‘The Specials’: Dancing assassins stumble in clumsy caper

Since winning best picture at the Japan Academy Film Prize with “Midnight Swan” in 2021, Eiji Uchida has been working at a furious clip, like he’s worried the opportunities might dry up if he pauses for breath. He had three movies out last year and is set to match that tally in 2026. Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that his quality control can be haphazard.

“The Specials,” Uchida’s first feature of the year, probably made a great elevator pitch: a twinkle-toed caper about a group of hit men who form a dance group in order to pull off a job. “John Wick” meets “The Full Monty,” anyone?

But as with the similarly light-hearted (and misfiring) “Offbeat Cops” (2022), Uchida can’t seem to find the right groove. The dance sequences are middling, the comedy thin and the action far too violent for family viewing.