Mystery Men

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 118 min Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Have you seen the trailers? If so, then skip the movie and wait for cable, you’ve already seen almost all of the funny parts.

Fortunately, I went into this movie with fairly low expectations. If you go in expecting big time special effects, great action and non-stop laughs, you’re going to be sorely disappointed as it delivers none of the above. I wanted to like the movie, and I didn’t catch myself staring at the ceiling pondering great philosophical questions such as why Wile E. Coyote can get rockets delivered from Acme but cant just order a pizza. However, the word on the end of my tongue as I walked out of the theatre was “lame”.

The movie has a few good moments, and most of them are in the trailer. The movie tries to provide a campy spoof on comic books, but it misses the mark on several levels. Paul “Pee Wee Herman” Reubens is great as the Spleen, but the rest of the heros just didn’t do alot for me. The villains have potential with such nifty henchmen as the Disco Boys and Frat Boys, but we get to see very little of them. I think the big problem here is we’re dealing with too many characters, so the movie kinda jumps all over the place without ever really running with any of the quirks of the characters.

The bottom line here is despite some quality flatulence and one horny skunk the movie just doesn’t deliver the laughs. Wait and catch it on cable or as a rental some night when there’s not any good wrestling on TV.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 2 Stars, Ben Stiller, Comedy, Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, PG-13, Paul Reubens, Theatrical, William H. Macy