User reviews

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.

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

'Middle Men' is not entirely true yet a fantasy created combining true events. As a viewer I have no idea which is really true and which is fiction but one thing true is that it's never boring.

Buck and Wayne are two genius guys who actually don't know that they are about to become millionaires by creating world's first porn site which requires a membership payment to access. They seem to be having everything but lacking some important aspects like living sober and teamwork. Though they come up with this great idea they practically manages to screw everything up within months by not knowing decent business ethics and keeping up the promises to the partners. This is where Jack Harris comes in who is a legit business man and a problem solver who turns the already million dollar porn business in to new heights by creating a middle party online billing concept. These 3 people who ultimately become victims of their own success, and digs deep in to unknown territory getting involved with very dangerous people.

The story telling is quite catchy in 'Middle Men'. It's fast phased and cannot be backtracked if you miss a line yet gives mood to the whole plot. It starts from the end and finishes from the end. The middle is the beginning! Buck and Wayne played by Gabriel Macht and Giovanni Ribisi respectively are two unique characters. They practically create the cash and demolish everything skillfully. Jack on the other hand played by Luke Wilson is an intelligent businessman who stops at nothing when he wants to achieve something. The whole plot is a struggle between these 3 people who just fails to find common ground even though they keep on earning millions of money by doing the same thing.

There is a kind of rush throughout the movie. This is created strongly using sex and money hand in hand with crime and desire. You will feel like each of these people are time bombs which is about to blow up eventually. Yet they exist like they will live forever. Except Jack who does a very smart move by creating an opportunity of out a grave danger.

A good load of entertainment and some background info on how internet porn and billing has come to light from 80s. It's never good to forget the history coz the future is shapes upon it!

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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.

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.

Aah! It had been a long time since i watched a movie like this one. I heard the name of the film somewhere and i checked it out on IMDb. I felt the plot damn interesting. Its about the guys who started the first pornography web site and the consequences they faced after it. I loved the plot and i downloaded the movie right away.

This movie is something like "The Social Network". I am not comparing it with TSN, i was just telling that this film belongs to that type. It was totally interesting. This movie started off great and it never lost its pace from the beginning to the end. The narration was brilliant. The dialogues were just awesome. All the actors did a great job. I say this is one of the finest films i watched recently.

This is a great film. I had a great time watching it. This film is not for everyone but still, it is worth giving it a try.

I agree with the critics who say Gallo (director) borrowed heavily from Scorcese, and I might even add the background music choices seemed to be "Scorcesian". However, if you can get past that, you might find the movie fairly entertaining and at times hilarious, thanks to some quite original plot twists and turns. Wilson, Ribisi, Cain, Sherbedgia and the rest of the crew were well cast. It's sad that there's total dross that reaps tens of millions of dollars at the box office, while something that's far from a stinker such as this earned a pitiful $700,000, but perhaps the R rating had something to do with it. There actually is not a lot of nudity or sex in the movie, except for a fair bit of amusing talk and suggestive scenes about male masturbation, which is there to poke fun at the porn industry.

Middle Men is a film that many should watch and understand how the possibility of purchasing products online was created. This film offered an extremely entertaining perspective on Internet porn and offered a thrilling ride of crime fighting and hustling.  Luke Wilson who plays a level headed character finds himself in all sorts of messes and throughout this film can you really understand how a normal guy could get caught up in a crazy world.  Luke is perfect for this role and really shines with Giovanni Ribisi and Gabriel Macht.  These three guys together blew me away.  I found myself watching this film laughing, feeling exhilarated, and intrigued to learn about another world I had no idea about (Internet Porn).   It's interesting to hear what really happens in this kind of world and how people can overcome obstacles.  Especially, when their family is on the line.

I would highly recommend this film to anyone looking to watch a tantalizing and action packed crime movie.  I will definitely buy this movie when it comes out on DVD.

I didn't really know what I was getting into when I decided to watch Middle Men. It turned out it was a bittersweet experience of a story that could've really been better, with a leading man that portrays a mesmerizing central figure and holds this loose tale together.

This crime/drama/comedy deals with the beginnings of the internet porn business, a subject of some interest as are most things innovative. Basically, two wild cards have this great idea and they need a man to run it for them in a mix with Russian flavor, crooked lawyers and national sympathy. Luke Wilson portrays the honorable "middle man" Jack Harris, whose inner conflict is really the main attraction here. It may not be something fundamentally new, this rift between morality and anything morally debatable like porn, nor the character type, but in a world that has lost all balance, Jack Harris is the sober rock that it revolves around. Yet, the glamor is not being denied, the things that drive you one way or the other, and thanks to Luke Wilson's performance it gives you something to hold on to.

Unfortunately, the film is mostly flimsy otherwise, despite the considerable (and generally underused) talents of Giovanni Ribisi being added to familiar faces such as James Caan, Kevin Pollack, Terry Crews and Rade Serbedzija. A quite genuine example of typecasting, now that I think of it. I'm sure a more experienced director (not only age-wise) would've lent a much firmer, grittier feeling to the movie, which is too explanatory when it need not be and too safe when it should go all out. Somehow it reminded me of Herzog's remake of The Bad Lieutenant, in the sense that that film went overboard in ludicrous ways, but knowing its condition helped it attain a consistent degree of entertainment.

So I come to conclude that Middle Men does not quite know what it wants to be and that's a drawback. However, there are still some good moments in the film that complement Luke Wilson's performance, even beyond the subject at hand. Overall, it's just enjoyable enough for me to recommend it, for whatever that's worth.

...it's a billing service That's what our Main Middleman keeps telling himself. But, of course it is porn, billions of dollars worth. Fast-paced, with a rogue's gallery of out-there characters, particularly Rabisi, of course, in his element, I love how everyone keeps turning on each other, then realigning, then turning again, it never stops! Based on Real Life! Better than fiction, a real fun ride

Differentiates a good movie from being great is the execution. This movie features a good storyline, some good actors, good acting, good screenplay and good direction with a decent ending but still there is something missing which could have made this movie a great movie, a good dark comedy movie that could have been great.

This is a very good film, well-directed, acted, and has excellent production values. The script is crisp and highly entertaining. And although there were one or two misfires at the attempt at Coen Brothers comedy, most of the scenes were great. Only one character problem; the best friend of the protagonist. I might buy this guy as his friend, or college friend, but neighborhood friend? Best friend in High School? They seem completely unsuited personality-wise for each other. Another person might bring up the unlikelihood of racially diverse people being best friends as well, but I don't think that would be it. They just have totally diverse personalities. One is an in-your-face macho type, and the other is a negotiator. These types of people seldom become friends, much less best friends. But enough on that one shortcoming. The story is great, as is the dialogue and direction. The film is fast-paced and, for me, believable. I just cannot understand why such a good film like this lost 20 mil and made less than 1 mil at the box. There are so many crappy films out there making money they do not deserve, and this film bombs? EIther the American movie viewing public is the dumbest group in the world (a distinct possibility), or the distributors really botched this one. It was probably the latter.

I don't watch many movies, maybe ten new ones a year for the last fifteen years, and this one is, in my humble opinion, is among the top three I have seen in all that time. I am amazed, that this movie has not been more popular. In fact Before seeing the ad for it on Netflix I had never even heard of it! The only reason I saw it was because every time I went to Netfilx it was being offered in the "Watch Instantly" section and the artwork for the movie had caught my eye several times. The acting is SUPERB. The story moves along at a perfect pace, it doesn't bog down the viewer with unimportant minutia like a lot of movies do yet it's easy to follow for a movie that has a lot of story to tell (about ten years worth!) in a short amount of space. There were no gratuitous violence or sex, in fact the brief amounts of both are vital to the plot. There isn't even a lot of cuss words! Not near as much as your average R rated flick today. I truly believe this movie will garner its proper respect and find it's place among such greats as "Boogie Nights" and "The Big Lebowski". I have six words of advice for anyone contemplating viewing this flick: See it, see IT, SEE IT!! You will not regret it.

'Middle Men' is a tale as old as time where a man loses himself to big success and the excess it brings. As a red blooded hetero male, I can't feign ignorance to online porn at the dawn of the internet. Nor the third party billing companies smack dab in the middle. While this did trace predictable territory, I can't deny entertaining pieces, a good cast and real truths make it worth a watch.

Jack Harris (Luke Wilson) has a knack for fixing problems, businesses. What starts out as a favor to get a struggling nightclub back on it's feet has him meet shady lawyer Jerry Haggerty (James Caan). He's got two headcases, Buck & Wayne (Gabriel Macht, Giovanni Ribisi) who've found success making money with online porn in the early 90's. Problem is they took a Russian mobster Nikita Sokoloff (Rade Sherbedgia) on as partner. Brokering deals, making peace finds Jack in a very profitable online payment company. The gateway between content creators and the public where the money rolls in. However as Jack battles not only the crazy slash dangerous people around him, he finds himself won over by fantasy where things are reaching the point of no return.

First and foremost the glue at work here is Wilson. He has the unsung ability to play straight men that are easy to like and/or identity with. Sure as the tale traverses a path of porn, alcohol / drugs and egos with a touch of murder - he isn't above making mistakes. As a guy who starts out as a decent married family man, one particular move of his (hint he's not using his big brain) is careless. Yet he remains likable if not flawed in a whirlwind of suspect people.

Bit parts almost cameos for Robert Forster, John Ashton and Kelsey Grammar. Kevin Pollak as a senior FBI Agent, Terry Crews as a fellow business partner slash best friend round out a cast of faces. No shock however that the flick belongs to Wilson, the funny / stupid antics of Macht & Ribisi and scene stealer James Caan who has an honest ability playing scumbags. Though Laura Ramsey has to be commended for a real taste of what a damaged pornstar looks like when the mask slips.

I enjoyed my viewing of 'Middle Men' back when it originally came out and that sentiment remains true today. I don't put a lot of stock in the "inspired by a true story" and the filmmakers themselves admit in a end title card most if not all has been fictionalized. Still a game cast brings home another fun reality / fantasy parable and it never bogs down or becomes boring due to all the seamy elements. That's really all you can ask for in a pic like this.

This was a really enjoyable movie.

The acting was great across the board, particularly Wilson, the pace of the movie was good and it looks good.

The real key to this movie was a great balance between a really interesting story and fascinating characters. You want to see how it is all going to play out.

As I have mentioned in a few reviews this is another movie I would like to see "Scorsese-d'. Ramp up the drama, push the sex and violence and add another hour to the running time to really get in deep with the movie.

This was a fun watch :)

What a great surprise this was, don't know how this slipped by me when it was released.

Quick Side Note: I'm surprised Giovanni Ribisi isn't in more things. He's a solid actor.

This movie checks off all the boxes of what a good film should have. Really surprised that this isn't talked about more.

Felt like this movie was inspired by Casino. It had all the same elements and was presented in pretty much the same manner. Only difference is that Casino dealt with mafia stuff and this dealt with the internet boom. (Well this had a mafia element as well.) The similarities are uncanny.

The story flows nicely with no drag and kept you engaged. Luke Wilson isn't what I would call a good actor (unless Wes Anderson is directing him), but he is decent in this. His narration was really good. This movie has a few laughable and oh crap moments. You'll definitely be entertained.

The movie shows what it was like for a credit card billing company in the early days of the internet. An idea so simple that I'm surprised no one had thought of it until that point.

They faced a few obstacles at first and were expanding too fast. They got help from the Russian mob and you can kind of guess how it all went down.

This movie shows that you need to be careful who you do business with. Also, it matters how you conduct business.

This is what you would classify as a popcorn movie. Just sit back, relax and enjoy. I would recommend it to anyone looking to kill some time after a long week at work.

This gets a LennyReviewz Score of: 6/10.

A movie about family values, about vices and how people succumb to them, a movie about money and power and the fact that there's never "enough".

A beautifully crafted piece of work that keeps you in pretty much throughout. Performance is great from Luke Wilson and the story goes seamless.

One little, probably needless, piece of action that I didn't quite understand why it was there, is the confusion at the end with Russian mafia taking the wrong "thing", but it's probably just me and it's not that bad anyway.

Definitely deserves more than the actual 6.7 it's got. Also recommend "Limitless" and "Fracture".

This movie sort of reminded me of the film "The Social Network" except with porn and not as a polished, sharp and well written script and dialogue. But on the bright side this film has many elements that young adults like watching in movies. The direction just isn't that polished and not believable but quirky at times. The plot is based on a true story about the pioneers of internet commerce so that people would pay with their credit card to watch porn on the internet. And the struggles that comes with it and I mean ridiculous struggles. Some wacky and not very believable struggles. But they basically became rich by coming up with the idea to bill them with credit cards from other people through the internet. Watching the lifestyle of these pioneers in the porno industry after there success about 50 minutes into the movie was sort of fun to watch, but after a while the movie just seem to run out of steam. And not just reaching the top and ending, which is fine if pulled off right. Rade Šerbedžija stood out the most in this movie who played the mobster, but not because of his performance but because he looks like Einstein. The movie has it's entertaining moments but it tries to be something it's not and felt like it's copying other gangster films. Most of the characters in this film was also irritating and annoying to watch intentional or not, especially the narrator's wife. I thought this movie might have potential since it's about something that maybe more interesting to watch than about the social network, but it just isn't crafted all that well. So it isn't really a shock that although this movie had a budget of 20 million but grossed less than a million. While "The Social Network" made over 5 times it's budget. This ain't a terrible movie but it just isn't a great one, in fact the trailer is better than this movie itself.

6.3/10

Great watch, would watch again, and can recommend (if your not offended by the adult video industry).

It's oddly not explicit about the AV industry, but it's more about business and dealing with the mob.

There is a mix of genres, a little bit of everything without losing too much quality or reality. Even being dated doesn't seem to affect the movie's quality. The heart of the movie is the comedic writing for these serious situations in a very Like Wilson type of fashion.

Its a great watch in chaotic story telling and a nice balance of multiple storylines.

I should say that it is a dramatization due to the story is told to be 'inspired by true events'. But then again, despite whether the accuracy of said dramatization tallies the real life events or not, I still say it is a strong one for a film and a greatly executed in the movie. As a drama-comedy, the story can also build quite a strong suspense mood here and there, particularly at the later parts. All the important technicalities add up nicely, including the acting by the three bigger names of Luke Wilson, James Caan and especially Giovanni Ribisi. Also there is the nice touch of having Terry Crews in a character that's suitable for him, even for a shorter in-frame duration. For me the movie is a nice watch, despite the unhealthy grand theme of the adult entertainment world exposure.

I ordered Middle Men because I like Luke Wilson. I was expecting nothing more than a 7-7.5.

This movie definitely surpassed my expectations and is better than 90% of the movies provided by Comcast Cable.

Comcast literally shows the same movies over and over and over to the point where it is downright insulting to me as a human being. I cannot for the life of me understand why? I have never been happier since I gave Netflix a try again, not the streaming kind, the one where you can pretty much order any movie that exists through the mail. It was the best decision I have made in years.

Middle Men is just another example of a great movie I had never heard of because it wasn't showing in the theaters or on cable but one I should have known about. It's near flawless, maybe a tad corny at times for a movie that ultimately takes itself seriously in the end. But nevertheless, it's extremely entertaining from start to finish. It gets a ten compared to most movies that only the casual viewer has the opportunity to see assuming they are limited to only movie theaters and cable.

I definitely give myself a pat on the back for discovering this one on my own. I will make the leap and call it a classic. Even James Caan has a pretty significant role in it, giving it the push it needed to go from good to elite. And the Ramsey girl is eye candy for sure

Check it out

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You know when you find a really, really awesome beer, the kind that you can taste and then drink and have the after-taste that is just succulent and wonderful and all around is at least never disappointing every time you drink it? That's Martin Scorsese with his crime films, specifically GoodFellas and Casino. I mention this in part since comparing Scorsese to beer is fun, but also because of the critics who have compared Middle Men, George Gallo's latest, to those films (Boogie Nights also comes up due to the porn connection, but Scorsese, who influenced Gallo to become a director with Mean Streets, is a better one to note for some reasons). So just to start off, what Scorsese's crime films, loaded with their incredibly smart storytelling and character development, their uniquely artistic style and the sweet taste in music and narration, is a very fine brand... Middle Men is Coors Light.

It's the tale of the start of porn on the internet, the knuckleheads who got together and made it happen just by proxy of wanting to get naked women on-line and get paid for it, and the 'normal' guy, the average Joe, who made it happen as a legitimate enterprise. It's told like the tale of a saga of crime, a "rise n fall" story akin to Casino (the glamor, the intoxication of power and the corruption of violence and money and sex and drugs and so on), but far from it exactly. We get the eccentric and outrageous characters, the "raw" language, the rough bad- guys, the good people sort of left by the wayside, and the corruption.

But really, what sets apart Middle Men from anything remotely Scorsese is simply this: it's a knock-off. And that, from the looks of the director/co-writer's career, George Gallo, he's not exactly been the "artist" that someone of Scorsese or PT Anderson's caliber, ever really. It so desperately tries, and what Gallo does is take what is a very interesting idea for a story, of the business side of porn on the internet, and only makes it intermittently interesting in the way it's about it. For example, more than halfway into the film we see the FBI is following Luke Wilson's character, and he gets panicked, until he finds out why they're following him: his porn-star "girlfriend", Audrey Dawns, is a HUGE star with the terrorists overseas, and she becomes an asset to them. This is an awesome plot point that, in the grand scheme of things, is just meant as a joke instead of something meatier or more worthwhile.

Gallo does get one thing right, somewhat, which is in casting (some) of the parts. When Luke Wilson is given something good to do in a scene, he can really go with it, and I liked seeing him in a lead role again... to an extent. Giovanni Ribisi and Gabriel Macht have some fun with their sleazy-cum-genius characters who invent this enterprise and squander it as low-rent would-be criminals paranoid on coke. James Caan is... James Caan, not too much else there. Terry Crews is sadly underused, as someone who needs to get juicier roles. Kevin Pollock and Kelsey Grammar get some decent walk-ons.

Ultimately, it's not even the direction, at least not that much, that gets the film down, though there is an over-reliance on a soundtrack that intermittently works for the story and the rest of the time is flash in the pan. It's the screenplay. It's specifically the narration. Who was Gallo kidding with this stuff? Wilson's Jack Harris keeps talking not in a voice that reveals something about his character or attitude, no, he just keeps going around talking about what will happen or how he feels, simple s*** that would get him nailed to wall, eviscerated, in a freshman screen writing class much less a Hollywood movie. It was painful to hear this stuff, and not even always cause Wilson spoke it badly, just that it intrudes on scenes that are already conventional enough with the dialog. This narration sunk the film down to a level of amateurishness when it should have been able to stick with its images, its characters speaking for themselves, the story going without having to double-back. It ultimately is insulting to the audience that it's marketed to.

A shame, since there is good stuff here. Middle Men strives to be some kind of new classic in the mold of a Scorsese crime epic about appealing low-lifes, but the passion and raw energy is lacking, for one, and a general sense of excitement is missing on the other. Even scenes that *should* raise hairs do little but rouse a little interest (save for Terry Crews or Ribisi since they go over the top), and it rolls along to its next predictable moment. It's a mediocre turn at an interesting idea.