Fresh off his legendary run with the longest operating independent film studio in the world, Troma, James Gunn wrote, produced, and starred in an ultra-low budget film many people seem to forget. Long before he brought Guardians of the Galaxy to life, Gunn had already dabbled in the superhero arena with the Craig Mazin directed picture, The Specials. To celebrate the 20th anniversary, La-La Land Entertainment has released it to Blu-ray in a tidy little package that’s bound to excite fans both new and old.
For the uninitiated, The Specials are the six or seventh greatest superhero team on the planet. The film follows them for one day when they aren’t fight crime or saving the world. In fact, the day we get to see, is most certainly not their finest hour. It might actually be the worst day in their history. The team consists of Weevil (Rob Lowe), the ladies man of the group, Amok (Jamie Kennedy), the foul-mouthed hot head, Minute Man (James Gunn), the most misunderstood in the group, Deadly Girl (Judy Greer), the one with the chip on their shoulder, the child-like U.S. Bill (Mike Schwartz), the overly optimistic Power Girl (Kelly Coffield), new girl Night Bird (Jordan Ladd), Mr. Smart (Jim Zulevic), Eight (John Doe and seven others) is one mind shared by eight bodies, Alien Orphan (Sean Gunn) is the weird one, Ms. Indestructable (Paget Brewster) is the wife of the leader, The Strobe (Thomas Haden Church) is the man with the plan. When a toy company plans a party to celebrate the release of a Special’s toy line, their personalities clash and secrets are revealed, which threaten the future of the group.
As far as the film goes, I’ve been a longtime fan. As a Troma junkie the better part of my life, I followed Gunn from Tromeo and Juliet, to his work with Lloyd Kaufman on his autobiography All I Need to Know about Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger. From there, The Specials was his first post-Troma flick. Gunn’s voice is very apparent throughout the film, although Craig Mazin was behind the camera. He had a real understanding of the material and the result is darkly funny, somewhat tragic, and never dull day in the life. There’s some hysterically funny dialogue. Everyone really gives fantastic performances, and the fact you never see their powers in action adds a layer of mystery. The film does touch on some heavy subjects like betrayal and infidelity, but in the end, the idea of family and forgiveness is really strong.
The 2K scan of the interpositive looks stunning. The characters have really colorful costumes and this scan really allows them to pop from the screen. The only new special feature is a short featurette focusing on the effects in the film. There’s a new theatrical trailer presented in 1080p which looks and sounds fantastic. Most of the special features were ported over from the DVD release which included deleted scenes, two audio commentaries, and a pair of unedited videos that appear in the film. All in all the package is really well put together. It’s a shame there wasn’t some sort of anniversary featurette with new interviews with some of the cast. I would really like to hear what some of them think about the film now.
The Specials was released long before the Marvel superhero boom, and it really holds up today. Tis new disc is a must own for fans and newer James Gunn fans won’t want to miss.
Now available from La-La Land Entertainment.
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