Review: Middle Men Blu-ray

Middle Men DVD box
STUDIO:
Anchor Bay/Starz| DIRECTOR: George Gallo | CAST: Luke Wilson, Giovanni Ribisi, Gabriel Macht, James Caan
RELEASE DATE: 2/8/2011 | PRICE: DVD $19.99, Blu-ray $29.99
BONUSES: deleted scenes, outtakes, slap montage
SPECS: R | 112 min. | Drama | widescreen | 5.1 DTS-HD | English, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Middle Men movie sceneComedy Middle Men is one of those based-on-real-life movies that you’d probably think was too outlandish if it wasn’t actually inspired by fact.

In the film, Luke Wilson (Tenure) plays a Houston businessman and family man who gets involved with two drug-addicted men (Gionanni Ribisi of Avatar and Gabriel Macht of S.W.A.T.: Firefight) who invent a way for porn stars to charge customers for website subscriptions with credit cards online. Although he makes buckets of money, well-intentioned Wilson ends up getting involved with the Russian Mob, covering up a murder and helping out the FBI with catching terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that’s before everything goes wrong.

Written by George Gallo (Homeland Security) and Andy Weiss (TV’s Punk’d) and directed by Gallo, the film features fine performances all around, also including Jacinda Barrett as Wilson’s disapproving wife, Laura Ramsey (The Ruins) as porn star Audrey Dawns and James Caan (Elf) as a slimey-as-you-can-get lawyer. Audiences also will recognize Kevin Pollak (A Few Good Men) as the FBI agent and Kelsey Grammer (TV’s Fraser) in a cameo as a blackmailable district attorney.

Gallo did a good job of keeping the film moving along, even while skipping back and forth in time and between Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Houston with style and humor. There’s plenty of action, drama and comedy to keep audiences interested.

The Blu-ray has a light special features menu, but it’s fitting for this movie. Included are a few deleted scenes, which don’t add much to the story; some amusing outtakes, which shows Wilson cracking up in dramatic parts; and, the most inventive, a slap montage, which edits together the slaps in the film so it’s the percussion for the movie’s score. It would have been nice to see a featurette on the real life story and how it compared to the film.

 

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About S. Clark

Sam Clark is the former Managing Editor/Online Editor of Video Business magazine. With 19 years experience in journalism, 12 in the home entertainment industry, Sam has been hooked on movies on since she saw E.T. then stared into the sky waiting to meet her own friendly alien. Thanks to her husband’s shared love of movies, Sam reviews Blu-ray discs in a true home theater, with a 118-inch screen, projector and cushy recliners with cup holders.