It took me quite a while to get past the cinematography. I could find no reason why the entire film was shot hand-held. It brought nothing to the story and was extremely distracting until I got past it and and started appreciating the acting and story. All DP's and directors should know when to put the camera on sticks and trust the actors to bring motion and emotion to the frame. The music was another stumbling bock for me. Extremely obvious and over the top choices were made throughout - and what's truly unfortunate is that I recognized a number of loops that were used in creating the score. Not a good sign. Having said all of this - I still laud the writers and directors for their effort and the actors for their work as well.

The idea of someone having an adverse reaction to a drug and plotting a movie around that has not been done, at least not very often before. The plot was good, with several holes, but over all, it can be forgiven. The same can be said for the characters, Even the cliché brother duo 'villains' played their roles well enough that the cliché can be forgiven.What can't be forgiven, is the most obvious thing I noticed in this film. I have read reviews by other people who mention a movie having bad, or shaky filming, but most of the time I never notice. But this movie, the filming is so shaky its ridiculous. I felt like I was watching a high school made movie from that alone, not even enough credit for a college movie.I will try to avoid bashing this movie, because for the most part I didn't mind it. It was a decent time passer, but a few more things I have to mention are the music, and the ending, the 'comedy', and the subjective viewing of the movie. The movie has you see both sides of the scenario at times, seeing how his friends see what happens and how he sees it. But at times, it makes it confusing if not impossible to follow what is happening. **Spoiler** For example, the scene in the park where the brother is chasing him, he teleports behind him and punches him in the face. Honestly there is no explanation given for this or a few other things that happen, like him getting from his friends car to the top of a building in a split second. It was as if the people making this movie didn't know if they actually WANTED him to have powers or for it to be in his head. This movie is in no way shape or form a comedy. From the very bleak outlook of every situation and the dark and serious tones of most every scene, to the extremely poor choice of music even for a sad movie, this movie was nothing but depressing. Not a tragedy, i can't give it that much credit, just depressing to watch and listen to. And my last qualm on my mind is the ending. If you are going to make a movie like this, you need to have a good ending, with a lesson or a reason, or something that makes sense to the madness. You do NOT have the main character say what he says, then completely ruin what he just said, then just end it with no real closure in the slightest.. I would have rated it lower, but I really didn't hate it. It was a decent movie if you are looking for something a little different.

Michael Rapaport really saves this movie. Without him it would be much less watchable. It has a very interesting story and it is very well executed in many ways, but has a lot of small missteps that detract from my ability to believe in it as a story.It's a story of a common, boring everyman (Rapaport) who enters a drug trial for an experimental drug that is supposed to remove people's self-doubt. On him, though, it goes too far, and he begins to believe that he has super powers. This part of the film is, for the most part, well-executed.However, a lot of little details don't ring true. I won't go through all of them, but early in the movie is one good example: A man goes into a comic book store and tries to sell a comic. We are supposed to believe he is homeless and desperate, but he doesn't look homeless. He has a long gray beard, yes, but he's dressed in clean clothes and his beard is meticulously groomed. It's like the director thought that a long beard was all you needed to look homeless.Additionally, this may sound like nit-picking, but the director's choice of music in some areas seems way off. A scene will look like it is trying to be dramatic and the music that is playing is some oddball high energy song. Sometimes this works well (like the ending of Dr. Strangelove) but in this case it just looks haphazard.Overall its worth a watch, but its unfortunate that the film makers couldn't go that extra step and make it a better film.

Special is a film that remembers what super-heroes used to mean to people and isn't ashamed of it. Before they became big budget spectacles that make hundreds of millions of dollars, before they became sardonic and self-loathing vehicles for societal and psychological deconstruction, super-heroes were power fantasies for the young, the young at heart and for people who felt they were powerless in their own lives. They were about not liking or being satisfied with who you are and yearning to be something amazing. That kind of needful desire can be silly, sad and even inspiring. Special is that sort of film.Les (Michael Rapaport) is a lonely, awkward, quietly desperate meter maid whose only real friends are a couple of stoners (Josh Peck and Robert Baker) who own the local comic book store. Les decides to take part in a clinical trial, testing a new drug to ease crippling feelings of self-doubt. What the pills give Les are psychotic delusions that he has super-powers. So, he does what any socially awkward, grown up comic book fan would do to quench his thirst for validation…he quits his job, cobbles together a silver costume and starts patrolling the city as its newest protector.In real life, however, it's not that easy to find muggers or jewel thieves to heroically thrash, so Les' increasingly addled brain finds substitute targets. There also aren't any super-villains in the real world, though drug company executives afraid that Les' adverse reaction to their pills will ruin their chance to be rich manage to play the part in both Les' fantasies and his actual life. But as he becomes more deranged and more dangerous to himself and others, he must find a way to give up his hallucinations of heroism and find something truly heroic in ordinary, unexceptional Les.Special manages to take the idea of a crazy guy who thinks he's a super-hero and embraces every aspect of that concept. It's absurd, disturbing, touching and even ennobling. There's a humor to be had in someone who thinks he can run through walls and make things disappear with by waving his hands. There's something frightening about a person who acts out because he sees and hears things that aren't there. There's something poignant about a man who wants to hold on to his insanity because as terrible as it is, he still thinks it's better than his unhappy reality. And there's something uplifting about a timid and unsure man finding the strength he's always looked for by finally looking inside himself.Michael Rapaport gives a very fine performance in this movie. He's playing a character who lacks social skills in more ways than are simply convenient for the story. Les doesn't understand himself or how to interact with other people which Rapaport makes first pathetic and charming and then threatening when Les' personal inadequacies are fueled by pill-spawned psychosis. Josh Peck and Robert Baker are also pretty good in small roles as Les' stoner friends. Baker's character is roughly equal in age to Les but is a bit more emotionally capable and able to put some ironic distance between himself and his juvenile preoccupations. Peck's character is younger and gets caught up in the ridiculous thrill of super-heroing before crashing against the unsettling fact that the super-hero is a dangerous lunatic.Writer/directors Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore deserve a good bit of credit for their work as well. Special is a very low budget film and it looks it, but Haberman and Passmore manage to come up with quite a few ways to visually mine the comedy and the tragedy out their story. They cleverly blend Les' madness and his sanity in ways that illustrate the struggle going on inside his mind. This film also has dialog that is realistically funny and dramatic, never straying into pretension or melodrama. I also salute their ambition as filmmakers and their wisdom to not get carried away by it. I've seen a lot of 90 minute or 2 hour indy flicks that should have never been more than 15 minute film festival entries. Special is 81 minutes long and it's got enough plot, theme and characterization to fill that up. And while there are opportunities and had to be temptations to stretch the story out and try and make it a bigger deal than what it should be, Halberman and Passmore didn't go down that road.Special is one of those little movies that more people should see because a lot of them would enjoy it. If you spot this DVD on the shelf amidst the dreck, dregs and stuff you've already seen, give it a try.