silly. The Mystery Men are a bunch of super hero wannabes all of whom have some incredibly inane power such as Mr. Furious who’s power is that of "boundless rage" which in short means he gets mad very easy. The Shoveler, "I shovel well. I shovel very well." The Spleen, "Want to see my power? Pull my finger." And The Blue Raja, Master of Silverware, who throws forks and spoons, but no knives, with unerring accuracy. He also, by the way, makes puns that stink worse then anything the Spleen every produced, such as "I didn’t expect to see you again so spoon." Or "May the forks be with us." Gag. Still, despite a plethora of fart jokes, a horny skunk and a couple of unpleasant visual effects Mystery Men is never truly offensive. Frankly, it’s just too silly to be offensive. Getting upset with anything in Mystery Men would be like getting upset at a four year old for being proud of a really gross looking runny nose. You know you should be disgusted, but they’re trying so darn hard to be cute you just don’t have the heart.Does Mystery Men have any redeeming qualities. Yep, suprisingly quite a few. For one thing the actors are all excellent. The majority of them are comedians who reportedly improvised their way through much of the movie and you can tell they had fun doing it. I was especially impressed with Ben (Mr. Furious) Stiller whose character was alternately the most whacked out and most sensible member of the Mystery Men. The backgrounds were lavish with a kind of Gotham City in need of urban renewal look. Several nice character moments; such as the ones between The Blue Raja and his Mom or Mr. Furious and a waitress he falls in love with, helped keep the characters from being one dimensional as well as silly. There are a few really funny bits as well, especially when our heroes recruit for new members only to get a group of applicants even lamer then they are such as Ballerina Man or the PMS Avenger. And finally, I love the name of the Mystery Men’s master villain, Casanova Frankenstein. I have no idea what his name means, if anything, but it is a really cool sounding name for a villain.
But it’s still a really, really dumb movie.
I wouldn’t advise anyone not to see it though. If you’re twelve or younger, if you want to get in good with a kid or kids who are twelve or younger by taking them to see it or you just plain like dumb, silly movies in the vein of Dumb and Dumber, Naked Gun or Hot Shots then go for it. Personally I know I’ve wasted the cost of a ticket on worse movies that were more offensive and less fun. Just don’t go in expecting anything like Superman and Batman or even Underdog, for that matter, otherwise you’re going to be disappointed.
Average Grade: B-
