Movie Review: Mystery Team (2009)

A review of the 2009 comedy starring Donald Glover and D. C. Pierson.

Synopsis: Three friends formed a mystery-solving team when they were kids and, now 18, are still together and still solving child-like cases. Eager to prove they are capable of doing more, they allow a young girl to hire them and begin investigating a double homicide involving her parents. However, because of their cluelessness, they may be in over their heads.

Who's in it?

The movie stars Donald Glover, D. C. Pierson, Dominic Dierkes, Aubrey Plaza and Glenn Kalison.

Review

I had never even heard of this movie until coming across it on one of my movie channels early this morning. As a result of this, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this film but ended up watching it simply because there wasn’t anything else on. Sadly, I just wasn’t as impressed with this movie as I thought I would be.

Overall, I do like the basic concept of this film. The three-person team, which consists of everything from a self-proclaimed master of disguise to a genius, simply has refused to grow up, in part, because of the fact they have developed a bit of a small-town celebrity status for the “cases” they did solve only to find out solving a case about missing toys and pets just isn’t as cool at 18 as it was when they were 7. And, the fact they made a big leap from cases like that to an adult-level homicide case was intriguing.

My biggest problem with this film is the comedy aspect of it. There are definitely some funny moments in the movie, especially when their investigation leads them into a strip club. However, as I watched this film, the comedy, in general, just seemed to be a bit forced. The writers, in essence, try a bit too hard and, because of that, a good chunk of the jokes really don’t have the same impact as they might have had if the movie had toned things down a little bit.

In fact, by about the midway point of this movie, I was finding myself less entertained and more annoyed by their antics, especially when the movie just seemed to get very loud at times (I kept turning the volume down because I was afraid it would wake up my wife and kids) and, had there been anything else on at that hour, I probably would have just turned it off completely.

Mystery Team

View on Amazon

Final Opinion

As I mentioned, the overall premise is a good one. Unfortunately, while there were times when the movie did, admittedly, make me laugh, I could only tolerate the comedy in small doses and just didn’t think this movie was as good as it could have been.

My Grade: C