Film.com's FREE movie of the week is "Love the Hard Way." Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and Charlotte Ayanna star in this drama about a thief who falls for a curious, beautiful young woman. As their intimacy grows, a slick cop (Pam Greer) is closing in.
In futuristic Champion City, a large scale robbery draws the would-be derring-do of three earnest but unlikely saviors. The Blue Raja sports a turban and Brit accent and tries to subdue his enemies by flinging forks and spoons. Shoveler wears a hard hat and wields a shovel, while blustering, leather-clad. Furious attempts to level opponents with his bad temper. It's not a good night for the team of fearless freelancers. Once again, their bumbling heroics are overshadowed by the arrival of the city's preeminent superhero, the gleaming-toothed Captain Amazing. But the good Captain is not as secure as he seems; his success has put all the city's great supervillains out of commission. Anxious to retain his reknown, he secures the prison release of one of his archnemeses Cassanova Frankenstein, who promptly sets himself up in a disco-equipped castle and begins plotting citywide mahem...
Mystery Men's gentle spoofing of superhero stories feels natural now, in 2009, when comic-book-based movies are being released at a rate of about a dozen per year. But the environment wasn't nearly as fertile when it came out, on