Blowing Smoke (2004 TV Movie) User Reviews (13)

What exactly did I just see??

[another242 · 1/10 · 24 April 2006]

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.

This movie blows

[richard-640 · 1/10 · 29 August 2005]

If you like a predictable plot, clichéd dialog, wooden acting, and you generally feel that men are scum you'll love this movie. If not, you won't.*

The movie opens with a bunch of guys sitting at a table piled high with cash, playing poker, smoking cigars, and talking to each other like drunken teenagers. After too much of this a woman cries for help, and unless you're retarded, you will know at that point exactly what's going to happen. (I checked "spoiler" even though I'm not spelling it out in deference to morons.Take a wild guess and you'll be right.)

The movie isn't misogynistic; on the contrary, it's profoundly man-hating. All the men are portrayed as nasty stereotypes, and the woman as a long-suffering victim of The Man's Oppression, who even surpasses the men in her appreciation of fine cigars. It's not the least bit witty, as there isn't a single line of dialog or joke in the movie you hadn't heard by the time you were a junior in high school.

The sole female character is supposed to be a sex goddess, but she shows not the least little bit of flesh. The men are supposed to be sexual predators, but I've heard better pickup lines from 16 year old virgins. The movie is all about humiliating them.

One comment on the experiment of releasing an independent film via a blog: someday this will be a commonplace method of distribution, as more and more people prefer to see movies at home. And someday more indy films will be shot on super-low budgets with CGI and digital editing. As a piece of movie history, this film's production and distribution may be noteworthy, but that doesn't make the content any more palatable.

I suspect some Hollywood dudes put this deal together to discredit independent distribution.

*If you're a guy who would pay a woman to take a crap on him, you might find this movie interesting, but most people won't.

idiotic, juvenile and unintelligent unless you're one of these guys

[zoltan-1 · 2/10 · 21 April 2005]

This is my revenge for having wasted 88 minutes of my life watching this film, but I tell you right now that some guys in the audience thought it was a knee slapper and laughed hard. The opening credits are beautifully shot, and the end credits are equally pleasing. The poster for the film is gorgeous! In between: you're stuck with six men in a cigar club telling each other inanities about women. Some of these guys are decent actors and Estella Warren does a very good job given what she has to work with.

Those grown-up characters have absolutely nothing interesting to say (or politically incorrect, which the film claims to be). The behind-the-scene story and other media turns out to be much more captivating than the movie itself.

Decent Movie would never happen at our club

[bboblz · 4/10 · 28 July 2006]

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.

women will love it if they stick around, and men (sane men anyway) will hate it

[zeratul242 · 1/10 · 11 July 2006]

I'm only giving this movie 1 star because I can't give 0 stars, or less than 0 stars (if that was a rating that was possible). A more misandrist (read: man-hating) display I have not seen since...well, the Vagina Monologues. Though there are aspects to each of the character performances that are decent, the film as a whole is a pile of garbage.

The set-up is simple - 6 guys, with another guy filming the whole deal, sit around a table playing poker and smoking cigars, while discussing what men talk about when women aren't around. And as this film states it, that just so happens to be women. And not just about women, but about how women are the bane of men, and all the different reasons why this is so. Each guy sitting around the table is given a cookie-cutter persona, from the smooth, hip-hop flavored black man, to the elitist snob, to the actor who's full of himself, etc. etc. The stereotypical personas they are given have one added dimension, however - they each disrespect women, and in some cases abuse and take advantage of them, in their own particular way. In this film all men are gender villains, which means that they are slated to get their comeuppance. Enter the beautiful, raven-haired beauty, played by Estella Warren, who looking beaten and claiming she is on the run from her abusive boyfriend, asks for help from the guys. Given the bent of the film, any pretense of universal brotherhood between the men is predictably thrown out, and they all start vying for the woman's attention, in the hope that this sexy girl will sleep with them. They will jump at each other's throats trying to get this girl in bed until a plot twist comes along that is so obvious, any serious watcher of film will see it coming miles away. The climax of the film is a monologue that every woman who hears it will vigorously nod her head at, as platitude after platitude is put forward to reinforce notions of female superiority to men. Given the obviously misogynist way these men are portrayed in the film, this is to be expected. No notion of nuance or ambiguity - these men are deliberately portrayed as the bad guys. Consequently that means the woman, whatever her faults may be, can only be justified in what she ends up doing as a result of it. Indeed, the reason she's doing such a bad thing is obviously because the men made her that way! The ending further reinforces this. The film leaves no room for shades of grey - it is pure black and white: men are evil, women are good.

As to the aspects of cigar culture, those do ring true, with an attention to detail being displayed that most films do not have. Only a cigar lover could truly appreciate that though, and in the end, it's not nearly enough to redeem the film's premise of gender hatred. Any man who sits down and actually enjoys this film must secretly hate himself inside, and every woman who can get through the beginning will grow to love this film, as they watch this woman dismantle all of the evil men piece by piece, finishing them off in a spectacular blow of justice for the sisterhood against the patriarchy, reinforcing every destructive notion of why women think they are better than men. This kind of tripe is fit only for meetings of NOW, or feminist organizations on college campuses. Anyone else should steer clear if they know what's good for them.

Blowing Smoke gets my two thumbs up...

[celebratinlife · 10/10 · 25 April 2005]

First off, if you are a cigar lover...you will greatly be entertained by this movie. I went with a bunch guys (Go "Core"!!! Yeah!!) for the screening in LA on April 21st. The plot line is simple - what guys say when they are "blowing smoke". It loosely defines the fraternal brotherhood that bonds all cigar smokers. If you are a cigar smoker, you then understand the last sentence. The film also loosely resembles a PBS documentary - (wink) , but way too irreverent and political incorrect for PBS - thank God. Between you and me, I hate the current drivel coming out of Hollywood - too formula, too much CGI, too cute, too much gore..blah, blah, blah.

For the cigar lover, there are lots of details to keep you watching for the facts, taste descriptions of each cigar brand in the movie...very much like "Sideways", where I wanted to drink Pinot Noir wine. In "Blowing Smoke" it was a gorgeous Cuban or an Opus-X, etc. right after the movie with my brothers-in-smoke. I have no doubt that this will be the "cult" movie for "us" guys. :-) I would even imagine B'Smoke and Sideways as a common pairing for a double feature. Why not?

For the ladies... let's just say they have enough material to have a spirited discussion with their "cigar lovers".

The direction given by James Orr was masterful. I certainly walked away knowing each character in the movie, like a friend at my local cigar hang-out. The clever writing by Orr, kept the pace of the movie lively with the jabs between each of the "Blowing Smoke" characters as the plot and tension thickened - with smoke. Each of the actors gave a convincing, "you are my best friend" performance. Especially given the fact that none of them smoked cigars before. In addition, due to the single set (similar to the Grand Havana Room in LA), the writing style was necessary to keep the audience engaged. In my opinion, the observer felt like a guest and would easily fit in the Grand Havana Room surroundings - with the exception of that one... ex- waitress (wink).

My humble prediction? There are going to be many "Blowing Smoke" parties for years to come.

Don't be a Putz. If you are into cigars in anyway, see "Blowing Smoke" on the big screen when it comes out... AND buy the DVD. Hopefully Orr and Kamal (Producer) will have a "Director's Cut" version, that will further enchant the aficionado with "behind the scenes" information that will captivate us "gear heads".

"Cuba Libre"

-Walt

Celebrating Life!!!

Witty, laugh out-loud dialog makes this a fun movie!

[StaceyDavis · 8/10 · 26 April 2005]

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".

Hilarious, well shot, very smart film

[dynamist-1 · 8/10 · 26 April 2005]

I wasn't sure what to expect of this film, but was extremely pleasantly surprised to find it raw, humorous, and all too real. The performances are generally good, with Sean Michael Allen (aka Sean Barnes, as Eric) and Lennie Loftin particular stand-outs. But the real star of this movie is the dialogue, with snappy one-liners and unexpectedly fair jokes at the expense of both sexes.

The film would benefit, I think, from the music playing during the scenes being completely removed - less would be more in this case - but it's a small quibble with a very enjoyable movie. (Guys, if you want to save yourself some time, take a woman to see this on your first date. If she stalks out in disgust, you've just saved yourself the price of buying dinner with a humorless miseryguts!)

Blowing Smoke - I loved it!

[randy-256 · 10/10 · 25 April 2005]

I saw the new film "Blowing Smoke" at it's premier in LA on April 21st, and I absolutely loved it! I am a avid cigar smoker which is why I was first drawn to the movie, but the movie is really about life ... and living life ... and the sometimes (always?) strange relationships between men and women.

The writing is fast paced and well thought out, and the plot has several key twists and surprises ... right up to the end. It is an irreverent no-holds-barred view of one night at the Grand Havana Room in Beverly Hills.

I recommend it highly, and I hope it's in a theater soon. I want to see it again!

-Randy (San Diego)

Not so surreal life

[royfisk · 10/10 · 25 April 2005]

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!

Blowing Smoke, Seductive, Outrageous Fun, A Smart Comedy, You will Love !!

[chris-2170 · 10/10 · 26 April 2005]

A smashing slice of realism in a dark comedy full of fun from both sexes. I really liked this unique movie. It's a fun ride that continues to build. The movie was well written and presented in a great setting. If you know the Grand Havana Room. The movie was well-paced and intriguing. The camera was constantly moving and added to the pace. The film truly celebrates the cigar as an art form. A true aficionado of film and a good smoke will appreciate the relationship between the cigars and the characters. There is a lot to see beyond the naked performances of the actors. They were terrific with the witty dialog and lively interaction. They represent well the bond Aficionado's embrace when enjoying a fine stick. Authentic of course!

The film reaches into the competitiveness of both sexes. The relationship of men and women and their ambitious tendencies. It revels in how people are different just like the variety of cigars around the world. It also shifts gears and shows my favorite part of the day. The true appreciation of a good Cigar and friends. Those stress free moments of pleasure and brotherhood in an otherwise chaotic world.

James Orr was at his directorial best and you feel his passion for the human experience and cigars. He definitely has an appreciation for a fine Cigar and the Core of its art form. He was very particular about his representations and explorations. A real aficionado will appreciate the detail in this film. There is a lot to feel and see with surprises throughout. Many thanks to the producer who helped bring this project to the screen as well. Kamal I want to have a Cigar with you at the Grand Havana Room 90210.

It was an enjoyable film and finally a true celebration of cigars and the human experience. The independent films continue their successes from 2004. You will like it on all levels both sexes. There are a lot of great laughs and one liners to take home. Have fun with it and live life.

Cuban Chris

lots of laughs

[filmtalk10 · 8/10 · 25 April 2005]

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.

Got a light?

[dfinlay587 · 10/10 · 27 April 2005]

I recently attended a screening of Blowing Smoke in LA. I enjoyed the film very much. To start with, this is a film that while funny & amusing, is also closer to reality than most of us would ever admit to our wives or girl friends. The premise is already covered in other reviews, but the "meat" of the film for me was the 6 or 7 different angles the viewers saw from a male perspective. From the woman hating misogynist, to the inch deep pretty boy and the pompous fool, we have all known guys like these characters. In fact we may also see ourselves in the film (no, I won't tell you who is me).

A key takeaway is the general misunderstanding most women have about men. Sure, they are in control, but that doesn't mean they get it! They don't know why men fool around (for variety, stupid), get together (because they enjoy it), or lie about stuff (because women want to hear the good story). Most of all, they can't understand why men need the company of other men from time to time to recharge and be themselves.

And then there are the cigars…wow! Key actors in each scene, each one deserving of credits and admiration. The story behind the movie is a fascinating tale of an industry full of rich characters, long tradition, and true quality & uniqueness in a time of corporate sameness.

The filmography throughout the film was superb, keeping a fast pace to a single set, making it fresh and exciting.

Would I see it again? of course, would I recommend it? absolutely! Buy on DVD? you bet. Including gifts for friends and those not yet enlightened. I give it a solid thumbs up.