Post by ronnierocketago on Jan 26, 2006 22:31:42 GMT
Swingers
Doug Liman
1996 USA
My god, its been more than a month since my DONNIE DARKO review? Wowzers! However, I have returned with the long-worked follow-up review of another recent cult movie that is so Money that not only a male movie fan love and enjoy, but his beautiful Babies may infact dig it as well!
Yes, the popular 1996 indie-comedy that not only is a quintesential Generation-X movie of the decade, but also pretty damn funny and unlike most Hollywood movies about single-men trying to score after some nasty break-ups...its not pretentious in its story and if anything, feels natural.
To those that aren't "Money", the plot goes like this: This is a story about Mike(Jon Favreau), a guy who left his girl in New York when he came to LA to be a star. It's been six months since his girlfriend left him and he's not doing so good. So, his very best friend(Vince Vaughn) and some other friends(Ron Livingston, Patrick Van Horn, Alex Desert) try and get him back in the social scene and forget about his 6 year relationship.
What follows is a funny yet sad car trip to Las Vegas, lots of fun playing hockey...on a SEGA Genesis(remember those babies?), several parties where our hero Mike tries to get a date, some random arguing about Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino movies, and much much more!
Jon Favreau, who wrote the film's really good screenplay from the basis of him and Mr. Vaughn's L.A. party-hopping days in the early 90's, portrays a rather decent guy that like the vast majority of wanna-be out-of-town actors in Hollywood, hes struggling real badly career wise, with his only friends being either a total man-whore in Vince Vaughn that is both amusing and annoying at the same time, the emotional-sidekick in Livingston, and well the others are just there.
This $200,000 movie features obvious homage shots from scriptwriter Favreau and director Doug Liman from the famous roaming crane-shot inside the night club in GOODFELLAS and of course, the slow-motion sequence which followed a little chat about the very "money" title sequence in RESERVOIR DOGS that really add to a point in the decade of Pop Culture Movies where they were influenced by OTHER Pop Culture Movies(namely, RESERVOIR DOGS).
However, what I feared when I stuck this DVD in is that I would see a very basic formulaic story about a dude with an ex-girlfriend and how he tries to win her back and blah blah blah...I mean, the usual Romantic Comedy movie from Hollywood, right?
Instead, we get a story where we never meet the "ex", save for some old photos and a critical phone call at the end of the film, and instead we have a natural-flowing tale of a man that despite the heart-breaking which occured to him, he eventually gets over it and by the end of the movie, when hes talking with his Ex finally on the phone, he basically "switches" over on his cellphone to Heather Graham, the groovy chick that he clicked with the previous evening. We never know of this new relationship will work out or not, but thats the point. The story's point is that Favreau finally is living again.
During this tale, we see Favreau trying to be someone that he wasn't, which basically is personified in the dating-bar-party expert friend of his, Vince Vaughn. However, by the end, hes become his honest self, and hes rewarded for it. Yet this simplistic-sounding tale isn't so. Of course, why much of the dating rituals and such that Favreau and his group go through seem so honest and true is because....well, it WAS true of sorts, which occured to the same group of friends and which Favreau adapted to his screenplay, which then sold for $5 million to Miramax, and with the tiny budget, he was able to cast himself and his friends and able to experiment instead of stepping aside for bigger Hollywood actors as some studios desired.
Really, this movie is pretty funny. From Vaughn and his friends fighting over a hockey game on the SEGA Genesis(when Vaughn steals his pals' controller and makes Wayne Gretzky's head "bleed"...most hilarious scene in the film) to Vaughn describing to Favreau how to be the predator-ial "rated R" hunter and not the nice cheery "rated PG-13" guy when pursuing women's phone number. A subtle slap at studio movies?
Of course, SWINGERS was a modest financial hit in theaters combined with a substantial cult audience that for the last 9 years have stayed loyal to a movie that is notable as well for capturing a brief moment in the 1990s, when the L.A. party culture in its "pre-corporate" days was honest and pure with swing-music bands...all before it became "hip" and thus became a fad, which eventually destroyed it. Sad thing is, the movie(and its very successful catalog run on VHS and DVD) basically put that culture on the map, and helped pave the way to its death, if you think about it.
Neverless, the main characters involved with this movie have gone on to better things in the last decade or so. Director Doug Liman now has helmed two consecutive action blockbuster box-office hits in THE BOURNE IDENTITY and MR. & MRS. SMITH. Vince Vaughn, the break-out acting star of the movie, is now a bonafide moviestar after three consecutive comedy box-office smashhits(OLD SCHOOL, DODGEBALL, THE WEDDING CRASHERS) and forefront of the supposed "Frat Pack" of Hollywood along with Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Luke and Owen Wilson, Jack Black, etc. Despite a small role in the movie, Heath Graham immedately afterwards appeared of course in BOOGIE NIGHTS, that one AUSTIN POWERS sequel, and other films. Ron Livingston double-dipped his cult-street credit by starring a few years later in the office-comedy(and future review subject for RRA'S CULT MOVIE REVIEW) OFFICE SPACE from Mike Judge.
As for the "struggling single Male" of the movie, Lead Actor/Writer Jon Favreau has a solid acting career in Hollywood, along with an increasingly solid directorial career(from such movies as his re-teaming with Vince Vaughn in MADE and the Will Ferrell hit movie ELF), and is now married with kids. Damn, he WAS so money!
Final Film Rating: ***1/2 out of 5
SWINGERS was a movie, as I described, which Favreau and director Liman is a cinematic "capture" of a brief time years back for a group of people in Los Angeles that won't ever come back, but it will live forever with this movie. The 2-3 day ritual between getting a phone number from a "beautiful baby"(women) and actually calling her, the manner of approaching dates and what NOT to do, and yes, the parties of the town back in the day, with music supplied by the Big Bad Voodoo Daddies(who later had a few chart-topping hits themselves).
However, the movie's biggest contribution is of course SLANG. The characters of the film saying how each other are "Money", or better yet..."He's right. You're so money, you don't have a clue!" and other such amusing terms and philosophies of the time period that hopefully you'll dig...or at least remember.
Many indie comedies have tried to copy the formula and success of SWINGERS, but so far I have not seen such a movie that works so well........
Final Cult Rating: **** out of 5
CREDITS
Director
Doug Liman
Producers
Jon Favreau
Nicole LaLoggia
Avram Ludwig
Bradford L. Schlei
Victor Simpkins
Alan Noel Vega
Cary Woods
Writer
Jon Favreau
Cinematographer
Doug Liman
Composers
Don George
Johnny Hodges
Harry James
Justin Reinhardt
Production Designer
Brad Halvorson
Editor
Stephen Mirrione
CAST
Jon Favreau - Mike Peters
Vince Vaughn - Trent Walker
Ron Livingston - Rob
Patrick Van Horn - Sue
Alex Désert - Charles
Heather Graham - Lorraine
Deena Martin - Christy
Katherine Kendall - Lisa
Brooke Langton - Nikki
Doug Liman
1996 USA
My god, its been more than a month since my DONNIE DARKO review? Wowzers! However, I have returned with the long-worked follow-up review of another recent cult movie that is so Money that not only a male movie fan love and enjoy, but his beautiful Babies may infact dig it as well!
Yes, the popular 1996 indie-comedy that not only is a quintesential Generation-X movie of the decade, but also pretty damn funny and unlike most Hollywood movies about single-men trying to score after some nasty break-ups...its not pretentious in its story and if anything, feels natural.
To those that aren't "Money", the plot goes like this: This is a story about Mike(Jon Favreau), a guy who left his girl in New York when he came to LA to be a star. It's been six months since his girlfriend left him and he's not doing so good. So, his very best friend(Vince Vaughn) and some other friends(Ron Livingston, Patrick Van Horn, Alex Desert) try and get him back in the social scene and forget about his 6 year relationship.
What follows is a funny yet sad car trip to Las Vegas, lots of fun playing hockey...on a SEGA Genesis(remember those babies?), several parties where our hero Mike tries to get a date, some random arguing about Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino movies, and much much more!
Jon Favreau, who wrote the film's really good screenplay from the basis of him and Mr. Vaughn's L.A. party-hopping days in the early 90's, portrays a rather decent guy that like the vast majority of wanna-be out-of-town actors in Hollywood, hes struggling real badly career wise, with his only friends being either a total man-whore in Vince Vaughn that is both amusing and annoying at the same time, the emotional-sidekick in Livingston, and well the others are just there.
This $200,000 movie features obvious homage shots from scriptwriter Favreau and director Doug Liman from the famous roaming crane-shot inside the night club in GOODFELLAS and of course, the slow-motion sequence which followed a little chat about the very "money" title sequence in RESERVOIR DOGS that really add to a point in the decade of Pop Culture Movies where they were influenced by OTHER Pop Culture Movies(namely, RESERVOIR DOGS).
However, what I feared when I stuck this DVD in is that I would see a very basic formulaic story about a dude with an ex-girlfriend and how he tries to win her back and blah blah blah...I mean, the usual Romantic Comedy movie from Hollywood, right?
Instead, we get a story where we never meet the "ex", save for some old photos and a critical phone call at the end of the film, and instead we have a natural-flowing tale of a man that despite the heart-breaking which occured to him, he eventually gets over it and by the end of the movie, when hes talking with his Ex finally on the phone, he basically "switches" over on his cellphone to Heather Graham, the groovy chick that he clicked with the previous evening. We never know of this new relationship will work out or not, but thats the point. The story's point is that Favreau finally is living again.
During this tale, we see Favreau trying to be someone that he wasn't, which basically is personified in the dating-bar-party expert friend of his, Vince Vaughn. However, by the end, hes become his honest self, and hes rewarded for it. Yet this simplistic-sounding tale isn't so. Of course, why much of the dating rituals and such that Favreau and his group go through seem so honest and true is because....well, it WAS true of sorts, which occured to the same group of friends and which Favreau adapted to his screenplay, which then sold for $5 million to Miramax, and with the tiny budget, he was able to cast himself and his friends and able to experiment instead of stepping aside for bigger Hollywood actors as some studios desired.
Really, this movie is pretty funny. From Vaughn and his friends fighting over a hockey game on the SEGA Genesis(when Vaughn steals his pals' controller and makes Wayne Gretzky's head "bleed"...most hilarious scene in the film) to Vaughn describing to Favreau how to be the predator-ial "rated R" hunter and not the nice cheery "rated PG-13" guy when pursuing women's phone number. A subtle slap at studio movies?
Of course, SWINGERS was a modest financial hit in theaters combined with a substantial cult audience that for the last 9 years have stayed loyal to a movie that is notable as well for capturing a brief moment in the 1990s, when the L.A. party culture in its "pre-corporate" days was honest and pure with swing-music bands...all before it became "hip" and thus became a fad, which eventually destroyed it. Sad thing is, the movie(and its very successful catalog run on VHS and DVD) basically put that culture on the map, and helped pave the way to its death, if you think about it.
Neverless, the main characters involved with this movie have gone on to better things in the last decade or so. Director Doug Liman now has helmed two consecutive action blockbuster box-office hits in THE BOURNE IDENTITY and MR. & MRS. SMITH. Vince Vaughn, the break-out acting star of the movie, is now a bonafide moviestar after three consecutive comedy box-office smashhits(OLD SCHOOL, DODGEBALL, THE WEDDING CRASHERS) and forefront of the supposed "Frat Pack" of Hollywood along with Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Luke and Owen Wilson, Jack Black, etc. Despite a small role in the movie, Heath Graham immedately afterwards appeared of course in BOOGIE NIGHTS, that one AUSTIN POWERS sequel, and other films. Ron Livingston double-dipped his cult-street credit by starring a few years later in the office-comedy(and future review subject for RRA'S CULT MOVIE REVIEW) OFFICE SPACE from Mike Judge.
As for the "struggling single Male" of the movie, Lead Actor/Writer Jon Favreau has a solid acting career in Hollywood, along with an increasingly solid directorial career(from such movies as his re-teaming with Vince Vaughn in MADE and the Will Ferrell hit movie ELF), and is now married with kids. Damn, he WAS so money!
Final Film Rating: ***1/2 out of 5
SWINGERS was a movie, as I described, which Favreau and director Liman is a cinematic "capture" of a brief time years back for a group of people in Los Angeles that won't ever come back, but it will live forever with this movie. The 2-3 day ritual between getting a phone number from a "beautiful baby"(women) and actually calling her, the manner of approaching dates and what NOT to do, and yes, the parties of the town back in the day, with music supplied by the Big Bad Voodoo Daddies(who later had a few chart-topping hits themselves).
However, the movie's biggest contribution is of course SLANG. The characters of the film saying how each other are "Money", or better yet..."He's right. You're so money, you don't have a clue!" and other such amusing terms and philosophies of the time period that hopefully you'll dig...or at least remember.
Many indie comedies have tried to copy the formula and success of SWINGERS, but so far I have not seen such a movie that works so well........
Final Cult Rating: **** out of 5
CREDITS
Director
Doug Liman
Producers
Jon Favreau
Nicole LaLoggia
Avram Ludwig
Bradford L. Schlei
Victor Simpkins
Alan Noel Vega
Cary Woods
Writer
Jon Favreau
Cinematographer
Doug Liman
Composers
Don George
Johnny Hodges
Harry James
Justin Reinhardt
Production Designer
Brad Halvorson
Editor
Stephen Mirrione
CAST
Jon Favreau - Mike Peters
Vince Vaughn - Trent Walker
Ron Livingston - Rob
Patrick Van Horn - Sue
Alex Désert - Charles
Heather Graham - Lorraine
Deena Martin - Christy
Katherine Kendall - Lisa
Brooke Langton - Nikki