Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

tieman64 Hal Haberman directs "Special". The plot? Comic book fan Les Franken (Michael Rapaport) lives a lonely, dull and ignored existence. Spiralling into depression, he signs up for an experimental antidepressant. The drug has extreme side effects: Les believes himself to have superpowers, believes himself to be "special" and so sets out to rid his neighbourhood of crime.It's a dark and depressing film. Superheroes typically have alter-egos and of course function as giant alter-egos for audiences and readers. Here Les (literally "less") compensates for his brutalised self-esteem by jumping wildly in the other direction, becoming a grostesque, sad parody of your typical comic book hero. He thinks he's fighting crime, running through walls, is impervious to pain, but clever editing shows the opposite: Les looking pathetic, slamming into concrete and oozing blood.The film ignores the larger causes of Les' "invisibility" (we only know that he's a lonely civil worker whose job motto is "I'm important"), but gets right the outcome of low self-esteem. Les compensates first with wild fantasies, drugs, extremes of sensation and then becomes increasingly self-destructive. The film ends with Les accepting that "not everyone can be important" and finding heroism in the simple act of "keeping on living" (ie not committing suicide). Depressed yet? It's a dour, nauseating, noxious film.7/10 – Rapaport is excellent, and "Special's" premise is smart, but there's not enough meat here for a feature length film. Worth one viewing.

poe426 Craftsmanship counts for a lot, especially when it comes to low budget indies, and SPECIAL boasts (among other things) some solid craftsmanship. It also boasts a solid performance by Michael Rapaport (his best, that I've seen); the focus on his character here is acute and he is more than up to the challenge: we BELIEVE his character (and believe IN him) because Rapaport sells himself so well on screen. To come across a movie of this nature (one that deals head-on with mental illness) is rare enough, but to come across a movie that draws you in and makes you BELIEVE is rarer still. Although noted Acting Award-winning thespian Lincoln Osiris (TROPIC THUNDER) has admonished fellow actors not to go "full retard" (the way Woody Harrelson did in DEFENDOR), SPECIAL is an exception to the rule in that it proves that delving into the darkest recesses of the mind CAN be done and done well.

MBunge Special is a film that remembers what super-heroes used to mean to people and isn't ashamed of it. Before they became big budget spectacles that make hundreds of millions of dollars, before they became sardonic and self-loathing vehicles for societal and psychological deconstruction, super-heroes were power fantasies for the young, the young at heart and for people who felt they were powerless in their own lives. They were about not liking or being satisfied with who you are and yearning to be something amazing. That kind of needful desire can be silly, sad and even inspiring. Special is that sort of film.Les (Michael Rapaport) is a lonely, awkward, quietly desperate meter maid whose only real friends are a couple of stoners (Josh Peck and Robert Baker) who own the local comic book store. Les decides to take part in a clinical trial, testing a new drug to ease crippling feelings of self-doubt. What the pills give Les are psychotic delusions that he has super-powers. So, he does what any socially awkward, grown up comic book fan would do to quench his thirst for validation…he quits his job, cobbles together a silver costume and starts patrolling the city as its newest protector.In real life, however, it's not that easy to find muggers or jewel thieves to heroically thrash, so Les' increasingly addled brain finds substitute targets. There also aren't any super-villains in the real world, though drug company executives afraid that Les' adverse reaction to their pills will ruin their chance to be rich manage to play the part in both Les' fantasies and his actual life. But as he becomes more deranged and more dangerous to himself and others, he must find a way to give up his hallucinations of heroism and find something truly heroic in ordinary, unexceptional Les.Special manages to take the idea of a crazy guy who thinks he's a super-hero and embraces every aspect of that concept. It's absurd, disturbing, touching and even ennobling. There's a humor to be had in someone who thinks he can run through walls and make things disappear with by waving his hands. There's something frightening about a person who acts out because he sees and hears things that aren't there. There's something poignant about a man who wants to hold on to his insanity because as terrible as it is, he still thinks it's better than his unhappy reality. And there's something uplifting about a timid and unsure man finding the strength he's always looked for by finally looking inside himself.Michael Rapaport gives a very fine performance in this movie. He's playing a character who lacks social skills in more ways than are simply convenient for the story. Les doesn't understand himself or how to interact with other people which Rapaport makes first pathetic and charming and then threatening when Les' personal inadequacies are fueled by pill-spawned psychosis. Josh Peck and Robert Baker are also pretty good in small roles as Les' stoner friends. Baker's character is roughly equal in age to Les but is a bit more emotionally capable and able to put some ironic distance between himself and his juvenile preoccupations. Peck's character is younger and gets caught up in the ridiculous thrill of super-heroing before crashing against the unsettling fact that the super-hero is a dangerous lunatic.Writer/directors Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore deserve a good bit of credit for their work as well. Special is a very low budget film and it looks it, but Haberman and Passmore manage to come up with quite a few ways to visually mine the comedy and the tragedy out their story. They cleverly blend Les' madness and his sanity in ways that illustrate the struggle going on inside his mind. This film also has dialog that is realistically funny and dramatic, never straying into pretension or melodrama. I also salute their ambition as filmmakers and their wisdom to not get carried away by it. I've seen a lot of 90 minute or 2 hour indy flicks that should have never been more than 15 minute film festival entries. Special is 81 minutes long and it's got enough plot, theme and characterization to fill that up. And while there are opportunities and had to be temptations to stretch the story out and try and make it a bigger deal than what it should be, Halberman and Passmore didn't go down that road.Special is one of those little movies that more people should see because a lot of them would enjoy it. If you spot this DVD on the shelf amidst the dreck, dregs and stuff you've already seen, give it a try.

twiswall The acting was tolerable...but who could really care about the acting. The movie was boring, the story line was idiotic, I don't have enough time to write how much my wife and I hated this movie. At this very moment I can't even say why I sat through the whole thing...bad bad boring movie.One last comment...a comedy...are you serious??!?!?! This was a depressing story about a guy who loses everything because he was prescribed a medication that had really bad side effects. That in no way shape or form is a comedy...a tragedy yes...but a comedy...I think not. Did I say this was a bad movie yet....?