Made

I remember when Swingers came out. I didn’t see it. I really wanted to see it. But I didn’t see it. Then it came out on video. Finally I saw it. That was about the time that I really started getting interested in independent film. (Yes, I was a bit of a late bloomer.) And I saw Swingers. I thought that it was the greatest guy movie ever made. Jon Favreau and Doug Liman (with the help of Vince Vaughan and the rest of the cast) fashioned a story, as it were, about guys, pure and simple. This is how guys think, act and talk. Especially a group of good friends like that. They build each other up just to shoot them down again, but they’re always there for each other whatever happens.

This is probably why a lot of women don’t like Swingers. Sorry ladies, but that’s how it is. There are guys who are as big of jerks to women as Vince’s character was who can turn right around and be the best friend a guy could have. And women love those guys. There are nice guys out there like Jon’s character who get dicked around by women. It happens all the time.

When I heard that Jon was coming out with a new movie that he wrote (and this time he directed and produced, too) and that Vince was going to be his co-star again, I got excited. This was going to be good. A mobster movie? Even better!

Well, it turns out that my excitement was well founded. These guys know how to turn characters around and make them into something they really shouldn’t be: likable.

Bobby and Ricky (Jon and Vince) are a couple of losers in L.A. Bobby is a construction worker who has ties to the local mob boss, Max (Peter Falk). His girlfriend, Jessica (Famke Janssen, who’s looking kinda rough these days), is a stripper who works for Max. Of course this causes a lot of tension in their relationship since he’s her driver and he has to watch her strip for other guys. He really wants to be a boxer, but he’s not very good.

Ricky is Jon’s loser friend from high school who is trying to help him out, but he needs more help than Bobby ever would need. He’s volatile, loud, obnoxious and, worst of all, dumber than the day is long. Everything he does pretty much turns to shit. Jon got him a job on his construction site, but he can’t even hold that down. All he has to do is sweep and he can’t seem to do it for more than five minutes at a time before he needs a break.

Then, after Bobby beats a guy up who tried to touch Jessica, Max gives him a chance to join the club. He wants to send him to New York to make a delivery for him. But Bobby wants Ricky to come along. Max doesn’t like Ricky because he lost his cleaning truck, but since Bobby vouges for him he allows him to go.

Bobby and Ricky’s NYC adventure is best left to the movie. Let’s just say it involves money, danger, mayhem, dance clubs, Sam Rockwell as a hotel bellman and Sean “The Man Who Would Be Puffy” Combs as an NYC gangsta who learns to hate Ricky as much as Max does.

Jon has turned into a great writer. Yes, his two main characters are the same as the ones from Swingers (Bobby is less of a puss than Mike and Ricky is MUCH more obnoxious than Trent), but they work so well, why mess with a good thing. And these are characters that Jon and Vince are great at playing. (Apparently Vince is a lot like Trent in real life. Go figure.)

My only complaint here was the fact that Ricky was a little TOO obnoxious. Some of his scenes were just painful to watch. (“So you’re the Red Dragon!”) And some were just down right nasty. (“Get the fuck out of the room!” as he throws water on Sam Rockwell.) He’s just an asshole sometimes. And there’s no way that he wouldn’t have gotten himself AND Bobby wacked real early on. (Especially in NYC.) But, as this is a comedy, we’ll suspend our disbelief and just go with it.

Was Jon’s direction any good? Well, it’s a little rough, but he does a good job. Lots of hand held shots that seemed a little out of place. Give him a couple more movies and I bet he’ll be great. And if he had any hand in the music choice I give him a LOT of credit. From Dean Martin in L.A. to the gangsta rap in NYC it all worked really well. The best, though, had to be the last scene in NYC. Shot like an old Western complete with cool Ennio Morricone-like music. Great stuff.

This was a really cool movie. Maybe not a great one, and maybe not quite on the level of Swingers, but it’s really cool and a lot of fun. I think Mr. Favreau may be in danger of being L.A.’s version of Woody Allen soon. And that’s definitely a compliment.