Mystery Men

"I don't need a compass to know which way the wind shines."

The citizens of Champion City have no worries because they are protected by Captain Amazing (Kinnear).  However, all of his adversaries are behind bars and no villains are left.  He arranges for supervillain Casanova Frankenstein (Rush) to be released from prison, so he can catch him again.  After Casanova is released, he captures Capt Amazing, and the fate of the town is left to a group of wannabe superheroes.

After witnessing the capture of Capt Amazing, three friends search for a team to take on Casanova and the Tonys (Eddie Izzard and Pras).  The Shoveler (Macy) is a family man, with dreams of shoveling away villains / crime.  The Blue Raja (Azaria) has a fake British accent, lives with his mother, and throws forks at adversaries.  Mr. Furious (Stiller) is perpetually angry and is strong enough to lift a car in anger.  They hold auditions to recruit more people.  They end up with the Invisible Boy (Mitchell) who can only be invisible when no one is looking; Spleen (Reubens) who can knock a person out with his flatulence; The Bowler (Garofalo) who keeps her father's skull in a bowling ball; and their mentor Sphinx (Studi) who speaks in riddles.  Can the heroes that no one wants save the city?


I discovered this film during my freshman year of college because a friend was always quoting it.  He finally made us sit down and watch it, and we were less than impressed.  However, we were quoting the movie in no time.

It has been years since then, but I decided to see the film again.  And I found that it was much funnier than I remembered.  It isn't a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but it is funny.  The cast is strong... William H. Macy is a talented, award-winning actor.  All the other actors are well-known / established comic actors.

The film was loosely based on the independent comic "Flaming Carrot Cartoons."  However, it received mixed reviews and never really hit it big.  It's worth a look, but don't expect it to be the conventional superhero film.

Mystery Men (1999) 121 minutes
Rated: PG-13 for comic action violence and crude humor
Director: Kinka Usher
Starring: Ben Stiller as Mr. Furious
Hank Azaria as The Blue Raja
William H. Macy as The Shoveler
Janeane Garofalo as The Bowler
Kel Mitchell as Invisible Boy
Paul Reubens as Spleen
Wes Studi as Sphinx
Greg Kinnear as Captain Amazing / Lance
Geoffrey Rush as Casanova Frankenstein