`MYSTERY MEN' SAVED BY HEROICALLY HILARIOUS ACTORS.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

A dream comic ensemble and an almost foolproof satiric concept gets ``Mystery Men'' through. Sometimes the movie, about talentless costumed heroes forced by circumstances to quit dreaming and really fight evil, comes uncomfortably close to embracing the genre conventions it's supposed to be skewering. But with a cast of incorrigible smart alecks that includes Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo and Hank Azaria, the action rarely strays far from Derision City, where it belongs.

The brilliant idea, based on a strip originated in Flaming Carrot Comics, is that there are bound to be people who want to emulate the feats (and cash in on the fame) of real superheroes but just don't have the chops for it.

For years, apparently, three likable losers - Mr. Furious (Stiller), the Shoveler (William H. Macy) and the Blue Raja (Azaria) - have grumbled in the shadow of Capt. Amazing (Greg Kinnear), a crime fighter so genuinely powerful he's neutralized practically all the villains in his overdesigned metropolis. Of course, there are good reasons why these lesser lights shine dimmer: The Raja throws forks at bad guys, Furious just gets real angry, and the Shoveler, well, shovels.

Luckily for them, if not the world, the too-efficient Amazing, whose uniform boasts more corporate sponsor patches than a NASCAR driver's, is so concerned that an exploit deficit will be costing him lucrative endorsement contracts that he engineers the release of his greatest nemesis from custody. The evil genius Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush) quickly captures his longtime foe, leaving the fate of the city up to, well ...

Alarmingly, the Mystery Men aren't the town's worst losers. To beef up their ranks for the assault on Frankenstein's mansion, they hold an open-call barbecue. Imposing specimens such as Ballerinaman answer the call, but eventually the Men get some possibly useful recruits.

One, Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell), an African-American lad who's been so ignored all his life that he thinks he can actually disappear, makes for resonant social metaphor. Another, the Bowler (Garofalo), is refreshingly vengeful only out of obligation. Her father, the original Bowler, whose skull speaks to her from inside a mystically powered bowling ball, is the one who wants his killer punished, after which she intends to return to graduate school.

Smart as these conceits are, it wouldn't be a summer '99 comedy without a hero like the Spleen (Paul Reubens, wearing lots of pimples), whose special power is emitted in a variety of fragrances, including the stealthy but potent SBD.

Most of the movie's humor, fortunately, is sillier than it us vulgar. The real vulgarity emerges whenever director Kinka Usher, a veteran of macro-brew and talking Chihuahua commercials, steers the thing toward the outlandish fight sequences more stolid genre entries play so tiresomely straight. The idea that these clowns are somehow real everyguy heroes is exploited with too much sincerity, as well.

To their great credit, witty costume designer Marilyn Vance and production designer Kirk M. Petruccelli don't allow anything here to look cool enough to be taken too seriously. One of the best of ``Mystery Men's'' many great visual gags is a zoom out from the front of the Shoveler's modest suburban home to reveal a mile-high, neon-bursting skyline right behind the backyard fence. That would be considered prime real estate in a ``Batman'' movie, but no one seeing this would ever want to live there.

It mostly falls to the heroically hilarious actors, though, to save the movie from succumbing to wicked cliches. From Garofalo's borderline schizophrenia to Wes Studi's mundane philosophical pep talks (he plays a clueless mentor inaccurately dubbed the Sphinx) to Stiller's priceless loss of confidence when he realizes that there's really nothing super about him at all, the group's sense of the ridiculous rarely strays off target.

What amazing powers they do possess.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Mystery Men'' (PG-13; comic violence, language).

The stars: Hank Azaria, Claire Forlani, Janeane Garofalo, Greg Kinnear, William H. Macy, Kel Mitchell, Paul Reubens, Geoffrey Rush, Ben Stiller, Wes Studi, Tom Waits.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Kinka Usher. Written by Neil Cuthbert, based on Bob Burden's comic book series. Produced by Lawrence Gordon, Mike Richardson and Lloyd Levin. Released by Universal Pictures.

Running time: Two hours, one minute.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three stars.