Mr. Smith Gets a Hustler

Much better than the title would suggest, but not as good as it could have been. I had low expectations, so I pleasantly found the film much more engrossing than I expected. OK production quality, generally quite good acting. My main complaint is they seemed to wrap things up to quickly at the end, as if they were running out of budget or film. But, good plot twists; keeps you wondering were the plot is going. At first I thought it was going to be a "gay Pretty Woman" - the client falls in love with the (male) hooker and rescues him from his low life surroundings. Then another plot twist; no love story, but the client will still rescue the hooker. In the end, it's the hooker who rises above his surroundings by himself.

This is truly inferior merchandise. One wonders how something this awful remains in the distribution channel even now. Surely it was just as evident during production that this little puppy was a sure-fire bomb. Maybe it was backed by some really dumb money, because who ever was financing it should have stopped mid production to drown this this little mutation for the disaster it was (and saved a couple acting careers and many hours of movie goer's time.) A complete waste of production time, talent and money under any circumstance.

One wonders if this writer is still working? How? I also wonder if anyone would dare to put this train-wreck of a film on their Hollywood resume?; I doubt it. Saying you had anything to do with this film would be a sure ticket to never working in film town again.

You can't help but agree with other reviewer's comments about the dialog: absolutely atrocious. Even more offensive was the acting and line delivery of Benjamin Hendrickson (the bar owner / pimp Mr. Lett): horrible. And yes, the writer could clearly have done more homework on his subject matter; could the bar scenes have been more unbelievable?

If there were a way to give a film a negative star rating on the IMDb rating system, this one would get the lowest rating. As it is, zero stars is too good. Save your time and money and pass this one by. As the movie police says after you stumble onto the scene of a particularly gruesome murder - "Nothing here to see folks, move along."

Bobby Blue is a NYC hustler who supports his dysfunctional mother with his earnings. Their fiction is that he's working at a restaurant and making great tips. When Bobby Blue meets a new john who isn't interested in sex and takes him to a basketball game, Bobby doesn't know what to think.

This not-so-well-made film suffers from all of the typical indie woes. Some of the problems may have been budgetary but others seem to just be bad story telling.

It may have been the theater I saw this in, or that we were seeing a video of a film print, but the color in the film seemed to be way off and many parts of the movie were terribly overexposed.

Scenes that took place in a bar in the meatpacking district seemed very off. The only customers in the bar were the principals, Couldn't they get any extras to appear as other customers?

Also, having lived in NYC for the last 20 years and having met a few boys that have made their living this way I felt that the film-maker could have done his homework better. The relationship between Bobby and his `pimp' seemed very unrealistic (at least different from any that I had heard of). Also the going rates in the film seem to be way off. From what I hear, $600 will buy you a LOT more than what these boys were offering from boys that are way more attractive. Also the few hustler bars that I've actually been into would never charge $20 a beer.

Overall, I'd have to give this film a miss.

The title of this DVD made me laugh, and when I laughed I decided to take a chance. Fortunately, playing Russian Roulette with DVDs isn't as dangerous as playing it with guns, because if it were MR. SMITH GETS A HUSTLER would have killed me dead.

MR. SMITH is apparently based on a way-off-Broadway play by writer Matt Swan, who appears to have survived the opening night audience at least long enough to adapt his play into an incredible barrel of tripe for the screen. A handsome young male prostitute named Bobby (Alex Feldman) supports his single mother's alcoholism by working for a semi-evil pimp out of the most boring looking bar you can imagine--and he meets an older and distinguished looking man named "Mr. Smith" (Larry Pine.) Pretty soon the two are up in Mr. Smith's hotel room, but much to Bobby's surprise the client doesn't want do anything but talk about how Bobby's such a nice kid. Gee! What's going on?

Well, I'll tell you what's going on: a total waste of your time. The two leads aren't bad, really. Larry Pine seems to be a somewhat talented actor, and Alex Feldman is at least passable. But... the rest of the cast ranges from dismissible to flatly inept. Swan's script is atrocious, Joe Labisi's idea of cinematography is wannabe-arty angles that were passe fifty years ago, and Ian McCrudden's direction consists of putting the actors in front of the camera and hoping for the best.

One of the selling points of the film is its apparent status as erotic. Do not be mislead, however, on this point. Alex Feldman does indeed trot around with his shirt off and--at times--his pants slipping down. In other hands it might have been titilating, but here it isn't any more erotic than soggy breakfast cereal.

Frankly, if I had been involved in this movie, I wouldn't admit it, much less put it on my resume. Don't give up your day jobs, people. Dire to the nth degree!

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Saw this movie completely by accident. Didn't know any of the actors involved but was prepared for the worst but was genuinely surprised. The movie was good overall and had a likable character in Bobby-the lead character.

Most movies that deal with this topic have characters that come off as homophobic straight boys or stereotypically gay, but the character of Bobby is different and this credit goes in part to the young actor and the director/script for giving him a likable disposition and circumstances that traps him into the lifestyle.

Props goes out to the supporting cast who did a great job showing that no one is either pure innocent or pure evil when you're dealing with prostitution and the resulting lifestyle.

The end song, "Wings on my ankles" is even catchy.

Definitely worth a look if the topic ever interested you.