Mystery Men 1999, Rated PG-13 Universal

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Starring Ben Stiller, et al. Released to DVD on January 11, 2000.

Sort of the 'E' for effort of superhero, er, wannabe superhero movies. Based off of the Darkhorse comic book of the same name, Mystery Men is the story of a couple of ordinary guys with a healthy respect for their local superhero, Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear). When Captain Amazing is kidnapped by the nefarious Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush), those ordinary guys (Ben Stiller, William Macy and Hank Azaria) take it upon themselves to assume secret identities as Mr. Furious, The Shoveler and the Blue Raja respectively, recruit some new 'hero' talent (Janaene Garofalo, Paul Reubens and Kel Mitchell) and, collectively, take off after Frankenstein labeled as The Mystery Men. The appeal of this movie comes, not from Reuben's gaseous character, but the lite, loser-like nature of all the Mystery Men. No matter how hard they try to fit in or want to become superhero's, the Mystery Men just suck; they can't get it done without talent, but it doesn't stop them from trying. This was amusing at worst.