Minute Man: "I'm thinking of changing my name."
Deadly Girl: "Changing to what?"
Minute Man: "To... Small."
Deadly Girl: "Small Man?"
Minute Man: "No. Just... Small."
Deadly Girl: "Well, that's pretty stupid."
Minute Man: "It's better than Mr. Smart."
Deadly Girl: "Better than Captain Cuntface, too."
Micro-budget superhero comedy-
mockumentary, released in 2000. It was directed by
Craig Mazin and written by
James Gunn. It starred
Rob Lowe as the
charismatic but
weaselly
Weevil;
Thomas Haden Church as the
vain,
laser-powered
leader,
the Strobe;
Paget Brewster as
Ms. Indestructible,
reluctant hero and wife of the Strobe;
Jordan Ladd as the team's newest member,
Nightbird, who has mostly-unspecified
bird-like powers;
Jamie Kennedy as the
blue-skinned ex-
villain Amok;
James Gunn as
Minute Man ("
Minute" as in "
small," and he's really getting tired of having to
explain that);
Judy Greer as the
demon-summoning
goth Deadly Girl;
Mike Schwartz as the
dim and
secret-identity-obsessed
U.S. Bill;
Jim Zulevic as the hyper-
intelligent but mostly-
useless Mr. Smart;
Kelly Coffield as the super-
chipper Power Chick;
Sean Gunn as the
green-skinned
shapeshifting
weirdo Alien Orphan, and
John Doe as one of
the Eight's bodies.
Melissa Joan Hart also makes a short
cameo as
Sunlight Grrrl.
The Specials are a
team of superheroes. Actually, they're only the sixth or seventh most
powerful team on the planet. They're a bit of a
joke in the superhero community -- their
slogan is "The Specials aren't meant for everybody -- they're meant for the
oddball, the
rebel, the
outcast, the
geek," and their
headquarters is located inside the
suburban home of the Strobe and Ms. Indestructible. But things are starting to look up for the Specials -- they're about to get their first-ever
action figures. Of course, nothing's that
easy, and
sex,
egomania, and a truly
horrible line of
toys lead to the break-up of the team. Can the team get back together in time for the next
crisis?
Okay, you're either going to
love the hell out of this
movie, or you're going to want to
hunt the
filmmakers down and
throttle them with their own
intestines.
No one in this movie fights any
supervillains or even uses their
superpowers. The costumes are
cheap -- most of the characters wear
street clothes embroidered with the Specials'
logo. The
lighting is
flat and extraordinarily non-
dramatic. In other words, "The Specials" makes "
Mystery Men" look like "
Batman Forever." On the other hand, the
film is quite
amusing throughout and occasionally even hits the "
laugh out loud" mark. The
focus is entirely on the characters as
people first -- it actually takes a little time to get used to this approach after watching dozens of superhero movies where the characters are defined by their
powers, their
gadgets, and their
rubber costumes.
I'm not going to recommend this for everyone. This is the
cinematic equivalent of a
small-press independent comic that gets passed over by all the
fanboys picking up the latest
glossy issue of "
Hot Comic Property X." If you like superhero movies where the characters at least
act like
heroes, give this a
pass. If you like weirdo
fringe comix, this is probably worth a
rental.