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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Tom Fordy

Mystery Men at 25: The flop superhero comedy that deserved better

Ben Stiller Janeane Garofalo Geoffrey Rush Hank Azaria James Gunn Paul Reubens Joel Schumacher William H Macy Kel Mitchell Mike Richardson
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Perhaps it’s fitting that a film about a ragtag rabble of not-so-superheroes failed to take off at the box office. But, 25 years since its release, the Ben Stiller-starring Mystery Men is worth rescuing from obscurity. That it hasn’t generated the cult following of so many other slightly under-the-radar movies of 1999 – think the cannibal horror movie Ravenous, or the Kirsten Dunst Watergate comedy Dick – feels criminal to the point of super-villainy.

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