Hombres de verdad

a movie like real men is for some people quite difficult to like. i suppose in that respect it falls in the same category as 'hudson hawk', another movie that is as much vilified by its opponents as it is praised by its fans. for me, real men was an utterly hilarious experience.

when i saw the movie, i never heard of it, and was therefore without any expectations about plot, people playing in it or general need for suspension of disbelief. this is perhaps the best way to view any movie, yet also harder and harder to achieve in this day and age of mass communication. i guess that it came upon me pretty quickly that nobody in this movie took themselves seriously, and even better, played their parts over the top and had so many completely unbelievable situations happening to them that i couldn't help but be entertained. in fact, i have this movie in my private video collection, and even show it from time to time to small groups of friends who invariably can't help but laugh their lungs empty. yes, this movie might not have eminently quotable lines, a brilliant script or a beeline to the oscars for best comedy, or even the most inspiring actors, but i've seen a lot of movies that label themselves comedies yet fail miserably where this movie succeeds brilliantly; it ends with me having a huge smile on my face. not only that, but any movie which has a clown squad of elite killers should be applauded for it's complete disregard of normal and sane everyday logic. if you can enjoy a good laugh and don't have too high standards of what should and should not happen in movies, this is definitely one to brighten up your afternoon.

The laughing gas, that is... I can only surmise that the writers who worked on this film, faced with a creativity crisis – you know, one of those dark moments of writer's block – must have solved the creativity problem by consuming a few deep hits of laughing gas, and this movie is what resulted. (Unlike Bill, they DID inhale.)

I've seen this movie several times over the years, and I somehow always find myself enjoying the comedy in it, though I find it (the comedy) really rather hard to define. It's not really a "Laugh-yer-butt-off" kind of slapstick humor, though there is a goodly amount of slapstick in it. It's not really a "Laugh-at-the-funny-lines" sort of humor, though again, both Ritter and Belushi do have some very funny lines in it.

I think it's one of those movies that you must approach much as you do, say, a Monty Python film: you need to be in "that frame of mind," you need to straight away drop some of your defenses and your preconceived notions of what constitutes "funny". Otherwise this movie will quickly leave you, thoroughly unamused, by the side of the road, as it continues along its merry, twisted path. By the time the clown scene comes, well, you will not find it funny at all. By then you would probably get more comedic value out of switching the TV channel to Bill O'Reilly or Neil Cavuto.

What makes Real Men work for me is the combination of the bizarre, almost Twilight Zone-like storyline, and the excellent chemistry between John Ritter and James Belushi. The story premise is SO implausibly dumb it just constantly makes me laugh as the movie unfolds. Combine that with the acting and antics of Ritter and Belushi, which are just spot-on smooth as silk, and the whole thing just makes for compelling watching. As mentioned, the two leads have good lines, but I think their body language and facial expressions say as much in this movie (perhaps more) than the spoken word.

So, drop some of your defensive shields, get in a suitably zany mood, and watch this movie. (REALLY watch it, looking at some of the physical humor, the quirks of facial expressions, listening for some of the double entendres, etc. Then you might love this movie, as I do.)

This has become well known from cable television. It didn't do anything in the theaters, but it is very funny. I don't know why this was not a hit. A wonderful spoof. I'm not a John Ritter fan, but he and Jim Belushi are really good together. Next time it pops up on cable check it out.

Man, you realllllllly have to have a broad sense of humor for this one. It totally has to hit you the right way, or it could easily end up on your worst of all time list. Which is only one of two places it could end up. You either love it, or despise it, I can't imagine there being a middle ground for anyone. You could write an entire review (which I probably will) moreso on the type of humor in the film, than the actual film content itself. Well, here, I'll try anyway. Belushi is a confident, expertly trained CIA agent who knows all the right moves. Ritter is a look-a-like of a dead agent who the CIA needs to help deliver a message to aliens (see, here we go). Belushi pseudo-kidnapps Ritter to go along with the mission, which is where the laughs really began for me. Ritter's angry resistance is so hilarious and Belushi's sauveness is extremely catchy. The film then turns into a road movie with Ritter going through a transformation from the wuss to a more confidant guy. The fever pitch of the film is the much mentioned clown fight with a classic line from Belushi of "No hittin' in the n*ts, allright?", then BANG, he delivers a foot to a clowns groin. Belushi starts to go a little soft toward the end and it's up to Ritter to (you ready for another one) deliver a glass of water to an alien-human in exchange for the secret to a better earth. Now, in just those few examples you can tell if you'd be in for the whole ride or not. As it is, it's only 85 minutes and was released to (if it was lucky) a hundred theaters. I didn't even mention Belushi swinging from a balcony by his shoelace(!) or the moment he feels up his FATHER. Something must be said as well for the music, which is itself, too, funny-stupid, an oddball mix of southern violin work and Italian mob music. The tone is set early so you are at least prepared for what you're in for. An absolutely dopey, silly comedy that may just hit you the right way.

This was one of those movies that was silly enough to expect anything, but just normal enough to be unsure of what to expect.

Bob Wilson (John Ritter) is a perfectly normal guy. He has the fortune (or misfortune) of looking exactly like agent Pillbox who was killed. Agent Pillbox was in charge of making a critical exchange with some aliens (yes, I said some aliens). Being that the aliens would only accept Pillbox for their exchange the CIA hustled Bob into being the guy. Agent Nick Pirandello (James Belushi) was the special agent in charge of acquiring and protecting Bob as they made a cross country journey to Washington D.C. to make the all important trade.

The movie is funny at times, dull at other times, and you can't ignore the fact that the plot is on the bizarre side. Could I be spending my time doing something better? Yes. Was this movie entertaining enough to fill 90 minutes of empty time? Yes.