Special Unit

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.

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've always enjoyed the work of Christopher Titus and in this film he does not disappoint. The humor is slightly irreverent, but funny. The main plot involves a police department having to create a unit of police officers with disabilities due to the fairness in disabilities act. Titus plays a screw-up cop who ends up in charge of this "Special Unit".

The movie is funny without making fun of people with disabilities and the production hired several disabled actors to appear in the film.

The always enjoyable Billy Gardell shows up as the police captain, and we get a great performance from the late Debbie Lee Carrington is wonderful in this film.

The real star here is Christopher Titus, who wrote, directed and started in the movie and managed to make a great film that holds up to repeat viewing.

If you like funny, off-beat humor or are a fan of Christopher Titus's stand-up you will love this movie.

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.

A puzzler for us at first - disabled detectives - how can it possibly work as a movie?! It did, and was funny too, although not at the expense of anyone's dignity. Innovative as well which is unusual for Hollywood these days. Although, in the end it did go with 'feel good' but that wasn't a bad thing. Many of today's movies are depressing because they're stupid in the literal sense, offering nothing much except cardboard cutouts and CGI. This movie gave perspective on what disabled folk face, but still allowed us to laugh with them through their difficulties, and like the characters, and root for them. We'll be looking out for more Titus movies.