Mystery Men

I was shocked to discover a few weeks ago that several of my friends have never heard of, much less seen, the 1999 movie Mystery Men. I wouldn't say this movie featured prominently in my childhood, but I did see it a couple times growing up and I really like it. My youngest older brother actually introduced the movie to me when I was twelve or so. As far as I understand, the very popular Smash Mouth song "All Star" was written for the movie Mystery Men - you can see clips from the movie in the song's music video - so it seems clear to me that everyone who's heard the song should see the movie.

From left to right: The Bowler, Invisible Boy, The Sphinx,
The Shoveler, Blue Raja, Mr. Furious, and The Spleen.

Mystery Men is a comic superhero movie about a group of unimpressive 'heroes' in a futuristic town already protected by one Captain Amazing. It's based on an actual comic series written by Bob Burden for Dark Horse Comics in the 90s. In the comic series, a group of pseudo-heroic misfits get together to try to save the city from supervillains. There were a lot of different 'heroes' to join the Mystery Men in the comics, since the group happened to have a very high death-rate. The movie just focuses on a team of seven, and presents them as unexpected heroes when Captain Amazing is kidnapped by Casanova Frankenstein, an insane, evil genius.

Captain Amazing - and
his endorsements

As you might expect, Mystery Men is pretty hilarious. The main trio of heroes are The Shoveler, Mr. Furious, and The Blue Raja (who feigns a British Accent and flings forks). They're joined by Invisible Boy (who can only turn invisible when no one is looking at him), The Spleen, The Bowler, and The Sphinx (who's not just mysterious - he's TERRIBLY mysterious). Not only are the actual 'heroes' and their powers pretty hilarious, but some of the lines that poke fun at the common superhero tropes are great. At one point, the team gets into an argument over whether Captain Amazing is really billionaire Lance Hunt, with one half of the team arguing that he can't be, because Lance Hunt wears glasses and Captain Amazing doesn't.

The movie didn't hit the box office nearly as hard as producers were expecting, so it's considered a flop by most people, but I think the movie's great. It's got just a slight surreal edge to it, with a light enough comedic touch to be pure, escapist fun.

I could spend a long time quoting the better lines ("We are number one. All others are number two or lower"), but that would ruin part of the first-time viewing experience. Netflix doesn't have the movie on instant, but you can rent the DVD online or from a nearby still-open Blockbuster or Video Depot. (In case you want to watch this movie with kids - it's relatively clean, though they do curse a few times, and I always skip the skunk scene). I highly recommend Mystery Men, especially for anyone craving a good 90s comedy.