Okay, after looking at GIFs today, I am definitely rewatching Mystery Men tonight.
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Nor should it be. From your POV, you are right, and only by hearing other opinions can we test our our opinions. Clearly what we take from these films is not what you do and vice versa, oh well, I guess thatâs part of having free will.
As the sayings go âbeauty is in the eye of the beholderâ & âOne manâs treasure is another manâs trashâ
There are Oscar darlings I would be caught dead watching, as they didnât appeal to me. I know there are good horror movies out there, but they arenât my cup of tea. But a Roland Emmerich big-budget, He wishes he was around in the glory days of disaster movies type of movie, grab your popcorn and soda and turn your brain off⌠Now to me, that sounds like a fun night.
And isnât it great we have a community we get to talk about this stuff in.
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Letâs all start over:
Lots of people hated Mystery Men too.
Those people are incorrect.
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I can hear this gif.
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It is. I too love escapism like Independence Day (1996). Itâs #85 on my Best Ever List. Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Brent Spiner. A Whoâs Who Cast for its day and Randy Quaid as dessert. Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, 50 Sci-Fi Conventions. It is Irwin Allen Meets The 90s lived large and inviting. Great score, strong premise, good writing, and ageless amusement. The people draw you in and the story. Itâs a masterclass of blockbuster entertainment. I call films like this shallow masterpieces. Seemingly thin though when you examine the gags, setpieces, and world created it builds and builds. I keep returning to it and age only improves it. A perfect popcorn movie. And all FUN.
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But they blew up Congress!! 
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And theyâre Mac OS 8 compatible!
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Iâve said before: the direction means itâs not a GREAT film, but I still find it a worthwhile watch. Itâs the performances and some of the stylings which really push it into memorable territory.
There are many better movies which I donât enjoy half so much.
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The director mostly made commercials and, apparently, said he hated making a full-length film.
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It showed.
MR_Potroast mentions the episodic feel which is more in keeping with commericals or old-time TV.
Whadayaâ gonnaâ do?
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And, to his credit, he never directed another feature film. So he knew his limitations.
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Another movie around the same time which was equally troubled and even more hated was the Super Mario Brothers live action film.
I liked it then and I still like it despite it being such a muddle. I liked it because the directors, who made both the British and American Max Headroom shows took the same cyberpunk aesthetic and applied it to a video game movie. It also had Mojo Nixon in it. 'Nuff said there.
The big issue there is that they were just given way too large a budget to know what to do with after working with low budgets for years.
A lot of people criticize it now for not following the Mario âlore,â forgetting at the time that the games were basically âMario or his brother jump on mushrooms and turtles to rescue a princess thatâs never there at the endâ at the time.
And yet another mess of a film from that era which I still love is Tank Girl. That one was mostly due to executive meddling in post-production. I really hope we get to see a directorâs cut one day.
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Truly. He listened. To himself. I admire that.
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Isnât he incorrect though? Like those âLots of peopleâ? 
He didnât say the movie was bad, he said he hated making it.
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The experience making it and the result arenât always the same. Charles Laughton only made one and the film is celebrated. A film works for reasons that defy understanding. I argue the struggle is what makes it interesting. Mystery Men (1999) compels. It may not compel me. Iâm not the audience. The film lives on. I respect that.
Now the 90âs Mario Bros. movie, that really is a big budget B movie too. Specifically, it has that Italian rip-off feeling to it even though Italians werenât involved. Unfortunately, I canât get behind that one. I apparently liked it as a little kid but watching it as an adult doesnât work for me. That said, the RiffTrax of it is hilarious so at least we got that going.
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Now this is speaks truth.
Iâve never made a movie, but iâve built my share of models and LEGO kits, There are ones that were great to assemble and great to look at. but there are also ones out there that are a chore to assemble but the result is awesome, there are ones that were great to built but the results are meh.
At the end of the day you just donât want to be stuck working on ones that have a terrible build and an unsatisfactory end product. I feel bad for anyone saddled on a production where they know well in advance they are in that category.
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Itâs why some people do only one film. Or two. The rigor proves too much. I have sympathy for those who start like that. It often ends a career before it starts.
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I wish I got that feeling from that movie. I more or less see both this and the Dolph Masters of the Universe movie as in a similar vein where a production company had the rights to something popular, and rather than try to make something based on what people liked about the franchise, they tried to reinvent the wheel for what they thought would would appeal to someone outside those fanbases.
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