As the two next generation HD formats progress, back catalog movies are starting to be released more frequently.  One disc that I was eagerly awaiting was  Mystery Men, a hilarious parody movie that does to superheroes what Space Quest did to the various Star Trek series.  While the movie is as humorous as ever, the HD DVD disc isn't nearly as impressive as it could be.  Apparently using the same master as the 1999 standard definition DVD used, this high definition disc doesn't have the eye-popping detail that the best HD DVD discs have and is plagued by several minor defects that make this a less than stellar looking disc.

In a world similar to ours but oddly different in some ways, super-heroes exist.  Not super-powered people, but individuals who dress up in home made costumes and fight evil, like Batman does.  There's the Shoveller (Williima H. Macy), who has a God-given talent for shoveling, and his partner in arms Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller) who is filled with boundless rage, "a ticking time bomb of fury."  They are joined by the Blue Raja (who dresses in green, played by Hank Azaria) the master of cutlery, (though he only throws forks and spoons since knives wouldn't be sporting,) and the Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell), a young man who can turn invisible, but only when no one is looking at him.

These guys aren't the best and greatest, they are the second tier heroes.  As the Shoveller says at one point "We're not your classic heroes. We're the other guys."  They find themselves way over their heads however when a super-villain, Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush), is released from jail and plans to take over the city.  Champion City's biggest and best hero, the amazing Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear), is taken hostage by Frankenstein which leaves only these wanna-be heroes to stop the planned death and destruction.

This is a great parody of superhero movies that is cleaver, entertaining, and funny.  Based on characters created by the wildly inventive Bob Burden, creator of the Flaming Carrot, the film has a lot of bizarre and creative touches, like the stretch limo Corvette that the villain drives.  The movie is worth watching just for the superhero tryout party where heroes like the PMS Avenger (She only works four days a month.  You got a problem with that?!)  and The Waffler ("With my griddle of justice, I bash the enemy in the head") try to become part of the team.

The other reason this movie works so well is that the ensemble cast of excellent actors all play the movie straight.  They aren't trying to get laughs, but make their characters into real people.  The characters struggle to come up with witty lines of banter in the heat of battle and they get in trouble with their wives when they stay out late 'on patrol'.  That makes the movie all the more humorous.

Video:

The 1080p VC-1 encoded 1.85:1 image was a bit disappointing.  It wasn't that the image was bad, it just wasn't great.  It looks like they used the same master that was employed to create the SD DVD years ago and the accumulation of minor defects adds up to make this a mediocre looking DVD.  Digital noise is a big problem.  This reminded me of some of the first Blu-ray discs, which were also plagued by noise.  Blues were particularly affected, with large patches of the color seeming to move on their own.  Take a look at the blue police van in the background as the three main heroes leave the nursing home battle at the beginning.  It seems to be crawling with ants or something.

The image is also a tad dark.  The movie is mainly takes place at night and in dark rooms, but this disc is still darker than it should be.  Some fine details are lost in shadows and in a few rare cases you have to strain to see what's going on in the background.  This happens during the fight with the Red Eyes, also at the start of the film.   The picture is a bit soft, and there isn't much HD pop in this movie.  One of the most distressing things is that there are dirt spots on the image.  There are about half a dozen through the movie so while it isn't a major defect, it is rather upsetting that Universal wouldn't take the time to clean that up.

The disc doesn't look quite as bad as I'm making it out to be.  All of these defects are minor and the movie is still fun to watch.  The problem is that the difference between this HD DVD and a SD DVD isn't as great as we've come to expect with the next generation formats.

Audio:

This disc comes with a DD+ 5.1 audio track in English and a stereo dub in French.  The soundtrack is pretty good, but really shines during the action scenes.  When the group battles Casanova Frankenstein at the end, the scenes are very enveloping and dynamic.  There were also some nice sound effects during the pool party scene.  Much of the rest of the time the mix basically collapses to a stereo mix, but it comes through when you really need it so I won't complain too much.  There are subtitles for the hearing impaired in English, and standard French subs.

Extras:

Just about all of the extras from the SD disc are ported over, and the ones that are left off (some production notes and "musical highlights", a set of links that take you directly to the songs in the film) are very minor.  Still, you'd think that Universal would just go ahead and include everything from the earlier version just so critics like me won't belly ache about the missing material.

What is included is pretty good.  The commentary track with Director Kinka Usher is entertaining and worth listening to.  He relates behind the scene anecdotes and production details and manages to keep the listener's interest for the whole movie.  There are some fun deleted scenes which include showing the main three heroes at work and an alternate ending. The reel lasts about 20-minutes.  There's also a music video, a text piece on the origins of the Mystery Men and how they differ from their comic book counterparts, and a theatrical trailer.

Final Thoughts:

I love this movie.  It's hard to do a parody right, but this film skewers superhero films without ridiculing them.  Filled with witty lines and clever situations, Mystery Men is a fun and enjoyable movie that the whole family can enjoy.  While this HD DVD does look better than its standard definition counterpart, it isn't nearly as impressive as it could be.  Plauged with digital noise and other minor flaws the whole presentation just doesn't have that HD DVD "WOW" factor that we all love to see.  While the movie is highly recommended, this disc is better as a rental.

Note: The images in this review are not from the HD DVD and do not necessarily represent the image quality on the disc.