Review of Mystery Men (1999) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

This is a wacky fantasy comedy suitable for most of the family (read on for more on that), which covers themes including fitting in, companionship, It looks visually, while not completely full of CGI, quite comic and somewhat fantastical - it'll appeal to a majority of children, given the interesting cityscapes and the characters unpredictable actions. It is relatively entertaining and fairly unpredictable for the most part. I thought the camerawork was quite good in that it often uses smooth pan/wide shots, zooming in on the relevant area where the scene is set - it alows the viewer to take in the surrounding area and it felt quite good. The characters are rather eccentric and the term bumbling certainly came to mind. Its a case of it being one of those films where the good guys are so painfully unprofessional but they seem like, at the heart of it, decent people, so you (as a viewer) tend to begrudgingly be on their side.

The film features some fun disco tunes in the soundtrack - lets put it this way, it isn't a film that takes itself overly seriously and thats just as well, as its not one thats easy to take very seriously, given the tone, genre, character types and everything. Its not an overly long film, with a total running time of just under two hours its ok - I'd say its fairly entertaining, although its not exactly a massively remarkable film or anything like that, as you've probably realised by now. I thought it was a fairly dialogue heavy film in parts, which could bore younger viewers but on the other hand, it is clearly intended for a relatively young target audience, given that the comedy is quite crude (think toilet humour and the like - youngish boys would likely get a laugh out of some scenes) and there's a decent amount of slapstick comedy. Its not greatly original but I felt it was entertaining all the same. I watch some superhero/Marvel/DC related films from time to time but I wouldn't say I'm a particularly massive fan of that genre as such, so this as a light hearted parody of that type of film didn't offend me. Perhaps some of the content was a little obvious but then, to be fair (I'm not saying this is a good thing as such, for the record) I didn't expect a great deal from it. To be honest, I bought it on DVD from a branch of Poundland earlier this year and for £1, I really can't complain - it was certainly cheaper than renting it. As far as the plot pace is concerned, as I say its dialogue heavy in parts but there are other parts/scenes which are a bit more action packed, with a faster pace. I think it tries a little too hard to be both a character driven film with some potential modicum of depth and a generally entertaining parody style comedy film.

Content wise, this film contains some mild profanities, drug references and some comic/mild violence (what you might see depicted in comic strips and the like), plus one or two mild sex references but nothing very graphic or explicit. As I say it contains toilet based comedy, so expect crude jokes, nothing too racy but the age old 'pull my finger' one is featured multiple times, for one example.

Otherwise, unsurprisingly its not particularly frightening in tone or appearance and thus it carries a PG rating. Very young children would probably get a bit bored by this during the more dialogue heavy scenes, although perhaps pre-teens (age 9 or 10 and older) may enjoy it for the crude humour and the more visual action scenes. All in all, this isn't a toe-curlingly awful film but its not a great one either. Overall it felt quite mediocre, like the sort of family film that might be shown on TV on a Sunday evening during the holidays maybe, although I hadn't heard of it until I bought it. Older kids (as in those who are ok watching live action films and not only animated films, if this helps to clarify that point) would probably enjoy it overall and its a relatively, pretty unoffensive film thus is suitable for most of the family but its hardly a film worth going out of your way to see - I wouldn't have wanted to pay more than the £1 I paid to get it, put it that way (well ok, maybe £1.50 at a strech?). If there's nothing else on TV and your looking for something to watch with your kids, then you could do worse - its mildly amusing but it lets itself down during the scenes that are a bit more dull and dialogue heavy, so I'll go for the 'middle of the road' 5 out of 10 rating in this case.