Special Unit

So I've been a fan of Titus since watching his shows and stand up, which are honed, finished products that have audience input that make them, when put to film, really good.

But what seems to happen to this film is that, with a low budget and possibly too little input, it's an okay film with funny moments rather than a coherent piece of filmmaking.

I think it really helps if you give characters a reason to exist. If I believe there is a story behind their behavior, it's a lot easier to understand their motivation. Other than a few moments, I couldn't understand why I'd want to care what happened to this group of people, and I really wanted to.

I have always liked Christopher Titus stand up. I think his comedy is genius. Since I am familiar with his act and his attitude towards the differently abled I do understand his attempt to make a comedic film with a message. However, this movie just isn't funny. Period. Either it's the production values, script or some other contributing factor that makes the actors appear to be bad, B-movie actors. Reminiscent of the same caliber of acting found in Ed Woods "Plan 9 from Outer Space" bad. Maybe it was the difficult task of trying to make disabled characters funny. Don't misunderstand me. I am not objecting to the material because the portrayal of mentally and physically handicapped people. I am objecting because this particular movie doesn't manage to make this uncomfortable subject humorous. And maybe no one can. Whatever the reason the production was just embarrassingly awkward and third rate. Overall, Special Unit is like a student film produced by immature frat boys.

I've been a huge fan of Christopher Titus for years and I listen to his podcast occasionally. Lately he's been promoting this movie and honestly his repeated promotions got old. It got to the point where I'd just skip them or even shut off his podcasts when he'd start. Eventually when this movie came out I saw promotions for it and I just turned away. I didn't expect it to be a bad movie but I wasn't expecting it to be good either. In order to prevent having a bad or meh experience I just decided to ignore it. Well, tonight I decided to just go on a whim and just watch it. I mean the way Titus has been raving about how hard he and his team have been working on this thing I figured I should at least be a decent fan and checkout his work and try to support him in some way. I went into the movie with low expectations and well, I was absolutely pleased with this thing! Like, The jokes in this thing were right after another at a few times I had to pause the darn thing just to catch my breath from laughing too hard. It was nice to see a few cameo appearances from some of Titus' old co-stars from his old sitcom like Zack Ward (He did a few stunts in the beginning) and Cynthia Watros (She played the mayor). As for the characters, I found Alvin's character to be the best dude stole the show and his scenes had me laughing hysterically. I have to say, if you've been on the fence about seeing this movie you should definitely give it a shot. Great job Combustion Films team! I can't wait to see your next project! Keep up the good work.

If you liked the Ringer, chances are you will enjoy this movie. It's an absolute underdog story that gives you a different perspective on special people. It's a lighthearted movie that is enjoyable.

I Liked the jokes very much, but it felt off.

The Pros:

Like I said the comedy is funny, all the interactions between characters is comedy orientated and you can see that in every single scene. The actors were somewhat acting over the top which, to me, fitted the mood and story of the movie.

Overall, all human interactions and dialogs were comedy orientated and you could really see there were a lot of funny ideas, it is pretty cool to see a very funny man show us what he does best.

The Cons:

Like I said the comedy is really funny, BUT It did not feel like a movie, there were a couple of things that felt off. And in my opinion there were 2 major things causing this;

Environment sound:

The change from having only environment sound or only music or no background sound at all felt clunky. And at some moments the environment sound did not fit with the scene.

Music:

The timing of the music felt off. It feels awkward when you are laughing after a punchline and 2 sec later music starts, I stopped laughing each time because I expected something to happen and this would happen a lot. In some scenes the music would suddenly stop or begin to emphasise the spoken or physical comedy at weird timings, It felt clunky.

Maybe it would have helped if the music was thought of as the introduction, applause and laughter within a standup routine, put the music where you would 'expect' those 3 things to occur in the movie and you would probably be on par with the audience laughing and each scene with music would not feel off and clunky.

The jokes are very funny, fantastic ideas, but to me the environment sound and the timing of the music stagnated the flow and feel of the jokes and the movie.

Therefore a rating of 5.