The Specials

The Specials follows an obscure superhero group that ranks far down the list of America's top teams, well behind the celebrated Crusaders. Its members gather on what should be a day of celebration: a toy company is releasing action figures based on them, and a devoted admirer, Nightbird, is joining their ranks. The team's leader, the egocentric Strobe, presides over heroes whose powers fall short of the big leagues, among them the shrinking Minute Man, the unbreakable Ms. Indestructible and the relentlessly upbeat Power Chick. Personal rivalries and long-simmering grievances, however, threaten to pull the group apart before the occasion is over. The film keeps its focus on the mundane, off-duty side of superhero life rather than on action sequences and special effects.

Craig Mazin directed from a screenplay by James Gunn, his first feature behind the camera; he would not direct again until Superhero Movie in 2008. The cast includes Rob Lowe, Jamie Kennedy, Thomas Haden Church, Jordan Ladd, Mike Schwartz and Paget Brewster, with forty credited performers in all. Made for around one million dollars, the modest production earned an IMDb rating of 5.7 from roughly 2,700 voters and a TMDB rating of 5.3 from a smaller sampling. A critics' score of 5.3 from 15 reviews places it close to the audience average, indicating a mixed but not sharply divided response.