Specials

"How do you get to be a Special? You go to a special school." The jibes one endures when a part of the "sixth or seventh best superhero team in the world." The Strobe (Thomas Haden Church) has become vain and self-absorbed, his frustrated wife Ms. Indestructible (Paget Brewster) has gone looking for love in the arms of the Weevil (Rob Lowe), and sex-mad, blue-faced punk Amok (Jamie Kennedy) is getting bored with being a good guy and longs for his supervillain days, when he could sneak a cigarette without publicity fallout. The team is like a bored group of kids stuck indoors on a rainy day, and inaction and frustration has led to backbiting, infighting, love affairs, and long-held grudges. The hilariously disastrous unveiling of their action figures (with such absurd accessories as "a giant meat thermometer") is the final straw: the Specials are no more.

On the surface The Specials looks like a sitcom version of Mystery Men with a droller sense of humor ("Remember the time we caught and drained the Blister?"). The sly script drops the misfit bunch into a suburban world where superheroes are just another part of the media and marketing landscape. First-time director Craig Mazin is a little clumsy putting it all together and perhaps too effectively captures the bland, everyday-ness of the setting, but he tweaks familiar clichés with straight-faced absurdity. The underplayed performances and deadpan gags soon catch up to the concept, and by the end it emerges as the funniest, smartest superhero parody in ages. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

Best Thomas Haden Church Movie --- EVER!

For anybody just becoming a fan of Thomas Haden Church, I'd advise you to see this movie.
This is Thomas at his best (also, it was before his brunette period! - if you don't believe me, see that new episode of "Lucky" called 'The Method' that he was in. He's USUALLY a blonde).
I like almost every character in this movie and there is never a dull moment!
You'll find yourself quoting the scene where they discuss the action figure celebration in the boardroom, which turns into an arguement
about Amok's actions.
The Great Strobe needs his own comic book. Badly. Just as long as Archie Comics and Ken Penders aren't involved.
I have another suggestion to new Thomas Haden Church fans, avoid "Susan's Plan... Dying to Get Rich" and "3000 Miles to Graceland".
Both movies are bad and... I hate that hairdresser chick in SP:DTGR. She's just scary. June 10, 2003

going to special school

something that i didnt see in any of the current reviews is a mention that this is kind of a mock-u-mentary. what does that mean??? well, for one it means that the production values are low, likely because of a lack of budget, but i would argue that the production value complements and plays with the nature of the specials, the 6th or 7th greatest super team.

one guy gave this film a 1, wich i do not agree with at all. from reading the review, it seems to me that this person was looking for an 'eye candy' movie, which, usually superhero movies are predisposed to being, but this film is entirely driven by the characters. the movie would have been fine without the 2 min of effects at the end, and i was suprized to see them, they did in fact look better than the production value of the rest of the film suggested, very likely that is where a good hunk of the films budget went.

it is realy tempting to give this movie more than 4, but i dont think it deserves 5.

i am a fan of Thomas Hadden Church, and though this is not one of his best roles, fans of him, or the other actors will like this movie May 13, 2003

What a piece of Crap

I picked up the specials looking to see some heroics or comedy or drama. What I got was a load of trash. This film is an uninspired attempt to make a "superhero genre" movie by people who have never seen, read, or heard of a comic book or a cartoon. The characters are abysmal, the dialoge stinks, and it seems the entire "special effects" budget was reserved for the last 2 minutes of the film.I kept waiting for something or anykind of plot to develop. This movie started poorly and got progressivly worse. Save your money and buy a copy of Mystery Men. This film made my all time 5 worst list of films, second only to "YOR hunter from the future" March 5, 2002

SO much better than Mystery Men

Don't get me wrong Mystery Men was good... But this movie (the Specials) Is GREAT! I was laughing the whole way through and just enjoying the fun original script and simply Superb cast! Whoever cast this film knew what they were doing because they had some of the funniest and coolest actors around. I can't recommend this dvd enough. It's funny, cool and enjoyable... And if that wasn't enough the dvd has heaps of special features including some great deleted scenes... check it out it really is hillarious!!! February 7, 2002

A real superhero spoof

A nice little 'cult' film. It is a more deadpan and less goofy version of "Mystery Men", which was funny, but never really lived up to its potential. This film is funny,with some nice, but inconsistant writing. The story is about very unheroic superheroes, and the realtivly banal lives they lead. If you expect them to go fight villans, you will be disappointed. In fact until the end, you never see them use thier powers. It is a very funny film, and a nice example of an odd and engaging film. January 24, 2002

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