Middle Men

This one was given the Distributor Bum's Rush by whoever makes those kind of decisions, but it deserves better. Every Character on Screen is really unlikable and not even that interesting. However, they are welcome Screen Sleaze, Criminals, Low-Lifes, Pornographers, and the best of the lot, a delusional "Middle Man" Fixer type that fancies Himself some sort of Hands-Off, Masturbatory outlet.

Internet Ticket Taker/Porn Provider is what He becomes, all the while telling Himself, and the Viewer in an ongoing Voice-over, that He is an innocent Family Man of the Norman Rockwell persuasion. Talk about denial. This has an extremely derivative Movie Style that never makes any attempt to hide its Homage/Theft. Starting out as a Whacked Comedy it slowly moves to Neo-Noir territory and is better for it.

The Crime Story mixed with Dark Comedy works the best and the Wild Slapstick and over Acting from the two Central Figures gets unwelcome every time they show up and show off. The Movie looks great and is mostly effective, but sometimes becomes disjointed with a lot of Subplots and a whole lot of Characters sliding in and out.

Overall, not bad and worth a view if nothing New.

In "Middle Men", Luke Wilson is a man caught in the middle between legitimate businesses and pornography. Both he and the film are caught somewhere between a documentary and a porno. With an interesting enough story about the beginnings of internet commerce, the film probably gets enough facts right to be able to say, "based on a true story".

Giovanni Ribisi and Gabriel Macht humorously play two drugged out "geniuses" with lots of ideas but no sense. When they create internet commerce and apply it to pornography they need straight man Jack Harris (Wilson) to turn it into a legit business. But before long they get him caught up in a world of money, drugs and porn stars, and then everybody needs help climbing out of that. Even the film. It loses some of its structure as we meet Russian mobsters, beautiful women and more money than you can even keep track of.

"Middle Men" is particularly well acted and interesting enough especially about a recent historical story that isn't very well known, that it can mostly be forgiven for its poor structure and confusion of genres. In between the documentary and pornography, we have comedy, crime and drama, and most other genres you can name.

I was skeptical about this film. I know it says it got a theatrical release, but it must've been on only a couple screens.

If you are thinking about watching this movie, do it. It's wonderful. I gave it 8 out of 10. There was a little too much Voice Over narration, but this was a great story, well acted and well directed. Luke Wilson's never been a great thespian, but here, he's very good. Giovanni Ribisi overacts, but here it works. Gabriel Macht, who I have never liked was great. And Laura Ramsey was gorgeous and great. I could have done without Jacinda Barrett, but hey, that might just be me.

In a day and age where crap gets 3000 screens (I'm talking to you Season of the witch, drive angry, hall pass, the roommate), it's a shame this was not released wide and could not find an audience.

To the filmmakers... very well done. To the distributer: you could have done better.

A true story about the men who came up with the idea to sell adult entertainment off the internet. After two slackers (Ribisi & Gabriel Macht) make over a million dollars in two months by coming up with a program to make money off of internet porn the Russian mob wants their cut. They become partners with Jack Harris (Wilson) who takes their business in to a legit area and makes them more money then they dreamed of. This movie really surprised me in the fact that I was expecting a straight comedy. While this movie had its really funny moments its also dramatic throughout. An amazing cast helps tell the story of someone other then Mark Zuckerberg getting rich off the internet. The events that happen in the movie made me wonder why I've never heard of this guy before. Overall this was a very enjoyable movie and I highly recommend it. I give it a B+.

Would I watch again? - Yes, I definitely would

I've always been a fan of Luke Wilson, and have preferred his work over Owen's. Middle Men is not your typical Luke Wilson comedy, It's much rather a cross between a Guy Ritchie and Martin Scorsese movie. That's not a bad thing by any means. What Middle Men will do is keep you entertained and engaged from beginning to end. Whether it's Wayne & Buck arguing back and forth, or Jack's ability or lack thereof,of balancing his family life and business.

The cast is pretty impressive with James Caan and Kevin Pollack also lending their talents. Everyone played their part well especially Giovanni Ribisi's performance as the coke'd up "Wayne Beering". His mannerism's and habit's were entertaining.

Overall I loved this film for what it was, a dark comedy centred around the internet porn industry. The soundtrack is great, which i might add is very "Scorsese esque". Loved the use of 2 Pac's California Love =) It's an intelligent film full of dark humour about pornography. My only gripes with Middle Men would be the pacing of the story, i feel if they had a longer runtime it would have flowed through effortlessly. They are minor issues though, they balanced the comedy well with the crime elements of the plot. It should be said that "Middle Men" is very underrated, and I would recommend it to fan's of dark humour and pornography, which after watching this movie, is every male living on the planet. Check it out, you won't regret it.