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 Aug. 6, 1999, and I think that's why it failed at the box office. Two years earlier, Batman & Robin had essentially killed the floundering superhero genre, and it wouldn't be resurrected until X-Men launched the new wave in 2000. Mystery Men came along in between, satirizing a target nobody was really thinking about, and it failed to strike a chord with audiences the way it might have if it had been made a few years later.

Yes, Mystery Men was in some ways ahead of its time. Showing the consequences of superheroes (and wannabe superheroes) existing in the real world? Sounds like 2004's The Incredibles (and, yes, the 1987 graphic novel Watchmen, but everyone already knows how ahead-of-its time that thing was). The assertion that a superhero needs a supervillain in order to be complete? That came up again a year later, in M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable. Mystery Men's spandexed, inadequate losers arrived nearly a decade ahead of films like Iron Man and Hancock, which found audiences more willing to enjoy a comical variation on the familiar superhero themes.

Of course, it might have helped if Mystery Men were a better movie, too. I wrote in my review that the film's humor is "abundant but a little uneven," and that "there is so much humor in the idea of superheroes existing in a real world that doesn't get tapped here." Watching the film again 10 years later, I have the same reaction. For every scene that makes me laugh out loud, there's another scene that makes me think, "This should be funnier than it is."

But if it's a miss it's a near miss. Look at the terrific cast: Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, Paul Reubens, Greg Kinnear, Geoffrey Rush, Eddie Izzard, and Tom Waits. Future High School Musical star Corbin Bleu plays one of Macy's kids. Artie Lange shows up as a villain. Transformers director Michael Bay, commonly regarded as nothing but an overgrown frat boy, plays a member of a group of villains called the Frat Boys. Dane Cook plays a superhero wannabe with too much energy and not enough skills. (Sound familiar?).

Movie lore holds that much of the dialogue was ad-libbed. It certainly seems like it. Stiller and Garofalo have always been fond of wordplay and minutiae -- indeed, their dialogue in this film is scarcely different in tone from what they talk about in other films, playing other characters. The movie's credited screenwriter, Neil Cuthbert, has only The Return of Swamp Thing, Hocus Pocus, and The Adventures of Pluto Nash on his résumé, so I'm guessing that whatever humor he was responsible for in Mystery Men was accidental.

The film's lopsided mix of comedy and action comes from its roots in Flaming Carrot Comics, a series published not by Marvel or DC but a succession of "underground" houses, including Dark Horse Comics. The Flaming Carrot was a founding member of the "Mysterymen," as they were known, and they appeared occasionally in his comic book before getting a brief series of their own. Most of the characters in the movie had appeared in the comics at some point, but quite a bit about their personalities and stories was changed, and Flaming Carrot himself was considered too weird to make the cut.

The Flaming Carrot and Mysterymen comics, while parodic, also delved into deeper and more serious philosophical themes than your typical superhero tales. None of that made it into the film, of course; the movie is just goofy, with bursts of action. That was probably the wiser choice (as was the decision to omit Flaming Carrot), but at the same time, Mystery Men clearly needed more discipline and focus. As Roger Ebert noted in his review, the film is often too frenetic: "Comedy depends on timing, and chaos is its enemy." The semi-improvised script and the guidance of a director, Kinka Usher, who had only made TV commercials before (or since -- this was his only film) may have doomed what could have been a successful franchise.

Mystery Men

1999 Eric says: The film's humor is abundant but a little uneven, and the movie is nothing if not earnest. But there is so much humor in the idea of superheroes existing in a real world that doesn't get tapped here. If sequels are in the works, all they need to do is figure out the right balance between comedy and action -- or, better yet, do a more polished job of combining the two -- and they'll have a great franchise. The filmmakers, just like the main characters, just need a little more practice and then they'll truly be super. Grade: B-

2009 Eric says: There's nothing wrong with this movie that a sharper focus and some judicious editing couldn't have fixed. As it stands, it's occasionally hilarious, generally amusing, but often plodding. You have to overlook the missed potential and just enjoy what they managed to come up with.Grade: B-

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Eric's Ten-Year Itch runs on occasional Mondays, in rotation with Eric's Time Capsule. You can visit Eric at his website, which is also mostly improvised.

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