Special (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:29
Fresh:16
Rotten:13
Average Rating:5.6/10
Consensus: This quirky indie comedy's low budget is readily apparent, but it's elevated by Michael Rapaport's dedicated performance.
Synopsis: Les Franken (MICHAEL RAPAPORT) is a kind-hearted and soft-spoken man who loves reading comic books. He’s the type of guy who most people walk by on the street without even noticing; in essence,... [More]
Starring: Michael Rapaport, Paul Blackthorne, Josh Peck, Robert Baker
Director: Hal Haberman, Jeremy Passmore
Reviews for Special
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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 2/4 |
Special offers a unique spin on the superhero template but rarely soars beyond its sly premise. Full Review |
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2/5 |
Eccentric, depressing thriller won't grab teens' attention. Full Review |
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 3/5 |
No review available.
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3/5 |
Special works as an honest portrait of little people with big dreams even if it remains itself a little movie without a big impact. Full Review |
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I just thought it was a cool indie film with a great leading performance from an actor we don’t usually get to see in a lead. Full Review |
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The premise is intriguing, and the film is occasionally amusing, but it feels stuck between a completely satirical farce and an aching drama. Full Review |
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The sight of him, bloodied but eternally unbowed, in his ridiculous, homemade superhero costume may indeed be totally iconic for true pulp believers. Full Review |
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Take[s] a page from the cartoonist Bill Watterson, who noted of the tiger protagonist in his great Calvin & Hobbes, 'The nature of [the character's] reality doesn't interest me, and each story goes out of its way to avoid resolving the issue.' Full Review |
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1.5/4 |
Rappaport does a yeoman's job in this tonally confused oddity. Full Review |
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4/5 |
It may not be perfect, but this under-the-radar indie from Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore is smart enough to leave you glad you found it. Full Review |
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2.5/5 |
Ultimately it adds little to our understanding of the curious return of the superhero as our paradigmatic pop archetype.
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A- |
Shot for pennies -- a cash limitation that benefits the production's creativity and credibility -- this haunting film keeps shifting the ground under our feet Full Review |
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8/10 |
A beautiful metaphor for the desperate need to be important in a world where we rarely make personal connections any more, Special deserves to be seen. Full Review |
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2/5 |
What begins as a mildly amusing indie lark descends into a depressingly unappealing exercise in mico-budget filmmaking. Full Review |
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B |
Its ambitions are limited -- though at 81 minutes, wisely proportioned -- but its heart is in the right place. Full Review |
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A great genre film dissects authentic problems without attempting to supplant them. Reasonably enough, Special belongs to that category with the rest of Magnet’s Six Shooter Series. Full Review |
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2/6 |
Special is an inexplicable downer that favors pathos over satire. Full Review |
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C+ |
Thanks to Rapaport's brio in embracing the hero's drug-induced delusions, the movie is less a failure than a noble experiment gone awry. Full Review |
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Rappaport's befuddled sincerity has never registered so poignantly, but given its singular premise, for the film to waste an easy opportunity to satirize vigilante do-goodery and pharmaceutical dependence is, well, villainous. Full Review |
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1.5/4 |
This fantasy battle between good and evil is merely a cute, minor idea with little depth and even less conscious purpose, fit for a 15-minute short rather than a feature-length narrative. Full Review |
CommentLatest News for Special
November 27, 2008:
Prankster moviemaking about a superhero duel with p-harm-aceutical barons, certain to make the deadly warnings whispered in all those gleeful drug commercials flooding TV sets across America, to never sound quite the same again. 
More...
November 14, 2008:
Prankster moviemaking about a superhero duel with p-harm-aceutical barons, certain to make the deadly warnings whispered in all those gleeful drug commercials flooding TV sets across America, to never sound quite the same again.
More...
November 03, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review
More...
January 26, 2006:
SUNDANCE: Weinberg's Sundance Scorecard
With Senh, Jen, and Terrible Tim Ryan roaming the streets of Park City, the Tomato readers have had plenty of Sundance reports to pick through. But I thought I'd contribute my... More...
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