Mystery Men

Mystery Men
File:Mystery Men film poster.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kinka Usher
Produced by	Lawrence Gordon Lloyd Levin Mike Richardson
Written by	Neil Cuthbert Bob Burden
Based on	Flaming Carrot Comics by Bob Burden
Starring	Hank Azaria Claire Forlani Janeane Garofalo Eddie Izzard Greg Kinnear William H. Macy Kel Mitchell Lena Olin Paul Reubens Geoffrey Rush Ben Stiller Wes Studi Tom Waits
Music by	Stephen Warbeck
Cinematography	Stephen H. Burum
Edited by	Conrad Buff
Production company	Golar Productions Dark Horse Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	August 6, 1999 (1999-08-06)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$68 million
Box office	$33.4 million

Mystery Men is a 1999 American superhero comedy film directed by Kinka Usher and written by Neil Cuthbert and Bob Burden, loosely based on Burden's Flaming Carrot Comics, and starring (in alphabetical order) Hank Azaria, Claire Forlani, Janeane Garofalo, Eddie Izzard, Greg Kinnear, William H. Macy, Kel Mitchell, Lena Olin, Paul Reubens, Geoffrey Rush, Ben Stiller, Wes Studi, and Tom Waits. The film details the story of a trio of lesser superheroes with unimpressive powers who are required to save the day.

Despite its list of stars and mixed to positive reviews, Mystery Men made a little over $33 million worldwide against a $68 million budget.

Plot

In the metropolis of Champion City, the would-be superhero team of Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), The Shoveler (William H. Macy), and The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria) attempt to make a name for themselves, but their suspect skills make them ineffective, and they find themselves upstaged by the city's most successful superhero, Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear). However, Amazing is finding that his effectiveness at fighting crime has practically made his job obsolete, and without any worthy adversaries remaining (some of them are either dead, in exile, or still in jail), his corporate sponsors are beginning to pull their funding. To create a need for himself, Amazing uses his alter ego, billionaire lawyer Lance Hunt, to argue for the release of insane supervillain Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush). The plan backfires; once reunited with Tony P (Eddie Izzard) and his Disco Boys, Casanova Frankenstein blows up the insane asylum, captures Amazing, and prepares to unleash a doomsday device: the "Psycho-frakulator", which lethally bends reality. Mr. Furious, while spying on Casanova Frankenstein's mansion, discovers Amazing's capture and informs the others.

After an unsuccessful rescue attempt, the three realize they need more allies, and through word-of-mouth and try-outs, they recruit Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell), The Spleen (Paul Reubens), and The Bowler (Janeane Garofalo). The newly formed team "assaults" Casanova, which only succeeds in annoying him and damaging his car. While drunk from celebrating their victory, the team is nearly killed in retaliation by Tony P and the Disco Boys, but they are saved at the last minute by The Sphinx (Wes Studi). The Sphinx trains them, but his methods annoy Mr. Furious – he has them complete rote team-building exercises and speaks exclusively in platitudes. They also seek out mad scientist Doc Heller (Tom Waits), who specializes in non-lethal weaponry, to equip them for their battle.

The group breaks into Casanova's mansion during a gathering of several of the city's gangs; but, while attempting to free Captain Amazing, they inadvertently set off the Psycho-frakulator, killing him instead. Without Amazing, the team despairs of saving the city, but The Shoveler delivers a pep-talk that succeeds in uniting and inspiring them.

With new-found purpose, they assault the mansion and, by making effective use of their negligible superpowers and Heller's weapons, manage to subdue most of Casanova Frankenstein's henchmen. Unfortunately, as the heroes approach Casanova Frankenstein, he reveals that he is holding Mr. Furious' girlfriend Monica (Claire Forlani) hostage, and proceeds to activate the Psycho-frakulator, which begins to wreak havoc upon the city. While the team tries to stop the device, Mr. Furious takes on Casanova Frankenstein. After initially taking a beating, Mr. Furious unleashes his inner rage and manages to fight effectively for the first time. He defeats Casanova Frankenstein, who is thrown into the core of the Psycho-frakulator and killed by its reality-bending powers. The rest of the team helps The Bowler use her bowling ball to destroy the device and escape the mansion as it implodes, killing several villains still inside.

The team is interviewed by reporters, begging to know their team name. As they argue among themselves, one reporter states "Well, whatever you may call them, Champion City will forever owe a debt of gratitude to these 'Mystery Men'," but the others are too busy arguing to hear it.

Cast

• Hank Azaria as The Blue Raja/Jeff, a superhero who throws cutlery with great accuracy.
• Claire Forlani as Monica, a waitress who becomes Mr. Furious' girlfriend.
• Janeane Garofalo as The Bowler/Carol, a superheroine with good bowling skills, who wields a crystal bowling ball that contains the skull of her dead father Carmine the Bowler (whom Tony P killed years earlier).
• Eddie Izzard as Tony P., the leader of the Disco Boys.
• Greg Kinnear as Captain Amazing/Lance Hunt, Champion City's local superhero.
• William H. Macy as The Shoveler/Eddy, a sewer worker-turned-superhero who wields a shovel.
• Kel Mitchell as Invisible Boy, a superhero who can only become invisible if nobody is looking.
• Lena Olin as Dr. Anabel Leek
• Paul Reubens as The Spleen, a superhero who can deploy flatulence at will, sufficient to induce fainting.
• Geoffrey Rush as Casanova Frankenstein, a criminal genius with an assortment of weapons.
• Ben Stiller as Mr. Furious/Roy, a superhero who often gets enraged.
• Wes Studi as The Sphinx, a mysterious superhero who can use his mind to cut guns in half.
• Tom Waits as Dr. A. Heller, a mad scientist who aids the Mystery Men by making non-lethal weapons for them to use.
• Prakazrel Michel as Tony C.
• Artie Lange as Big Red
• Ricky Jay as Victor Weems, Captain Amazing's publicist.
• Jenifer Lewis as Lucille, wife of The Shoveler
• Dane Cook as The Waffler, a waffle iron-wielding character who auditions to join up with the Mystery Men.
• Doug Jones as Pencil Head, a pencil-themed character who auditions to join up with the Mystery Men.
• Vincent Bowman as Son of Pencilhead, a pencil-themed character who auditions to join up with the Mystery Men.
• Dana Gould as Squeegee Man, a squeegee-wielding character who auditions to join up with the Mystery Men.
• Michael Bay, Noah Blake, and Riki Rachtman as Frat boys
• Goodie Mob including Cee Lo Green as the "Not-So-Goodie Mob"
• Monet Mazur as Becky Beaner
• Louise Lasser as The Blue Raja's mother
• Kinka Usher as Moe
• Mark Mothersbaugh as Bandleader
• Jack Plotnick as Mr. Pups
• Gerry Becker as Banyon
• Ned Bellamy as Funk
• Corbin Bleu as Butch
• Philip Bolden as Roland

Music

The musical score for Mystery Men was composed by Stephen Warbeck. Written within a twenty eight-day time span, the score was recorded on the Sony Scoring Stage. "I was quite liberal in the choice of instruments, because I've chosen a couple of Hungarian instruments, the tárogató and the cimbalom, and also a Greek instrument, the bouzouki," said Warbeck on the film's range of sounds. "And then Mike Fisher and the other percussionists have brought along an exciting range of stuff which are so interesting and varied that we keep picking bits of those and adding them in." After Warbeck's contributions were completed, the film's producers decided to alter various scenes. Because of this, composer Shirley Walker was brought in to create additional music and rearrange Warbeck's score to fit the new running time.

A soundtrack album was released on July 6, 1999 by Interscope Records.

Tracklisting
No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"Back In 1999"	John Oszajca	3:45
2.	"All Star"	Smash Mouth	3:19
3.	"Keep Keep Movin'"	Dub Pistols	3:42
4.	"The Mystery Men Mantra" (feat. Terry Bradford, Wil Wheaton & Nancye Ferguson)	Mark Mothersbaugh	4:11
5.	"No Way"	Freak Power	4:14
6.	"Who Are Those Mystery Men" (feat. Romaine Jones)	Kel and the M.A.F.T. Emcees	4:08
7.	"Rainy Day Parade"	Jill Sobule	3:05
8.	"Sometimes"	Michael Franti & Spearhead	3:48
9.	"Won't You Come Down"	Spy	4:04
10.	"Gangster"	Citizen King	2:43
11.	"No More Heroes"	Violent Femmes	2:54
12.	"Indigo"	Moloko	3:34
13.	"Disco Inferno"	The Trammps	3:34
14.	"Night Fever"	Bee Gees	3:30
15.	"Mystery Men Oath"	Ben Stiller & William H. Macy	0:42

Additional songs featured in the film include:

• "Planet Claire" – The B-52s
• "O Mio Babbino Caro" (Composed by Giacomo Puccini) – Miriam Gauci
• "Play That Funky Music" – Wild Cherry

Release

Box office

In its opening weekend, Mystery Men grossed $10,017,865, ranking number six in the domestic box office. At the end of its run on October 14, the film had grossed $29,762,011 domestically and $3,699,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $33,461,011. Based on a $68 million budget, the film is a box office bomb.

Critical response

The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 60% based on 101 reviews; the consensus states: "Absurd characters and quirky gags are brought to life by a talented cast, providing this superhero spoof with lots of laughs." On Metacritic, the film has a 65/100 rating based on 24 critics, signifying "generally favorable reviews".

Jonathan Romney said that it was "a desperately hit-and-miss affair". Michael Dequina of The Movie Report said that it "fails to come up with worthy gags and one-liners for the able cast." Steve Murray of Cox News Service gave it a negative review, saying "Mystery Men is like its hapless heroes. It's a wannabe that has the best intentions – including a pronounced anti-gun stance – but none of the knack it takes to save the day, or itself."

British television channel Film4 gave it a positive review, saying it was "Hugely entertaining – especially for those with a thing for superheroes."

External links

• Mystery Men at IMDb
• Mystery Men at Box Office Mojo
• Mystery Men at Rotten Tomatoes
• Mystery Men at Metacritic