Mystery Men
Today mostly involved a bunch of fruitless shopping efforts. Fry's Electronics was having a sale, so I went to see if I could find a set of good bookcase speakers for my study, to make it easier to listen to things when working at my computer. But, the ones they had on sale were really quite small, and the next larger pair were more than I wanted to pay right now. So, maybe later.
And, I did finally (finally!) go out and look for a car. Unfortunately, the place I went to - which John recommended - was completely out of Honda Civic hatchbacks! Lots of other Civics, but no hatchbacks. I suspect I'm at the point where not only are the 1999 models on sale, but the supplies are getting rather low. So, I will dig up a few other places and see if I can find anything this week. But, it's possible I'll have to wait for the 2000 models to arrive. Argh.
The story is set in a large, retro-future city protected by Captain Amazing (the irrepressable Greg Kinnear), who has pretty much eradicated super-powered crime in it, and whose outfit is festooned with corporate logos from his endorsements. The real heroes of the story are a trio of would-be superheroes: Blue Raja (Hank Azaria), The Shoveler (William H. Macy) and Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), who are - to put it charitably - inept. But when Captain Amazing arranges the release of one of his arch-villains - Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush, amazingly enough) - to give him a real challenge and retain his endorsements, Amazing is captured by Frankenstein, and the misfits must save the day.
The story is largely played for comedy, with some token undertones of meaningfulness (mostly involving finding out who you really are and not pretending to be someone else). There isn't very much in the way of 'super powers', which would probably largely undercut the humor anyway. Also in notable roles are Paul Reubens (formerly Pee-Wee of the movies and TV series) as The Spleen, and Janeane Garofalo as The Bowler, wielding a bowling ball with his late father's skull inside.
It's all a lot of silly fun, with dramatic poses and ludicrous costumes. It is, however, the sort of film that makes me wish Hollywood would actually try a serious and original film about superheroes, rather than making bad adaptations of Batman or endlessly contemplating adapting Alan Moore's Watchmen. It's not like Hollywood can't come up with good ideas on its own, but often it seems not to bother to try.
I ought to actually get out to see some good recent films this year. The ones I've seen so far have been of the 'silly adventure' sort, and have therefore been greatly overshadowed by the old films I've been watching. But, does it really matter, as long as I'm mostly enjoying what I'm seeing?
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