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Mystery Men is a 1999 comedy film directed by TV commercial director Kinka Usher. It starred William H. Macy, Ben Stiller, and Hank Azaria as a trio of lesser superheroes with fairly unimpressive superpowers who need to save the day. The film's two great strengths were considered to be the art direction and the dialogue, much of which was improvised by the cast. Despite its list of stars, Mystery Men was widely considered to be a flop with a final box office gross of just $29,762,011 within the USA and $3,699,000 outside the USA [1]. Image File history File links Mystery_Men. ...
Lawrence Gordon (born March 25, 1936 in Yazoo City, Mississippi) is an American producer and motion picture executive. ...
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Bob Burden is the creator of The Flaming Carrot. Categories: Eisner Award winners | Comics creator stubs ...
Benjamin Edward Stiller (born November 30, 1965 ) is an Emmy-winning American comedian, actor, film producer and director. ...
Hank Albert Azaria (born April 25, 1964 in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, United States) is an American actor, director, comedian and voice artist. ...
William Hall Macy Jr. ...
Paul Reubens (born Paul Rubenfeld on August 27, 1952) is an American actor, writer, and comedian, known professionally for his character Pee-wee Herman. ...
Janeane Garofalo (born September 28, 1964 in Newton, New Jersey), is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist, writer and former co-host on Air America Radios The Majority Report. ...
Kel Johari Rice Mitchell (born August 25, 1978 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actor and comedian. ...
Wesley Wes Studi (born December 17, 1947) is an American actor of Cherokee Indian descent. ...
Greg Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an Academy Award nominated American actor and television personality, who rocketed to stardom as the first host of E!s Talk Soup. ...
Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning Australian actor. ...
Claire Forlani (born July 1, 1972) is an English actress. ...
Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. ...
Edward John Eddie Izzard (born February 7, 1962) is an English[1] stand-up comedian and actor, known for his cross-dressing. ...
Lena Maria Jonna Olin (born March 22, 1955 in Stockholm, Sweden) is an internationally acclaimed Academy Award-nominated Swedish actress. ...
Ricky Jay Ricky Jay (b. ...
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Arthur Steven Lange, Jr. ...
Stephen Warbeck (born 1948) is a British composer, best known for his film and television scores. ...
Stephen H. Burum is an American cinematographer, and was born on 25 November 1939 in Visalia, California. ...
This article is about the American media conglomerate. ...
is the 218th day of the year (219th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
This article is about the year. ...
A minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour and to 60 seconds. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
This article is about the year. ...
Comedy film is genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humor. ...
The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ...
From the earliest days of the medium, television has been used as a vehicle for advertising in some countries. ...
William Hall Macy Jr. ...
Benjamin Edward Stiller (born November 30, 1965 ) is an Emmy-winning American comedian, actor, film producer and director. ...
Hank Albert Azaria (born April 25, 1964 in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, United States) is an American actor, director, comedian and voice artist. ...
For the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode, see Super Hero (Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode). ...
The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. ...
It has since been developing something of a cult following.[1] The soundtrack prominently featured the Smash Mouth song "All Star" and clips from the film form the basis of the song's video. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Plot synopsis
The movie opens in Champion City, a metropolis in a slightly altered comic book-style reality, where costumed crime fighters of varying skill levels are fairly common. Three such individuals are 'The Shoveler' (William H. Macy), who can wield a shovel very well; 'Mr. Furious' (Ben Stiller), who is said to possess superhuman strength fuelled by his boundless rage; and 'The Blue Raja' (Hank Azaria), a self-described "effete British superhero" who throws silverware, but refuses to use knives. Together they've formed a long-running crimefighting team, but have mixed success at it. Cities with at least a million inhabitants in 2006 A metropolis (in Greek μήτηÏ, mÄ“tÄ“r = mother and πόλις, pólis = city/town) is a big city[1], in most cases with over half a million inhabitants in the city proper, and with a population of at least one million living...
A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ...
William Hall Macy Jr. ...
Benjamin Edward Stiller (born November 30, 1965 ) is an Emmy-winning American comedian, actor, film producer and director. ...
Hank Albert Azaria (born April 25, 1964 in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, United States) is an American actor, director, comedian and voice artist. ...
Arriving to foil a robbery in an old-folks home by the gaudy Red-Eye Gang, the three are soon in over their heads, as the Blue Raja accidently throws spoons, the Shovler accidently hits Mr. Furious in the face with his shovel, and Mr.Furious is quickly beaten. They are quickly upstaged and patronized by Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear), a genuine superhero, who arrives in the nick of time to save the day. The 'wanna-bes' are treated as a joke by the police officers and patronized a bit by Captain Amazing. Greg Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an Academy Award nominated American actor and television personality, who rocketed to stardom as the first host of E!s Talk Soup. ...
Captain Amazing has a problem, however: he is so good at what he does, he's gradually putting himself out of business. As a result, the lucrative corporate sponsorships he wears emblazoned on his uniform are at risk. The Captain (in his secret identity as bespectacled billionaire 'Lance Hunt') secretly arranges for the release of his greatest adversary, the insane, devilish Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush), from the insane asylum where he has been imprisoned since Amazing defeated him years ago. He assumes that Frankenstein will soon fall back into a life of crime, and be defeated just as quickly. Unfortunately, Frankenstein manages to get the drop on Captain Amazing, capturing him and putting into motion a devious plan to destroy Champion City. He is aided by the 'Disco Boys', a late-1970s-themed criminal gang led by Tony P (Eddie Izzard). Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning Australian actor. ...
A psychiatric hospital (also called a mental hospital or asylum) is a hospital specializing in the treatment of persons with mental illness. ...
Edward John Eddie Izzard (born February 7, 1962) is an English[1] stand-up comedian and actor, known for his cross-dressing. ...
Mr. Furious, The Shoveler and The Blue Raja are stuck defending the city in Amazing's absence. Given the debacle at the old-folk's home, they audition many other (typically worse) "heroes" until they manage to find 'The Bowler' (Janeane Garofalo) who wields a magic flying bowling ball holding the skull of her murdered father; 'The Invisible Boy' (Kel Mitchell) who claims the power of invisibility (but only when no one is watching, including himself); 'The Spleen' (Paul Reubens), who can aim his highly noxious flatulence with deadly precision (it's a Gypsy curse); 'The Sphinx' (Wes Studi), who can cut guns in half with his mind, but as a mentor to the misfit superheroes spends most of his time uttering cryptic but ultimately unhelpful aphorisms; and an eccentric scientist 'Dr. Heller' (Tom Waits) who invents eccentric non-lethal weaponry (Blamethrower, Clothes Shrinker, Tornado-in-a-Can, etc.). Janeane Garofalo (born September 28, 1964 in Newton, New Jersey), is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist, writer and former co-host on Air America Radios The Majority Report. ...
A ten-pin bowling ball and two pins A bowling ball is a round ball made from rubber, urethane, plastic, reactive resin (solid, particle, or pearl) or a combination of these materials which is used in the sport of bowling. ...
It has been suggested that temporal fenestra be merged into this article or section. ...
Kel Johari Rice Mitchell (born August 25, 1978 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actor and comedian. ...
An example of how an object could appear to be invisible through the use of mirrors Invisibility is the state of an object which cannot be seen. ...
Paul Reubens (born Paul Rubenfeld on August 27, 1952) is an American actor, writer, and comedian, known professionally for his character Pee-wee Herman. ...
Flatulence (expelled through the anus in a process commonly known as farting or emitting gas) is the presence of a mixture of gases known as flatus in the digestive tract of mammals. ...
Look up Gypsy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Wesley Wes Studi (born December 17, 1947) is an American actor of Cherokee Indian descent. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. ...
As well as honing their skills, the original three heroes must also battle issues in their 'real lives': The Shoveller (as Eddie) has a skeptical wife and young son to consider; The Blue Raja keeps his activities hidden from his suspicious mother; and Mr. Furious (real name: Roy) must deal with both the fact that he is being increasingly sidelined and ignored in the larger team as he is the only one who can see through the formulaic clichés uttered by The Sphinx. He also has crush on Monica (Claire Forlani), a jaded but goodhearted cafeteria waitress who treats the boorish, posturing 'Furious' with disdain, but likes the sweet, shy 'Roy'. Claire Forlani (born July 1, 1972) is an English actress. ...
After a brief crisis when Furious storms off following a heated argument, the superteam manage to work through their issues and prepare themselves to challenge Casanova Frankenstein. An attempt at rescue goes awry, and Captain Amazing is accidentally killed by Frankenstein's doomsday device, the psychofrakulator, which Frankenstein intends to use on the city. It soon becomes apparent that our heroes are the only ones who can save the day. Matters are not helped when Monica - having fallen for Roy - tells Furious to 'just... be... Roy'. Roy, whose "powers" are based on one questionable incident, comes to believe that he is not a superhero. Many hypothetical doomsday devices are based on the fact that salted hydrogen bombs can create large amounts of nuclear fallout. ...
The heroes, though plagued with self-doubt, nonetheless manage to storm Frankenstein's mansion and battle his various accomplices as Frankenstein activates his machine, which begins to devastate the city. Using Dr. Heller's devices, they manage to overpower the various henchmen, and Tony P is killed by the Bowler's ball in vengeance for his murder of her father. Frankenstein produces Monica - whom he has had kidnapped as insurance. Driven into a genuine super-rage by Frankenstein threatening his girlfriend, Furious defeats Frankenstein in combat, hurling him to his death in the psychofrakulator, and rescues Monica. As she escapes, the heroes sabotage the machine and flee as it explodes and destroys Frankenstein's mansion. Having saved the city and earned the admiration of their families, friends and fellow citizens, the heroes then turn to their next great challenge - finding a name for their team that's better than 'The Super Squad'. A reporter at the scene refers to them as "mystery men." This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Basis The movie was loosely based on the independent comic book series Flaming Carrot Comics by Bob Burden, who also gets Writers Guild of America writing credits, though some characters were greatly changed from the original material. The Flaming Carrot was a member of the team and with the exception of Captain Amazing and Invisible Boy, all the heroes from the film appeared at least once as members (though there were many others as well-- the comics team had a high casualty rate). Casanova Frankenstein also once battled The Flaming Carrot. Flaming Carrot Comics is a surrealist comic book by Bob Burden originally published by Aardvark-Vanaheim, then by Renegade Comics and Dark Horse Comics between 1984 and 1993. ...
Bob Burden is the creator of The Flaming Carrot. Categories: Eisner Award winners | Comics creator stubs ...
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is the collective bargaining representative, or labor union, for writers in the motion picture and television industries in the United States. ...
Cultural References - The scene in which Casanova Frankenstein rallies the different gangs together is a parody of a scene from the film The Warriors. Frankenstein even uses the same catch-phrase uttered by the gang leader Cyrus: "Can you dig it?" [citation needed]
- Captain Amazing's alter-ego hides his face behind glasses, a reference to Superman/Clark Kent and Batman/Bruce Wayne:
- The Shoveler: Oh yeah, well, maybe if we had a billionaire benefactor like Lance Hunt, then we could afford some advertising.
- Mr. Furious: I think that's because Lance Hunt is Captain Amazing.
- Blue Raja: Oh, here we go.
- Shoveler: Oh, don't start that again! Lance Hunt wears glasses. Captain Amazing doesn't wear glasses.
- Mr. Furious: [Long-suffering] He takes them off when he transforms.
- Shoveler: That doesn't make any sense. He wouldn't be able to see!
- Right before the final battle with Casanova Frankenstein, Mr. Furious pays a visit to the waitress he likes. When she asks him for his real name, he hems and haws for a bit while trying to think up a really cool-sounding secret identity name to impress her. The name he chooses is “Phoenix Dark.” This is a reference to Dark Phoenix, a Marvel Comics character from the X-Men series.[citation needed]
- After defeating Casanova Frankenstein, Mr. Furious picks up his girlfriend and leaps from the second floor balcony of the mansion to the first floor below. The sound effect heard while he jumps is identical to the one used in the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man when Steve Austin jumped using his bionic legs.
- Twice in the film there are references to a now infamous audio clip of William Shatner on the set of Star Trek. First, when Mr. Furious is corrected by Casanova Frankenstein, he responds with "Don't correct me. It sickens me", a direct quote from Shatner, and the second being delivered by the Bowler as they are leaving a bar, she states "I say sabotage, sabotage" (pronouncing the letter 'a' in the same way as the first, as opposed to the 'ah' sound with which it is usually pronounced). Shatner states the same in the audio clip. Shatner, however, took it a step further, and proceeded to slip in a 'sobatage'.
The Warriors is a 1979 film directed by Walter Hill and based on the 1965 novel by Sol Yurick. ...
Superman is a fictional character and comic book superhero , originally created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics. ...
Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still referred to at times as the Batman) is a DC Comics fictional superhero who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. ...
A waiter is a person who waits on tables, often at a restaurant. ...
The Phoenix Force. ...
Marvel Comics is an American comic book line published by Marvel Publishing, Inc. ...
The X-Men are a group of comic book superheroes featured in Marvel Comics. ...
Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of movies, video games, music, or other media. ...
A television program is the content of television broadcasting. ...
The Six Million Dollar Man is an American television series about a cyborg working for the OSI (which was usually said to refer to the Office of Scientific Intelligence, but sometimes was called the Office of Scientific Investigation). ...
William Alan Shatner (born on March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor who gained fame for playing James Tiberius Kirk of the USS Enterprise in the television show Star Trek from 1966 to 1969 and in seven of the subsequent movies. ...
Cast
Mystery Men Hank Albert Azaria (born April 25, 1964 in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, United States) is an American actor, director, comedian and voice artist. ...
Janeane Garofalo (born September 28, 1964 in Newton, New Jersey), is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist, writer and former co-host on Air America Radios The Majority Report. ...
William Hall Macy Jr. ...
Kel Johari Rice Mitchell (born August 25, 1978 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American actor and comedian. ...
Paul Reubens (born Paul Rubenfeld on August 27, 1952) is an American actor, writer, and comedian, known professionally for his character Pee-wee Herman. ...
Benjamin Edward Stiller (born November 30, 1965 ) is an Emmy-winning American comedian, actor, film producer and director. ...
Wesley Wes Studi (born December 17, 1947) is an American actor of Cherokee Indian descent. ...
Superheroes Greg Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an Academy Award nominated American actor and television personality, who rocketed to stardom as the first host of E!s Talk Soup. ...
Dane Jeffrey Cook (born March 18, 1972) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and musician. ...
Douglas Jones (born May 24, 1960) is an American actor. ...
Bad guys Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning Australian actor. ...
Lena Maria Jonna Olin (born March 22, 1955 in Stockholm, Sweden) is an internationally acclaimed Academy Award-nominated Swedish actress. ...
Edward John Eddie Izzard (born February 7, 1962) is an English[1] stand-up comedian and actor, known for his cross-dressing. ...
Arthur Steven Lange, Jr. ...
Pras (born Prakazrel Michel on October 19, 1972) offered up his first solo effort, Ghetto Supastar, in the fall of 1998, following in the footsteps of his fellow Fugees Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill. ...
Goodie Mob, based in Atlanta, Georgia, is widely considered one of the founding hip hop acts of the Dirty South movement. ...
Citizens Claire Forlani (born July 1, 1972) is an English actress. ...
Greg Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an Academy Award nominated American actor and television personality, who rocketed to stardom as the first host of E!s Talk Soup. ...
Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. ...
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Ricky Jay Ricky Jay (b. ...
Jenifer Jeanette Lewis (born on January 25, 1957 in Kinloch, Missouri , is an American film and television actress. ...
See also The Specials is the title of a 2000 comedic, cult movie about a group of superheroes on their day off. ...
References - ^ Rabin, Nathan.| My Year of Flops Case File #24 Mystery Men. 17 April, 2007. Retrieved on 4 June, 2007
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