| I lost my shrinking ability for two weeks, like a flu bug. I mean, I didn't lose them entirely. I was able to shrink down to about four-foot-five. But just being short isn't really a superpower.
I used to think I didn't need a family. I mean, I had the demons and the walking skeletons. But the difference between a walking skeleton and a kid is, a kid won't eat the soft parts of your face while you're sleeping.
Deadly Girl (Judy Greer)
Every morning I look down and I'm wearing boots with lightning bolts on them and I think... where did I make the wrong turn?
Ms. Indestructible (Paget Brewster)
The quotations above, all delivered directly to the camera in bite-sized The Real World-style vignettes, perfectly illustrate the appeal (or lack thereof) of The Specials (2000). Your reaction to the film will be pretty much identical to your reaction to the quotes. If the thought of insecure superheroes having second thoughts about their ridiculous lifestyles doesn’t pique your interest, stay away from the film.
I first saw the trailer for this obscure superhero comedy several years ago, on a promotional DVD, and have been keeping a curious eye out for it ever since. The film apparently opened on just two screens in the U.S. and closed immediately, followed by a near invisible DVD release. Now that the movie’s second DVD release, The Specials Edition, is turning up in bargain bins everywhere, curious cinephiles and comic-book fans can finally assess this low-key oddity for themselves. I wouldn’t exactly call The Specials a good movie, but it is a unique one with lots to recommend it for those who treasure the offbeat. It’s sort of like Alan Moore’s Watchmen played for laughs, so if that concept appeals to you, set your expectations nice and low, and prepare to chuckle.
The minimal plot concerns a day in the life of a third-rate superhero team called The Specials, and it seems to be a particularly bad day for them, at that. The more powerful members are being hired away by higher-profile teams, and the remaining losers tend to squabble amongst themselves. Team leader The Great Strobe (Thomas Haden Church) tries to rally his crew in time for the launch of their new action figure line, but is devastated to learn that his wife, Ms. Indestructible (Paget Brewster) is having an illicit affair with teammate The Weevil (Rob Lowe). Heartbroken, the Strobe has an emotional breakdown in front of the press, and announces the dissolution of The Specials. That’s pretty much it for plot.
The rest of the rather short running time is taken up with character interactions, a ludicrous toy commercial, a non-sequitur dance number, and the aforementioned one-on-one interview segments, many of which are quite droll. There are no fights, no action scenes and hardly any special effects – just characters in capes talking about their problems, or giving wonderfully deadpan advice on how to handle alien slugs. This refusal to go the mainstream route is simultaneously the film’s greatest strength and its greatest weakness. The Specials has a marvellously unique perspective, but hardly any narrative drive; most of the scenes in this film could be shown in any order with little difference to the overall effect. Still, don’t be surprised if you and your friends are still chuckling over your favourite lines several months from now.
The Specials Edition DVD contains two audio commentary tracks. Both are worthwhile, but I particularly recommend the track featuring writer-actor James Gunn and Brewster. The track was recorded recently, half a decade after the movie tanked at the box office, so both participants are delightfully unconcerned with the movie’s success and are free to really dish up the dirt. Gunn explains the rules for "The Extra Game" (something he picked up from Lowe, and later incorporated into his 2004’s Dawn of the Dead script), Brewster displays utter contempt for Jessica Alba (who’s not in the film), and both carry on like the old friends they clearly are. The bona fide highlight of the track has to be when a hurt Gunn demands an explanation for why Brewster snubbed him the last time he phoned her up and tried to rekindle their friendship. She answers him that a) she had a crush on him, but he was (and is still) married, and that b) at the time, he was in a cult and she was worried that he was trying to recruit her!
Incidentally, Brewster writes a sex advice column in Femme Fatales magazine, and Gunn’s book All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger (co-written with the book’s subject, Lloyd Kaufman) is an absolute must-read. Fans of The Specials will also appreciate the similar humour in the utterly brilliant 1990 book How to be a Superhero by Mark Leigh and Mike Lepine, which is fall-off-your-chair hilarious, but, tragically, out of print. |
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