WHIPPED RATING: 7/10 --> Good movie
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At some point during the late 90s, every guy and his credit card slapped together a film about how he and his friends scored (or tried to score) with girls. SWINGERS was the ultimate "guy" movie for me, a film that gave you a true insight as to how guys feel when asking girls out and what rejection is like. It was also very, very funny and contained great dialogue! Many other films failed to deliver the quality writing and acting that SWINGERS did, and today, another film has tried to once again, to give us an even wider glimpse into the world of "picking up"- guy style! Of course, the angle with this movie is that the guys will ultimately be challenged by a woman, who for all they know, is also playing their "game". So who's gonna end up on top? Read on...
PLOT: Three single college buddies and their married friend get together at a diner every Sunday to discuss their weekly conquests with women. They generally give their best "scamming" stories and pat one another on the back. That is until they all happen to really fall for the same girl named Mia. Now in competition with one another, the trio of bachelors suddenly find themselves at the other end of the "playa" game.
CRITIQUE: Lots of laughs, interesting characters and plenty of dirty detailed insight into the world of "dating" raise this flick above all the other "talking heads" movies and require that anyone who is riding the "single" scene check it out. And despite a certain feeling of deja-vu, this film does move along nicely, delivers a cool soundtrack and for once, gives us a little more insight into the women's point of view. I personally enjoyed much of this film because I was in that "single" scene for years on end, and related to many of the humorous anecdotes presented here. We've all got that one friend who liked to "play" it, another intellectual type who always thought that he was God's gift to women and the other guy who just masturbated a whole lot. I'll say this much...I definitely wasn't the "playa" in my own scenario! Anyway, I really liked the dialogue in this film as well, most of which rang funny and true, especially in tandem with the succinct delivery put forth by most of the actors in the film.
And that's another thing that I really liked. All of the personalities in the film weren't part of this generic ball of "guy". Each dude actually had his own personality traits and the actors played off each other really well. Mind you, the thespianism was a tad off during a couple of confrontational scenes between the fellas and I suppose some would fault the film for going for the easy toilet humor at times, but I was personally entertained by much of it. It certainly isn't a grand film making a major statement, but a small film with just a little insight into the crappy ass world of dating in this day and age. Credit Amanda Peet for delivering yet another charming performance and Judah Domke for having some of the funniest lines in the movie, as the one guy in the crew who is "happily" married. Don't go into this movie expecting to see a lot of sex because it's not there. What is there is a pretty funny little tale about guys and girls and the "games" that they like to play with one another. It's not romantic and it's not sexy, but it's definitely got some yucks and should be a definite tool of the trade for those still in the dating world. Oh yeah and incidentally...the reason that I am no longer in the dating world myself is because...I'm whipped!!! :)
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: The Brad character from this film, played by Brian Van Holt, and the Mia character from this film, played by Amanda Peet, are currently dating and living together in real life. Amanda graduated from Columbia University in 1994. This is the directorial debut of Peter M. Cohen and the feature film acting debut for two of the four guys: Zorie Barber and Jonathan Abrahams. Zorie Barber is also co-producer of this movie. Jonathan Abrahams is also a published author who writes books about golf. Director Peter M. Cohen makes a cameo in this movie as the pizza delivery guy in one of the film's funnier scenes. This film was shot in 15 days, with 3 additional days of 2nd unit photography.
Review Date: August 28, 2000 Director: Peter M. Cohen Writer: Peter M. Cohen Producer: Peter M. Cohen Actors: Amanda Peet as Mia Brian Van Holt as Brad Jonathan Abrahams as Jonathan Zorie Barber as Zeke Genre: Comedy Year of Release: 2000 ------------------------------------ JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com/ ------------------------------------ (c) 2000 Berge Garabedian
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