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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
58
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Slumdog Millionaire
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Christmas Tale, A
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Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
83
Wrestler, The
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Let the Right One In
80
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
80
Wendy and Lucy
79
Frost/Nixon
78
I've Loved You So Long
78
Gran Torino
78
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
72
I Served the King of England
70
Black Balloon, The
70
Hunger
70
What Doesn't Kill You
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Doubt
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
68
August Evening
67
Synecdoche, New York
64
JCVD
64
Timecrimes
64
Appaloosa
63
Where God Left His Shoes
63
Changeling
63
Eden
62
Duchess, The
61
Che
59
We Are Wizards
58
Adam Resurrected
57
Special
57
Reader, The
56
Religulous
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
Battle in Seattle
54
Good Dick
53
RocknRolla
51
Breakfast with Scot
49
How About You
46
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43
Tru Loved
43
Gardens of the Night
40
While She Was Out
40
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40
Other End of the Line, The
38
Dark Streets
35
My Name Is Bruce
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
32
Let Them Chirp Awhile
31
Hounddog
30
Guitar, The
29
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28
Nobel Son
28
Fireproof
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
26
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xx
Class, The
xx
Scott Walker: 30 Century Man
xx
Dostana
xx
Local Color
xx
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
xx
Moscow, Belgium
xx
Extreme Movie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Special
Magnet Releasing (Magnolia Pictures)
|
|
MPAA RATING: R for language, some violence and brief drug use
Starring
Michael Rapaport,
Ian Bohen,
Alexandra Holden,
Andrew Leeds,
Ian McConnel,
and
Josh Peck
Les Franken is a kind-hearted and soft-spoken man who loves reading comic books. He’s completely average and virtually invisible. However, everything changes for Les the day he is accepted into an experimental drug study for a new and exciting anti-depressant, Specioprin Hydrochloride. As Les begins to take the drugs an unexpected side effect occurs – he begins to develop special powers. Faced with the dilemma of how best to utilize his new “powers,” the answer seems obvious to Les. He puts together a homemade superhero suit and hits the streets to fight crime and protect the world from the forces of evil. Surveillance videos bring him to the attention of the businessmen developing the drug. Worried about the bad publicity Les is bringing to their new anti-depressant, they attempt to put an end to his superhero antics before too much damage is done. (Magnolia Pictures)
GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
WRITTEN BY: |
Hal Haberman
Jeremy Passmore
|
DIRECTED BY: |
Hal Haberman
Jeremy Passmore
|
RELEASE DATE: |
Theatrical: November 21, 2008
|
RUNNING TIME: |
81 minutes, Color |
ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
80
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
The movie loses its way toward the end, shifting from wry black comedy to slightly overdone pathos. But there's plenty here to appreciate, making the title perfectly apt.
80
Film Threat
Eric Campos
This is a weird little movie, and it's an interesting trip accompanying Dick Ritchie on his transformation.
75
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
Special recalls a minor-key "Donnie Darko," but its vision is much more limited, and it sinks into Indiewood cliché whenever it reaches for profundity.
58
Entertainment Weekly
Adam Markovitz
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.
50
Village Voice
Aaron Hillis
All that's left then is a miserablist analogue to M. Night Shyamalan's "Unbreakable," a sad portrait of paranoid delusion with wipe-out stunts played for the comic wincing of "Jackass."
50
The New York Times
Nathan Lee
Either way, it doesn’t quite go far enough as psychological study or cultural commentary.
38
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Rappaport does a yeoman's job in this tonally confused oddity. The wonder is that Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore's Special is making it off the festival circuit and into theaters at all, however briefly.
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