Fortunately, Mystery Men was really funny, so my crankiness mostly abated... mostly. It's almost too funny, in fact -- it starts off at such a demented, hyperkinetic pace that it can't sustain its own energy all the way through. It hurls jokes at you as frenetically as a monkey on crack for the first hour, but then it starts to drag, like a monkey coming down off a crack high, though it ends with another burst of energy, like a monkey who got some more crack somewhere. Probably from Robert Downey Jr.
Its dream-team cast is super-rific -- Greg Kinnear, Hank Azaria, and William H. Macy were my favorites, but everyone does a good job (though Janeane Garofalo needs more screen time -- she is so awesome). If you've seen any other super-hero movies, from the Batman series to the Superman series, and any of the self-important ones in between, you'll appreciate the jabs this film gets at them, though the ending is a pyrotechnic affair all too evocative of the movies the film had been mocking up to that point. I just wish we could have seen some of the other wanna-be super-heroes mentioned in the film, like Princess Headbutt and "White Flight and Black Menace -- they work together." (Stephen and I determined my superpower would be a really withering glare... well, that and my cleavage, though when you think about it, those powers really act at cross-purposes.)
Anyway, I definitely recommend that you see Mystery Men... just NOT at Regal Cinemas in the Ballston Mall (if you insist on going there, here's a valuable hint: hold onto your ticket stub so you can get your money back when the concession stand soda machine goes haywire and they have to evacuate the theater).
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