{"id":20797,"date":"2020-07-13T12:32:12","date_gmt":"2020-07-13T19:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=20797"},"modified":"2020-07-13T12:32:12","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T19:32:12","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review-the-specials-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=20797","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! Blu-ray Review: THE SPECIALS (2000)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This film will be available on Blu-ray for the first time\never on July 14th<\/sup> courtesy of La-La Land Entertainment. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While superhero films have been around for many decades, there once was a time when they weren\u2019t quite as big a box office draw as they are today. At the turn of the millennium, there was something of a slowing trend for the genre, with titles like Barb Wire<\/em> (1996), Batman & Robin<\/em> (1997), Steel<\/em> (1997) under-performing at the box office. As such, it seemed a proper time for comedies to spoof the genre. Two came along. One was the big budget effort Mystery Men<\/em> (1999) and the other a little independent feature called The Specials<\/em>. Neither feature lit the box office on fire, but both have developed a considerable fanbase over the years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, La-La Land Entertainment is releasing The\nSpecials<\/em> on Blu-ray in celebration of its 20th<\/sup> anniversary. This\ndisc is packed with extras and the feature itself features plenty of talent who\nhave gone on to have incredible careers. The film was written by and co-stars writer\/director\nJames Gunn (the Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em> series) and was directed by\nCraig Mazin, who created and wrote last year\u2019s phenomenal, award-winning HBO\nminiseries Chernobyl<\/em>. This is very obviously an early effort from the pair,\nbut it does provide some amusing moments here and there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of the feature involves a group of lesser-known\nsuperheroes, specifically the country\u2019s 6th<\/sup> or 7th<\/sup> most famous\ncadre of luminaries. The story begins when new member Nightbird (Jordan Ladd)\narrives at team headquarters and is introduced to The Strobe (Thomas Haden Church),\nhis wife Ms. Indestructible (Paget Brewster), Minute Man (James Gunn), The\nWeevil (Rob Lowe), Amok (Jamie Kennedy), Deadly Girl (Judy Greer), Power Chick\n(Kelly Coffield), the Alien Orphan (Sean Gunn), and a few other crew members. Instead\nof focusing on the team\u2019s efforts to fight villains and save citizens, it\ncaptures a few days in their troubled personal lives as they deal with conflict\nwithin the group. It all comes to a head when the gang get head out to introduce\na new line of action figures based on themselves. During the press event,\nvarious secrets are revealed and the group begins to splinter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can certainly tell that this is a debut feature made on a limited budget.
The film jumps between narrative scenes and interview footage of the various group members commenting on their history and their complicated relationships. There aren\u2019t any notable antagonists in the movie, other than a central character who is thinking of dumping his compatriots for a better position in a higher ranked superhero organization. Truthfully, besides bickering between the protagonists, nothing significant really happens. But of course, playing games with our expectations and allowing the lead characters to express and ramble on their petty concerns is the point of the film and where the humor is derived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And there are plenty of gags that do earn a laugh. Some of the powers are entertainingly bizarre and the cast seem to be having fun. Greer is particularly funny as the sullen, gloomy and verbally blunt Deadly Girl. Kennedy\u2019s Amok is entertaining as well. He\u2019s an ex-villain who harbors frustration and pent up rage after decided to change his ways and become a hero. It\u2019s a much more difficult transformation psychologically than anticipated. Additionally, Sean Gunn\u2019s facial work as the bizarre and seemingly slow-witted Alien Orphan earns chuckles. Church also gets in some amusing moments as the stiff front man of the organization, trying to act the part despite being reduced to mundane assignments. And Brewster grounds the film emotionally as a wife regretting her life choices and position as team secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For joke that hits the mark, there\u2019s another that doesn\u2019t make the desired impact. It\u2019s all over the place, but there are some entertaining scenes and a good scene every so often. The film is different enough (at least, at the time it was made) to be an enjoyable little riff on the superhero genre. It\u2019s also a fascinating look at the beginnings of James Gunn\u2019s career and would make an interesting companion piece to his later, more developed comic book adaptations like Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The technical specs on this 20th<\/sup> anniversary Blu-ray are quite good. This was a very low-budget film that doesn\u2019t boast lavish special effects or incredible cinematography, but the new high definition presentation 2K scan and restoration taken from the film\u2019s interpositive does clean the image up considerably and add much more sharpness to the proceedings. It\u2019s a considerable improvement over the DVD from more than a decade ago and the image quality will impress those who enjoy the film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additionally, the extras are impressive. They include a\nfeaturette on the special effects, several deleted and extended scenes, the\nfull wedding video and toy commercial that are both featured briefly in the\nfinished film, behind-the-scenes photos and the theatrical trailer newly transferred\nin 2K. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those are all entertaining enough, but the real highlights\nare the archived commentary tracks. There are two. The first, recorded just after\nthe film\u2019s release in 2000, includes director Craig Mazin along with writer\/co-star\nJames Gunn, producer Mark Altman and the visual effects supervisor. It\u2019s a fun and\ngenial discussion. All of the participants talk about the difficulties in\nmaking the movie on such a low-budget and the stresses it incurred on the cast\nand crew, but the participants are all pleasant and jovial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The second track, recorded in 2004 and featuring James Gunn\nand co-star Page Brewster, is quite different and unfiltered. In fact, one imagines\nthat the two participants might today regret venting so much about co-workers\nand being so blunt about their experiences. While it may not have been the\nwisest move for them, it is incredible to listen to. Gunn details how the film\ncame together and that Jamie Kennedy was the person who loved the script and worked\nhard to get the movie produced. The speaker then details the numerous blow-outs\nand fights between, well, just about everyone on set at different points in the\nshoot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, Gunn and Kennedy had some big rows (made even\nmore awkward by the fact that he was living with Kennedy during production), and\nalso admits that he and director Mazin had issues. Apparently, he didn\u2019t like\nthe mood that Mazin had adopted in telling the story and critiques it. Gunn\ntalks about how disappointed some cast members were with the end product. He also\nnotes how upset he was that one of the stars appeared to blow the project off after\nlanding a bigger role in a TV series, not even appearing at the premiere or\nsupporting the movie. In fact, both Gunn and Brewster share a long list of complaints\nwith others, some of whom weren\u2019t even involved in this production. Time has\npassed and one assumes that everyone has calmed down now that they have all\nmoved on are enjoying more professional success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As for the movie itself, The Specials<\/em> isn\u2019t a\nclassic, but it does have a couple of laughs. And perhaps more interestingly, it\nserves as an incredible look at the early work of cast and crew members. The\njuicy extras are also eye-opening and the two commentary tracks included make\nfor an amazing contrast and enlightening look at how, even after a few years,\nsome of those involved harbored negative feelings about the project. If you\u2019re\na fan of the filmmaker or comic book films in general, you\u2019ll definitely get\nsomething out of this curiosity and this updated Blu-ray comes recommended.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This film will be available on Blu-ray for the first time ever on July 14th courtesy of La-La Land Entertainment. While superhero films have been around for many decades, there once was a time when they weren\u2019t quite as big a box office draw as they are today. At the turn of the millennium, there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[148,2923,3073,4660,4668,4849,8698,10234,10274,11017,11118,11562,15638,17119,17862,19362,19366,22267,22268,22269,22769],"class_list":["post-20797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-148","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-blu-ray-review","tag-comedy","tag-comic-book","tag-craig-mazin","tag-guardians-of-the-galaxy","tag-james-gunn","tag-jamie-kennedy","tag-jordan-ladd","tag-judy-green","tag-kelly-coffield","tag-paget-brewster","tag-rob-lowe","tag-sean-gunn","tag-superhero","tag-superheroes","tag-the-specials","tag-the-specials-blu-ray-review","tag-the-specials-review","tag-thomas-haden-church"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}