Saturday, November 20, 2010

Mystery Men


One of my favorite guilty pleasure movies is Mystery Men. It's a comedy about a bunch of third-rate super-heroes who have to step up to save the day when the main super-hero gets accidentally cooked.

The characters range from a guy good with a shovel to one who throws forks to one who has incredible stinky farts to one with a haunted bowling ball to one who gets really pissed off to ...

Well, you get the idea.

The plot is silly, the action is silly, but in some way, it hangs together into a funny ride.

One of the heroes is The Sphinx, whose power is very mysterious -- plus he can cut guns in half with his mind -- and he becomes the trainer, teaching the rag-tag collection with enigmatic phrases that embody a wonderful circular logic. An exchange between The Sphinx and Mr. Furious:


Mr. Furious: Okay, am I the only one who finds these sayings just a little bit formulaic? "If you want to push something down, you have to pull it up. If you want to go left, you have to go right." It's --

The Sphinx: Your temper is very quick, my friend. But until you learn to master your rage --

Mr. Furious: -- your rage will become your master? That's what you were going to say. Right? Right?

The Sphinx: Not necessarily ...

Now and then I get into a discussion that reminds me of this ...

4 comments:

Narda said...

'Forks and spoons, but never knives.' LOL. One of mine as well, as Janeane Garofalo is one of my favorite actresses.

Josh Kruschke said...

Good movie. I think I need to watch it again.

Josh

Dojo Rat said...

There's a national superhero movement starting.
Could get dangerous, scarey, and scarily dangerous.
Info and commentary:
http://dojorat.blogspot.com/2010/11/seattle-rain-city-superheroes.html

Justin said...

In packing for a move, I went through my box of VHS tapes today -- which has been untouched since we moved here 6 1/2 years ago. There is a copy of Mystery Men in there. Much as I enjoy it (and William H. Macy, Paul Reubens and Hank Azaria as actors), it'll probably go to Goodwill.

Joining it are The Chase, Con Air, The Usual Suspects, and a bunch of other flicks I either bought on DVD or just aren't interested in carting to the next apartment.