Blowing Smoke

I wish IMDb would let me put a score lower than 1. I can't disagree more with the other comments; I'm sorry but this movie was terrible.

First off, the clearly defined personalities and stereotypes of each of the cigar-smoking poker players was too much of a cut and dry character outline. The pretty boy actor who was shallow, the suave token black guy who dressed like a pimp, the overweight middle aged club owner (who was already cheating on his wife), the effeminate guy who reminded me of the pretentious Crane brothers from the TV show "Frasier", the bitter old guy who had clearly been burned by a woman, and the filmmaker who reminded me a lot of the weirdo kid from "American Beauty".

They're sitting around playing poker with thousands of dollars on the table (yet the shallow actor hasn't gotten any work in years?) smoking their cigars as a friend makes a documentary for PBS about what guys say when girls aren't around. There's my second problem: no one cares what guys talk about except other guys, and frankly we know what we say... because we're already there saying it!! Enter the damsel in distress, who had apparently been beaten by her boyfriend and had a shotgun held to her face. Naturally this prompts every guy in the room (except the bitter old burn victim) to try to get her into bed with promises of show business opportunities, or other loads of obvious crap and lies. 99% of the guys I know are NOT like this, nor would they trash 6 of their best friendships simultaneously just for one night with a girl.

The acting skills (or lack thereof) and the damsel's appearance led me to believe I might be watching a soft-core late-night adult movie, and I sincerely hoped I wouldn't be forced to endure any love scenes, considering the male portion of the cast. Thankfully the film never went in that direction.

There's a plot twist along the way (you can easily see it coming) that made me wonder what the purpose of the movie was up to that point. I changed the channel with about 20 minutes left to go because I needed to salvage just a little piece of my life and spend it doing something more productive like sleeping, so I'm not even sure how it ended. In all honesty, I can comfortably live my life never knowing what happened. It was just terrible all the way through.

Just because it's an independent film that uses cigars as a metaphor for sex doesn't mean it's any good. It's unrealistic, poorly scripted, horribly predictable, and loses several points for the obvious product placement of an iMac.

I saw "Blowing Smoke" in Los Angeles and had some good laughs - it's a dark comedy that moves along quickly and dives irreverently into the battle between the sexes - there are some very funny situations during a late night poker game among these "cigars buddies" - when a sexy girl in distress seeks shelter from her crazy boyfriend at their poker game - they take her in and vow to protect her - each one tries to impress her with his money and connections to get into her pants - it becomes a competition among the "cigar buddies" and gets a little out of control when they start backstabbing each other to be with her - her boyfriend shows up and it gets further out of control.

The premier for this movie was exceptional; you did not need to be a cigar fan (Although I am) to appreciate the combination of fast paced music to set the seen and the influence of the guy's only setting. Teasing you with the flirting of the female side of life only made you want to be one of those guys!

Calling this movie the "Sideways" of cigars is not to far off and I could see some parallel showing similar industry results. The group of actors made it real, this will get people to connect to the movie. I look forward to seeing this movie again and again; it is one for the collection. Anyone who has any sort of life for himself or herself will relate to "Blowing Smoke" at some level. Others need not apply!

I finally got the opportunity to see this movie and was pleasantly surprised by the turn of events. As a woman, I was finally prepared to be shocked and horrified by the promised misogynistic tone of the six male characters and what they had to say. Instead, I was completely entertained by the playful banter of these characters who, as it turns out, have a bark much louder than their bite. Without giving away the ending (which completely took me off guard!) the misogynistic tone quickly turns into a heated competition for the attentions of...what else? A hot woman!

The dialog is witty and at times laugh out loud funny and the pacing is just fast enough to keep the plot moving forward but not too fast that any of the meaningful tete-a-tetes are lost in translation. All in all, I give the movie an enthusiastic "thumbs up".

Good characters and very close to a real mens club, cigar club. However at the precise moment that punk shot at that weak door he was have felt as if he was in front of a Russian firing squad if he tried this our club. Many poker games / clubs like this surely have been robbed over the years, but not going to happen at our club, it wouldn't be a cigar box the boyfriend and that tramp would need it would be 2 pine boxes. Decent movie at best, you can identify with it more if you have been to a place like this before. Might be fun to watch with your cigar buddies and talk about women and how they ruin our lives, or try to.So get a good cigar a glass of single malt, or some good whiskey and play some poker and give this movie a look. Then watch Rounders.