MADE A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
MADE, which would better be called ARGUE, reteams SWINGERS's Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn as Bobby and Ricky. Although their mindless banter is cute at first, listening to them becomes as tiresome as being stuck at a cocktail party between battling spouses. Favreau, who wrote the bright script for SWINGERS, writes and directs the surprisingly mediocre MADE. It's the type of film in which positive comments on its short running length will generate a good portion of the discussion afterwards.
Bobby is a boxer with a 5-5-1 record. He and his live-in girlfriend, a lap dancer named Jessica (Famke Janssen), and her young daughter, Chloe (Makenzie Vega), are supported by a gangster named Max, played with every cliché possible by Peter Falk.
One day Max offers an unspecified, illegal job to Bobby and his obnoxious buddy Ricky. All they have to do is go from L.A. to New York and wait for their beepers to buzz. Oh yes, and they are not supposed to talk to anyone. This is something that Ricky, a constant screw-up and major motor mouth, is constitutionally incapable of accomplishing. From the moment that they sit down in their first-class airline seats, Ricky starts pushing the limits as he almost gets them kicked off by constantly using the stewardess call button before they even leave the ground.
Bobby and Ricky fight with words and fists over everything, with Ricky's attempts at over tipping his way into a life of luxury being at the top of the list. The movie has little to do with the crime and everything to do with Bobby and Ricky's disagreements. Don't be surprised if you find yourself wishing that someone would jump out from a side street and plug one or both of them.
One wishes that the actors would have fought more about the script before they started the filming, as both of their foulmouthed characters show potential. As people kept walking out of our screening, it was easier to sympathize with their plight than with the characters in the story. The Bobby and Ricky routine would make for a nice, short "Saturday Night Live" skit. Anything more is overkill.
MADE runs 1:33. It is rated R for pervasive language, some drug use and sexuality and would be acceptable for most teenagers.
My son Jeffrey, age 12, gave the film **. He thought that it was only "okay" and complained that it didn't have much of plot.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, July 27, 2001. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC and the Century theaters.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com
Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email? Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
========== X-RAMR-ID: 28968 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 238954 X-RT-TitleID: 1108720 X-RT-SourceID: 703 X-RT-AuthorID: 1271 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews