Mar 02 2011
Red Box Review— Middle Men (2009) #redbox
Middle Men (2009– 105 mins) L. Wilson, G. Ribisi, G. Macht 
Middle men is the story of a man who pioneers the way people on the internet use credit cards to pay for web sites. Namely, porn sites. It’s a comedy with some drama elements to it, but ulitmately its pretty funny. Luke Wilson plays Jack, a businessman who gets thrown an oportunity by a seedy acquainance, involving 2 idiots (Ribisi & Macht) and their successful porn picture web site. They are druggy idiots who came up with a great idea but have no idea how to cash it in or manage it. Thats where Jack comes in. Jack comes up with the main idea of making transactions come accross as something other then a porn name on the card statement. The story spirals out of control dealing with Russian mob investors, porn stars, and plenty of people trying to screw one another.
It’s basically a typical easy come easy go story. People get rich abuse the money live high on the hog and eventually crash. But it’s just fine of a movie. It goes with my narrator theory. Movies with a familiar narrator that is pretty funny with good lines makes movies about 100x better. Here we get Wilson narrating most of the movie, and hes pretty funny so it makes the movie that much better. There are plenty of familiar faces in here. Ribisi does his normal idiot stoner character which never gets old, James Caan does a sleezy lawyer, Kevin Pollak is a fed, and Kelsey Grammer checks in for a few mins as a congressman. It’s not crazy gripping or a write home movie, it’s more of one that will end up on comedy central at 2am. Yet, it’s funny pretty well written and there’s plenty of boobs, so naturally most guys will like it.
Verdict—> A funny quirky dramedy with some good actors doing good roles. Not for everyone and the abundance of boobs might turn someone off. This is afterall, a movie about the guy who invented a better way to bill for online porn. Kinda like a Pinapple Express it will end up more of a guys movie then a date or double feature type. But I did laugh and enjoy it.
