Mystery Men

Great cast though. There's Rush as well as Greg Kinnear, Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, William H. Macy, Paul Reubens, Wes Study, Lena Olin and Ben Stiller; which just goes to show that a lousy script and confused direction can sink any film.

There may be some Mystery Men fans out there. Apparently it's based on a comic book series called Dark Horse, but I won't be rushing out to buy them.

There's a superhero in town called Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear) who is in danger of losing his product endorsements because he's captured all of the really good villains and he's becoming less newsworthy.

So he arranges for captured super villain Casanova Frankenstein (Rush) to get loose again. Casanova soon captures Captain Amazing though and so it's up to a bunch of would be super hero's, The Mystery Men, to save the day.

I won't bore you with the details but this is a spoof. Janeane Garofalo is Bowler. She's got a transparent bowling ball with her dead Dad's skull in it with which she battles villains.

Asked if it was she who put the skull in the ball she tells us that "the pro did it".

Now that is funny but the laughs are few and far between.

Like most people I love spoofs but this one just isn't funny. I'll give top marks to William H. Macy who's weapon is a shovel and plays the part dead straight.