The Amateurs

This movie was hilarious. Jeff Bridges plays Andy, a divorced guy visiting his son on his birthday. His ex-wife married a really rich guy, and Andy's worried that his son won't appreciate him anymore because he doesn't have as much money. So he comes up with an idea to make a bunch of money, make a local porno film with all of the town people involved.

The set up isn't so great, but the film is filled with so many actors and a lot of great comedy, it doesn't really matter. And when I say so many actors, I mean it, everyone in the film is a recognizable face. Jeff Bridges, Joe Pantoliano, Patrick Fugit, Tim Blake Nelson, William Fichtner, Ted Danson, and those are just the main characters. Ted Danson is hysterical playing the gay guy in the group who poorly tries to hide the fact that he's gay. And if anyone ever wanted to see Ted Danson naked, this is the film for you. Joe Pantoliano also does a great job in the film playing Some Idiot (yes, that's his character's name) the writer/director of the porno.

It's a great movie, very funny with a lot of great quotes. I just wish the ending could have been expanded a bit more, but oh well. Look out for this one.

He's been playing the same character for a while now. Admittedly, he does a better and low-key job in this than The Big Leibowski, but he seems to be coasting the last few years. A bunch of very good actors playing in a small movie makes this an above average movie, but not by much.

It's another bunch of middle-aged losers trying for their moment of glory. This time, it's a group of bar flies (which the name of their softball team recognizes) who get together and try to produce their own amateur porn movie. All the typical comedy situations you'd expect occur. Much of the humor is provided by Bridges' characters voice over, especially some admitting to obvious foreshadowing.

As mentioned, it's very predictable, with no real surprises but is saved by most of the supporting actors playing it very naturally. The only ones who go overboard are Bridges and Danson but not by much. Overall it's a nice movie to rent for some laughs

I just got back tonight from an early screening of a new movie with Jeff Bridges called The Amateurs at Penn State. The movie was originally meant to be screened last month, with an appearance by co-star Joe Pantoliano. Joey Pants did come (his daughter is a student here), but technical difficulties plagued the screening twenty minutes in. Joe was very apologetic and stayed to answer questions for a while and in the meantime they set up another screening for tonight. No Joe tonight (he's apparently filming a new pilot for CBS about waterfront crime), but the movie did work so I can tell you what it's all about.

Jeff Bridges stars as a recent divorcée who is down on his luck in a small town. Looking for a way to make it big and have the means to spoil his son, he decides to make a porn movie. He does this with the help of his supportive friends, including Pantoliano, Ted Danson, William Fichtner, Tim Blake Nelson and Patrick Fugit. Their film will be distinctive because it will be made by and feature talent from their own small town. Now I know this entire plot sounds kind of corny but it is well executed – everyone laughed pretty hard throughout.

Besides having a great cast, what makes this movie different is that it is a sex comedy for and by adults. This may be a tough sell, but I can say that at least half of tonight's audience was definitely professors and community members, rather than students. Though there is little nudity or hard language, this is an R-movie because of its frank discussion of sex. It's funny because these guys are trying to be respectful by replacing words for genitalia with other appropriate, but ridiculous terms.

As I mentioned, the cast was great and everyone was prefect for their role. Pantoliano plays the appropriately named writer-director of the production, Some Idiot. Danson plays a gay friend who tries too hard at hiding his sexual orientation, making for some very funny and awkward moments. Fichtner does a really good job with making a fairly plain character entertaining and fun to watch. Bridges plays a loser in the vein of "The Dude", except he's got it together a little more and is a little cleaner cut. About half of Bridges performance is voice-over as well, which was done fairly well. My biggest complaint would be that their female characters receive very little screen time and are underdeveloped. The cut we saw really underused Lauren Graham and Judy Greer.

The film was written and directed by Michael Traeger, whose most notable previous credit was writing the script of MTV's Dead Man on Campus (ouch). The script was really funny and the direction was suitable, though not very special. Based on what Joe said at the first screening, it sounds like they will only be changing the opening of the film – so the cut I saw was pretty close to finished. I believe it will be hitting theaters late spring/early summer. All in all it was an entertaining little indie comedy and its worth checking out for a good laugh.

Jeff Bridges is one of my favorite actors; Tim Blake Nelson, Joe Pants, and Glenn Headley, while not my 'faves', are nonetheless always a good supporting cast, sturdy character actors. Anyway, I was predisposed to like this movie, and I kinda did. It wasn't a great movie, which was a surprise and a disappointment. It was sort of dim, and had--- not a darkness, exactly--- but a kind of a threadbare-ness, a shabbiness about it. It wasn't just that the characters portrayed were low-lifes, poor, uneducated, and mostly losers (albeit kindly ones). The dimness went deeper than that. Maybe the film was blurred, or the lighting wasn't crisp--- dunno. But SOMETHING was 'off', like milk on the last day of its shelf life. You keep asking yourself--- has this gone bad? But then, you keep drinking it.

And the studio changed the movie's name. I saw it in Wales (in the UK), months ago. Evidently the advance buzz was pretty bad. So they changed it from 'The Moguls' to 'The Amateurs'. A sure sign of desperation. But, alas, that's not going to save it.

Jeff Bridges plays lovable, 'ordinary' guys that are extra solid, and extra real. He plays characters that are very easy for a man (I'm about his age, and coincidentally lived in Santa Barbara, his town, for years) to relate to. At least I do. It appears, based on his wide appeal, that women like him too. I also admire him for eschewing the Red Carpet, paparazzi-chasing kind of celebrity grab that so many other actors have fallen prey to (IMHO: Brad Pitt, Ben Afflect, Julia Roberts, to name but a few). Unfortunately, the tone set here was either missed, or set too low. Bridge's characters, and the supporting cast's characters, are just too loser-y, too dim, too depressing.

This movie also reminded me of 'The Big Lebowski'--- another Jeff Bridges movie, and another dark-ish movie about low-lifes, but one that was much, much better done than 'The Moguls' (now known as 'The Amateurs'). The derivativeness kind of rankled with me a bit.

This movie could have been brighter, funnier, and stronger. It could have been better. It has a few things to admire, though, so if you've seen everything else at your theater, or nothing else strikes your fancy, try this one. And, let's all hope meanwhile that Jeff Bridges' next movie will be more like his usual great work.

I just got back form a sneak preview of the film at SUNY Farmingdale. William Fichtner happened to be an alumni and so he managed to get a showing at my school. This film was overall very well written and funny. it has many classic lines an memorable parts. Not only was the film written really well but the cast did an amazing job. The version i saw was called the moguls but since the studio thought that i would get confused with a skiing movie they changed the title. Also the version i saw i was told is going to be slightly different form what is going to be opening in NY and LA. The movie was hilarious and i recommend going to see it. its going to be opening in only 6 screens in July but hopefully with good support will get picked up by more theaters.