Local, Movie Reviews

The Amateurs

Posted: March 10, 2008 at 9:07 am   /   by   /   comments (0)

The long delayed and name changed title finally found its way out and the impressive ensemble cast can’t save this film from mediocrity in the end.
Andy is an underachieving idea man that has a small group of close friends that will follow him into anything, from pyramid schemes to porno films. This film is about the porno idea and the attempts to make an amateur film by recruiting local girls and local funding to try and rake in some of that big time amateur porn money. The believability question kicks in pretty early here. First, all of Andy’s friends just hand over two thousand dollars to help fund the film after numerous failed endeavourers with the man and we are supposed to buy into the fact that they still trust him? I don’t think so, and I don’t get how they think they are going to make so much money, let alone break even, from making an amateur porno movie in a day and age when porn is freely available on the internet for those who want it; it’s all just a bit ridiculous.
But then we find out why Andy wants to make a porno, to make money to impress his son that he is just as good as his rich step father; by making porn, what?
There are some halfway interesting, one note characters, along the way with William Fitchtner having the best lines throughout the film as the sex craved church janitor (that has two grand to throw away). Ted Danson’s plays the gay friend that won’t admit it and is very funny as well sometimes. Joe Pantoliano plays a character called Some Idiot, which is just a horrible joke, and don’t forget the bumbling buddies Moe and Ron, get it, Moe-ron, horrible. The movie thinks it is smart and creative sometimes when it’s just stupid and juvenile.
The movie really goes off the deep end when it turns everything around and they make their money not from their porno, which gets destroyed by an angry sibling of a star, but from hand held footage Patrick Fugit’s character is shooting documenting everything that is made. And the whole spin is we have been watching the movie that goes on to be a hit, but how are we supposed to believe it’s a big hit when we aren’t even enjoying it that much. The film also teaches us a lesson that if you make lots of money your son will finally love you because that is what Andy thinks, when in actuality he never needed to prove his love from his son, it was always there, but the movies final coda tries to sell us other wise and makes zeros sense what so ever.
The film is just hollow and stupid for much of its runtime and doesn’t make any sense half the time with zero logic behind anything. Though, a couple of good laughs are in there and that is worth something I guess, and the film isn’t unwatchable, just stupid and not well thought out; but in the end I can not really recommend this unless you really want to see it.
4.5/10