'Special' review

Michael Rapaport (Credit: Magnet)

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Mild mannered parking enforcement officer and comic book enthusiast Les Franken (Michael Rapaport) doesn’t believe anything he does is important, until he takes part in an experimental study for a new drug that seems to give him superpowers—flight, mind-reading, teleportation—just like his heroes.

The buzz: It’s taken nearly three years for “Special” to secure a theatrical release since it premiered at the 2006 Sundance film festival. Now it’s the second entry in Magnet Releasing’s “Six Shooter Film Series,” which kicked off with the exceptional vampire flick “Let the Right One In.”

The verdict: If the recent success of angsty superhero movies “Iron Man,” “Hancock” and “The Dark Knight” convinced anyone to dust off this non-starter and give it a shot with paying audiences the decision appears woefully misguided. “Special” wants to keep viewers guessing if Franken’s powers are real or pharmaceutically-induced hallucinations, but the movie is too Earth-bound to create any suspense over the answer. What begins as a mildly amusing indie lark descends into a depressingly unappealing exercise in mico-budget filmmaking.

Did you know? In the time this movie spent on the shelf, co-star Josh Peck—who plays a comic book store employee—grew up, slimmed down and starred in his own Sundance movie, “The Wackness,” which quickly came and went from theaters this past summer.

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