it should have been a classic . a great cast of respected supporting actors . an interesting premise of loser comic book characters . however , " mystery men " <NEG> proved to be one of the great disappointments </NEG> of 1999 . the jokes were <NEG> bland and hackneyed </NEG> from talents who have previously made audiences laugh with their unique rituals . <NEG> the number of cliches and shallow characters made the film difficult to sit through seriously hurting its attempt of having a fast paced premise </NEG> . the script tried to deliver a series of small jokes throughout the film but without a big laugh-out-loud joke and <NEG> mediocre small jokes , it failed miserably </NEG> at being entertaining at all . the jokes were not funny for a number of reasons . they had been used a number of times before in previous films , the best ones , which were mediocre to begin with , were <NEG> ruined </NEG> in the trailer , and the expectation of laughing at clever , unique gags from clever unique comedians when there were none to laugh at greatly damaged the film . " mystery men " might have worked if it was an ensemble cast of newcomers trying to break into the business . but with veterans doing <NEG> this kind of junk </NEG> , it really questioned whether their other work was as funny as originally thought . thankfully most actors in this movie will appear in five other movies before the new year arrives to help viewers forget this little movie . the film follows a band of wannabe superheroes living in a wannabe gotham city who are ridiculed by their fellow citizens and villains because of their clumsiness and failure to save they day and capture the bad guy . the fact is these pathetic losers are not needed because their city already has a successful superhero , captain amazing , who has recently captured every evil-doer in the city . captain amazing ( <NEG> played terribly by an uninspired </NEG> greg kinnear ) , because of his success in the past , is worried that he will lose popularity . after freeing one of the most notorious bad guys in the city ( geoffrey rush , <NEG> overacting just a bit too much </NEG> ) to keep himself busy , things get out of hand when captain amazing is captured . it is up to the wannabe superheroes to save the day . by the time this section of the plot is finished , the interest for what happens ( if you haven't already figured it out ) is very low . there are very few scenes which catch the viewers complete attention . the first scene in the film , which shows the wannabes trying to save the day , <NEG> feels like it was seriously edited down </NEG> . right when it was beginning to become slightly funny seeing these actors get humiliated at an old folk's home by some masked goons , captain amazing comes in and saves the day ? or <NEG> ruins the movie </NEG> . instead of editing this scene , more editing should have been done in areas such as the <NEG> unnecessary romance </NEG> between mr . furious ( ben stiller ) and monica , a waitress ( claire forlani ) or the vast majority of the film , which is the heroes talking at a coffee table about how their day was . a simple rule : more silly action is needed in order to make a silly action movie work . <NEG> another major problem </NEG> with " mystery men " is that every actor in it <NEG> seemed very uncomfortable and consequently gave terrible performances </NEG> . the film depended on its cast to work fluently together , like a bunch of old friends working together in an amiable reunion . however , most characters seemed like they did not even want to be in this film or at least the script made it seem this way . to pull one of the actors in this film randomly out of a hat , paul reubens , who disappeared from acting to everyone's joy , returns here <NEG> leaving very little to be impressed about </NEG> . as a wannabe who uses flatulence for a weapon , all of his jokes must therefore be fart jokes . fart jokes that have all been heard before and will inevitably be heard again in future films thanks to the success of " american pie " and " there's something about mary . " " mystery men " <NEG> drags on towards the end to a point where anything else in the world is more entertaining </NEG> . anyone with a brain knows each one of the heroes is going to be successful at their talent in the end and each one is going to contribute in a helpful way . so why continue to watch ? <NEG> this film is far from a worthy guilty pleasure </NEG> . " mystery men " indeed does this and every time a character succeeds another one congratulates him and says " i knew you could do it ! " " mystery men " <NEG> fails in every category it attempts to pass . what makes this film so bad is that </NEG> it had the potential to be wonderful and unforgettable . <NEG> terrible acting , terrible script , and a terrible waste of time </NEG> changes opinions about all of these actors . " i'm unpredictable ! " an overexcited ben stiller shouts out . no ben , you're the complete opposite .
