Mystery Men originally evolved from Dark Horse Comics Flaming Carrot super hero parodies. It is tongue -in-cheek humor, with our heroes representing the common man; working stiff heroes who try hard but never quite make it in the super world due to their own short-comings. Captain Amazing, a true superhero and riddled with endorsements, guards Champion City, until the release from prison of his arch enemy , Casanova Frankenstein. Now he is missing and the "Mystery Men" take it upon themselves to find and rescue the missing Amazing ; thus gaining true superhero status themselves within Champion City.

 After recruiting some new members ( Invisible Boy, The Bowler) and training with the mysterious Sphinx (a bus-boy at a local taco stand), the team sets out on their quest. Great comic performances by Ben Stiller as Mr. Furious, William H. Macy as The Shoveler, Hank Azaria as The Blue Raja, Janeane Garofalo as The Bowler, and the return of Paul Reubens as The Spleen highlight this film. Supporting roles by Kel Mitchell, Louise Lasser, Greg Kinnear, and Claire Forlani round out a superb cast. Each character has its own flaws and insecurities, which makes the film a notch above the usual Hollywood treatment, and the actors were allowed to improvise much of their lines. It is a real knee slapper in some scenes as the characters struggle to gain respect from the populace with their efforts, which always fall a little short. The plot is predictable but has a few twists which also elevates the storyline to a notch above the usual.

Picture-Universal, as usual, has done an excellent job transferring this film to DVD. The picture is sharp throughout, and no artifacts were noticeable. Contrast and colors were exceptional as many city street scenes were dark. The widescreen presentation is anamorphic 1.85:1, and no distortion on my smaller 27 inch screen was detected. Sound-A good use of 5.1 Dolby surround sound. The mix was used effectively throughout. The rear channels were also used to advantage here. It is a noisy movie, with lots of fights and crashes, not to mention forks flying, screaming, and flatulence (grab your nose) being emitted. Sound effects particularly shine in this mix. The soundtrack music uses rock groups, such as Smash Mouth and Citizen King with impressive results. The music used fits the scenes well.

The dual layered disc comes with quite a few extras, including the usual theatrical trailer, a making of documentary " Spotlight on Location", commentary by director Kinka Usher, deleted scenes not used in the film, Universal Soundtrack Presentation, musical highlights chapter stops, production notes, and the origin of the Mystery Men Comic Book characters. There is also some DVD-ROM features which I was unable to review. It's quite a good package for the $24.95 list price.

Mystery Men has a lot of good laughs. The bumbling superhero vehicle works and the film shows a lot of talent, especially when allowed to improvise. The performances of Ben Stiller and Hank Azaria are excellent and you will enjoy this disc over and over. All the extras make this a exceptional buy for people who appreciate off-the-wall comedy. A good comedy which is rated PG-13 for a few cuss words-I thought a PG rating was more appropriate.