The past 25 years of cinema have been overshadowed by the emergence of superhero movies as a driving box office force, so much so that filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron have openly hoped that the genre would go the way of the Western. Given the emergence of superhero fatigue — especially with Sony’s Marvel films like Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter — they may get their wish. But if there was one movie from the turn of the century that was ahead of the curve, it was Mystery Men, the superhero spoof that hit theaters in 1999. It’s also our pick for the one Amazon Prime Video movie that you need to watch in January.
At the time that Mystery Men was released, the only Marvel movie that had any traction was Blade, and DC was coming off of the disastrous Batman & Robin. Comparatively, Dark Horse Comics had a good run of comic book movies in the 1990s including The Mask, Timecop, and, of course, Mystery Men. The source material was writer and artist Bob Burden’s Flaming Carrot Comics, a title that has never crossed into the mainstream. But it turned out to be an early predictor of what the superhero genre would become. In fact, Mystery Men may be even more timely in 2025 than it was at the time of its release.
Mystery Men is also the only movie ever directed by Kinka Usher, who went back to helming commercials after making this film. In the present, it’s an underappreciated cult classic, and these are the reasons why you should watch Mystery Men this month.
The cast is incredibly funny
There wasn’t any shortage of comedic talent lined up for this film, as Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Paul Reubens, Hank Azaria, and William H. Macy played the misfit superheroes who never actually got their own team name. Wes Studi had a smaller role as the team’s occasional ally, The Sphinx. Meanwhile, this was the first big Hollywood movie for Geoffrey Rush before he went on to star in the Pirates of the Caribbean films with Johnny Depp. Rush played Casanova Frankenstein, the mad genius who was released from his confinement to give Captain Amazing (Craig Kinnear) someone to fight before he threatened all of Champion City. Eddie Izzard even has a role as Casanova’s henchman, Tony.
It’s a superhero comedy that still has stakes
Mystery Men is intentionally absurd, but never to the point where the story doesn’t matter. There are some life-and-death stakes for the team, and they’re accidentally responsible for the dire fate of one of the other heroes. The superpowers featured here are also not very super, as Mr. Furious (Stiller) is just a guy who gets slightly stronger when angry, while Blue Raja (Azaria) uses cutlery as weapons, and The Shoveler (Macy) is really good with a shovel. Out of the rest of the team, The Bowler (Garofalo) has some effectiveness with her nearly indestructible bowling ball. Spleen (Reubens) and Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell) are mostly useless, but their hearts are in the right place. There’s a superhero tryout session in the film that’s absolutely hilarious, which also makes the team seem more competent by comparison. Ballerinaman (Robert Musselman) was easily the funniest of the would-be heroes.
The important thing is that this film understands the rules of superhero fiction even while mocking them. Now that the general public has become intimately familiar with the tropes of the genre, Mystery Men actually seems even funnier in retrospect.
It had an unintentional impact on pop culture
Although Mystery Men hasn’t risen above cult status in the quarter century since its release, it has the notoriety of being the film that unleashed Smash Mouth’s All Star. Shrek tends to get credit for that even though it came out two years later. The song plays better in this film, and there’s even a music video with the cast and scenes from the movie.
That’s only a small part of why Mystery Men remains relevant as a superhero flick even after all of these years. There’s no sequel, and it didn’t need one. Mystery Men is perfectly fun and enjoyable as a standalone story that’s held up remarkably well over the last 25 years.
Watch Mystery Men on Prime Video.
Read the full article here
