: Middle Men
I was interested in this film because of the business aspect: it’s the story of how the Internet was commercialized via online credit card payment systems. Of course, the first industry to do that was the porn industry (just like it sparked the home video revolution), which gives the film a sleazy gimmick to promote.
Worse than that, it turns out the movie’s really about mobsters and gangsters, and while there are some clever plots twists (and I loved the neat ending), that was not the film I anticipated or the kind of film I like. (I fail to understand the fascination with the mob. It’s a world I don’t understand at all and it bores me to death.) The financial aspect, which intrigued me, is a mere two minutes of the movie, and it’s never really explained at all. (Imagine that the Facebook movie never explained what Facebook was and you get the idea.)
I did like how the main character is a family man who gets involved with this industry to help two idiots who stumbled upon this online billing gold mine, and then as he builds up the business he loses himself in the glamorous Vegas lifestyle and runs into moral dilemmas about what he should do. (Because the mob’s funding things behind the scenes, he finds he can’t get out.)
But the rest of the characters are all irredeemable and so stupid that I couldn’t stand them in every scene they are in (which means about 80% of the movie is tedious). Their stupidity makes his moral quandaries seem even more out of place.
It’s thus a frustrating movie: it’s not really about what it’s about, the convoluted mob plot stuff is fun but feels out of place and unrealistic, and far too much of the film is just unbearably stupid. Throw in some sleazy porn stuff, drug use, and gratuitous foul language and you’ve wasted a great cast and a good premise for a film. Sad.
Topic: [/movie] |
