In 1999, Ben Stiller, Geoffrey Rush and Janeane Garofalo starred in a satirical comic book adaptation that poked fun at the genre as a whole. Its production was plagued by drama, though, and – when it was finally released – it cratered at the box office. But in an age of James Gunn and ‘The Boys’, is it worth another look, asks Tom Fordy

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/15735604

Perhaps it’s fitting that a film about a ragtag rabble of not-so-superheroes failed to take off at the box office. But, 25 years since its release, the Ben Stiller-starring Mystery Men is worth rescuing from obscurity. That it hasn’t generated the cult following of so many other slightly under-the-radar movies of 1999 – think the cannibal horror movie Ravenous, or the Kirsten Dunst Watergate comedy Dick – feels criminal to the point of super-villainy.

The first and to date last feature film by the TV commercial director Kinka Usher, Mystery Men now seems curiously placed within the history of comic book movies. Released on 6 August 1999 in the US, it spoofed the superheroes that came before it, while anticipating – or preemptively satirising, even – the yet-to-happen superhero boom with ideas as sharp as anything seen in almost two decades of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

  • slickgoat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    5 months ago

    He plays an Englishman, and there is a long history of Victorian Brits becoming infatuated with Indian culture. The reference is obscure, but definitely there.

    • Ech@lemm.eeEnglish
      15·
      5 months ago

      Exactly. In fact (spoiler-ish warning), he plays a regular-ass American cosplaying an Englishman that’s in turn cosplaying being an Indian mystic. The extra layer does a lot of work to keep it in good taste.