Cavemen

'CAVEMEN': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Sex comedy flick about a group of mostly unemployed bachelors, living happily together in an LA warehouse, when one decides he wants to give up his sex filled carefree life in order to pursue love. It was written and directed by first time filmmaker Herschel Faber and stars Skylar Astin, Camilla Belle, Chad Michael Murray, Alexis Knapp, Dayo Okeniyi and Kenny Wormald. The cast is full of a lot of recognizable faces, with little name value though; Astin costarred in 'PITCH PERFECT' and '21 & OVER', Murray had major roles on the TV show 'ONE TREE HILL' and in the horror remake 'HOUSE OF WAX', Belle has appeared in indie movies like 'THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE' and big budget bombs like '10,000 BC' and 'PUSH', Okeniyi was in 'THE HUNGER GAMES' and 'THE SPECTACULAR NOW', Wormald starred in the 'FOOTLOOSE' remake and Knapp also appeared in 'PITCH PERFECT' as well as 'PROJECT X'. There's definitely a lot of up-and-coming young actors (with pretty faces) but the movie still goes nowhere.

Astin stars as Dean, a bartender who's struggling to become a film writer. He lives in a warehouse, turned into a bachelor pad, with his jobless buddies: Jay (Murray), Andre (Okeniyi) and Pete (Wormald). Pete is the only one of the group with a girlfriend, Beth (Amanda Jane Cooper), but they're constantly breaking up. Dean is trying to write a screenplay about love so he's recently became fascinated with the idea of it (for himself). He constantly asks advice from his best friend, and coworker, Tess (Belle); who he also has feeling for. His idea of looking for love of course does not go over well with any of his guy friends.

For a low budget sex comedy film, that I had never heard of before, I was surprised by it's production values. The directing isn't bad and it has a pretty good soundtrack (there's also a couple nice tit shots as well). The acting isn't bad either and most of the cast makes likable characters (at least somewhat). There's just not much to the story, or the film. It feels like something you've seen dozens of times before and you'll never remember anything about it (once you've seen a few more movies just like it). With that said some of the film is funny, thanks largely to Astin (and some of the other actors), and it's definitely not a cringeworthy or painful film going experience. You might have a good enough time, for the 87 minutes it takes to watch it, but don't expect anything more than that.

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Yes, this movie is predictable and cliché. We all know what's going to happen by the end of the movie so we tend to disregard films like this. However, Cavemen was funny, sweet, easy and realistic. You had your typical boy-next-door looking for love, the player, the boy who was already in relationship but was being influenced to be single and the guy who was in love but not ready to commit. Camilla Belle plays a likable female character, which is refreshing to see since most in romantic comedies are dumb or too uninterested in romance. Is it the best film ever? No, but it's a good one to watch when you have the time.

One of the rare films where I fully agree with the IMDb rating. It's not crap, but it definitely is a waste of time. Nothing really stands out in either positive or negative terms. One of the countless similar mediocre love stories with attempts of humor.

5/10

Let's list the things we know. Things for which we have empirical evidence. 1. Your romantic comedy or your bromantic comedy will not succeed if Skyler Astin is your main male love interest. ( See 21 & Over, and Pitch Perfect( I didn't like it as much as everyone else))

2. Being able to stand in front of a camera and look good doesn't make for good acting. (Chad Michael Murray). I will say that Camilla Belle does give it the "ol' college try" ( she is stunning).

3. If you're going to do a plot that's been done a hundred times, (especially recently with the rise of the Bromantic Comedy in film) you have to at least try something different that will capture the attention of the movie goer!

4. Only in the movies can an average looking guy working in a dive bar bang hot chicks enough to grow weary of it. (Where do they come up with these characters?)

This plot has been done enough for the whole thing to have become one big cliché'. Its' actors and actresses do not entice you to invest in their characters. The plot points are cheesy and predictable. And you are not given any reason to believe in the love of the two principle characters. At one point near the end of the movie, Jason Patric ( really, what is he doing in this movie? He was in Speed 2 for God's sake!) Throws a script at the main character Dean (Skylar Astin) and ask him to show him where the to leads fall in love.... He can't do it. How fitting it is that that script turns out to be this movie in some lame attempt to be Meta. I have to go because every minute I write about this movie, my rating drops. See it if you dare.... you'll hate yourself in the morning though.

The only reason we gave this film a 2 is because we laughed once during the film. This review sucks, but it is still 10x better than the film. This film was a combination of every other stereotypical romantic comedy, filled with clichés and empty/unoriginal characters. There was not one thing in the film that was unpredictable. Please, give me my 85 minutes of time back. I could have been watching 3 episodes of the Walking Dead instead. Yes... the Walking Dead. I don't have anything else to say about this film, however, I am required to provide 10 lines of text for this review. So, I will just say that the only somewhat pleasant thing in this movie, was Chad. Go Chad.