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Cast: Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Hank Azaria, Geoffrey Rush, Janeane Garofalo, Eddie Izzard, Greg Kinnear, Paul Reubens, Wes Studi, Kel Mitchell, Lena Olin, Claire Forlani
Director: Kinka Usher
Producers: Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, Mike Richardson
Screenplay: Neil Cuthbert, based on the comic book created by Bob Burden
Cinematography: Stephen H. Burum
Music: Stephen Warbeck
UK Distributor: Universal Pictures
A fine superhero spoof boasting a likeable cast, great special effects and an off kilter sense of humour which does justice to the script.
The plot centres on handsome Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear), a self-centred superhero whose costume is covered with endoresements - imagine a flying, crime fighting Formula One driver and you get the picture.
He manages to eclipse a trio of wannabe heroes including The Shoveller (William H Macy); Mr Furious (Ben Stiller) and The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria) - three of the most useless heroes ever committed to celluloid. All of which makes for very amusing comedy as the hopeless heroes come to terms with the fact that they're all a bit rubbish.
Cut back to the darling of this metroplis and a relatively crime-free situation develops after years of kicking super villains' butts. The problem is that our egotist hero has puit away just about all of the bad guys in Champion City and so decides that as a good PR exercise, he will release Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush) from prison and then arrest him again just so he doesn't lose any more sponsors. A fine idea. Except for the fact that Frankenstein captures Amazing and holds him hostage in his castle.
No prizes for guessing who steps in to save the day, although first they need to increase their number and with the help of The Spleen (Paul Reubens), The Bowler (Janeane Garofalo) and The Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell), they set off on their mission.
Things don't quite go to plan so they take guidance from The Sphinx (Wes Studi) a masked avenger who talks in riddles and gets our heroes to make ever better costumes than their threadbare togs.
The end result is an overlong but enjoyable superhero spoof that will leave you laughing into your popcorn as the collection of useless but brave heroes tackle a wonderfully over-the-top villain and his henchmen. (The moment when the MMs attacks CF's limo is little short of hilarious).
If their is a major niggle it's the production quality: It's just a little too good. The effects are too polished and the movie looks great, a factor which seems to work against the nature of the material.
The second act also drags a lot but with a great cast handling the material with just the right amount of deadpan delivery, this certainly rounded off the 20th century with a lot more charm than most of the later Batman entries.
© 2000 Roger Crow
