The Specials

A post-modern comedy that sets out to do for the superhero genre what "Scream" did for horror films. (Regent Entertainment)

I had the idea years ago: a movie about the personal lives of a group of superheroes, a film that focused on their dramatic interactions as opposed to action sequences. I had considered the idea too esoteric, until I mentioned it to my brother Brian, who loved the idea. He inspired me, so I wrote it. Though at first I pictured the movie as a drama, I went ahead and wrote it as a straight-out comedy. Little did I know Iâ??d be defining myself as essentially a comedy writer from that moment on.

â??Thereâ??s all this emotional honesty and the character is dealing with a real human dilemma, and then you get slammed by critics for not being a bloated film that theyâ??ve been giving bad reviews to for 10 years.â? So says Mark A. Altman, producer of The Specials, on one of two commentary tracks on the filmâ??s new â??specialsâ? edition DVD. Heâ??s talking about The Strobe, a.k.a. Ted Tilderbrook (Thomas Hayden Church), the leader of the Specials, a team of superheroes who do more arguing and backstabbing than actual crime fighting.Read more: http://www.popmatters.com/review/specials-edition-dvd/#ixzz4GsZgvnBM

If you've ever fretted that cartoon and video game action heroes and the toys they inspire might be having more fun than the rest of us, ''The Specials'' is here to reassure you that these wondrous saviors of humanity are just as insecure, envious, spiteful, dirty minded and power hungry as everybody else. Maybe more so. No, it ain't easy being a superhero. The strain of maintaining a squeaky-clean altruistic image 24 hours a day can be deadly.

A description of tropes appearing in Specials. A comedy film (2000) about the sixth or seventh greatest superhero team in the world. The film follows the â?¦

Critics Consensus: Clever, funny, and exciting.

The Specials movie trailer. The Specials are the 6th or 7th greatest superhero team in the world. This is the official movie trailer. It came out in 1999.

The Specials (2000) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.

Directed by Craig Mazin. With Rob Lowe, Thomas Haden Church, Paget Brewster, Jordan Ladd. The sixth or seventh best superhero team in the world pursue their rightful place in the harshly competitive world of toy tie-ins and fighting evil.

The Specials is a 2000 American comedy film about a group of ordinary superheroes on their day off. According to the film, the Specials are the sixth or seventh most popular group of superheroes in the world. Unlike most superhero films, The Specials has almost no action and few special effects; instead it focuses on the average day-to-day lives of the heroes.