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The Movie:
Although at the mention of "The Specials" I think of the classic ska band, there was also a movie by the same name that went directly to video recently largely due to the failure of another film. A couple of Summers ago there was "Mystery Men", a tale of several low-end superheros who managed to fight evil - badly. The film did - badly - and this smaller, low-budget version was unable to find all but minimal distribution.
Is it funny? Eh, sort of. At least it does have better ideas than "Mystery Men" to work with and some more entertaining performances. The film revolves around The Strobe (Thomas Haden Church),Ms. Indestructible (Paget Brewster), The Weevil(Rob Lowe), Amok(Jamie Kennedy) and new recruit Nightbird (Jordan Ladd) and others. The group has just gotten their first licensing deal and action figures are on the way.
After the unveiling of the action figures doesn't go as planned, the group breaks up and has to figure out where to head from there - maybe to a different superhero team? For every joke in "The Specials" that works, there's several that are just downright awful - the film throws out four-letter words frequently with little purpose, which becomes tiring quickly. The funniest bits throughout the film deal with the Public Relations failures that the Specials have to go through during their quest for acceptance (and the comic-book style titles are a nice touch). These bits could work well as a skit, but at even 90 minutes, "The Specials" begins to slowly get duller. Performances are decent and have a good feel for the material, and there's a funny little part for "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch"'s Melissa Joan Hart.
With the film's low-budget, all it has to rely on is the dialogue; there's no real "Specials" action scenes or effects. Overall, it still works better than "Mystery Men", but certainly not much more.
The DVD
VIDEO: This is a decent anamorphic presentation from Pioneer, who presents the film in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Sharpness and detail seemed to vary throughout the movie, with respectable sharpness and definition at best.
There were some other flaws that became apparent during the presentation, as well. There was a light amount of grain that was visible throughout many scenes of the film, and some noticable print flaws in the form of marks and scratches that occasionally appeared throughout. I occasionally noticed slight shimmering and pixelation, as well.
SOUND: "The Specials" is presented in Dolby Surround, and while it would seem unfortunate that the film is not presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, there's really not a great deal of material in the film that would prove to be interesting sound-wise, anyways. The film is almost completely dialogue-driven, and although dialogue usually remains fairly clear, I missed a couple of lines here and there throughout the movie.
MENUS:: A slightly animated main menu with pictures of the characters, and "comic-book" themed, but non-animated, sub-menus.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary from director Craig Mazin, writer/actor James Gunn, producer Mark Altman and effects supervisor Mojo. This is a hilarious commentary that I found to be a much more entertaining experience than watching the actual film itself. The group has a great time ripping into the production process, talking about the painfully low-budget that the film had to work with to put together the film and things that, as a result, went wrong with filming.
There's times when the group either goes into simply talking about what's on-screen or offering a great deal of praise for their actors, but there's some really funny stories that are given out now and then throughout the track. Definitely worth a listen.
Deleted Scenes: 10 deleted scenes are included, some of which are actually very funny and should have been left in.
Toy Commercial: The full toy commercial that's seen in the movie.
Wedding Video: The full wedding video that's seen in the movie.
Also: Small photo gallery & trailer.
Final Thoughts: Comic book fans might find it a funny rental.
Film Grade
The Film **
DVD Grades
Video 84/B = (336/400 possible points)
Audio: 80/B = (320/400 possible points)
Extras: 81/B = (243/300 possible points)
Menus: 70/C = (140/200 possible points)
Value: 81/B = (243/300 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1282/1600
DVD GRADE:B-/80%
FILM GRADE: **
DVD GRADE: B-
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