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The Age of Commercialism

Best movie ever!

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Blistering performances.

I've only seen the trailer, which I downloaded last night. I was doing research on Brittany Snow, and recognized the poster as an image remembered from my days scouring video shops. For some reason I never got around to this title, despite the attractive girl on the box. I wondered why? An oversight, I thought. Began scouting. Poor choices. Local stuff with weak box image, and foreign stuff with Polish language all over the cover. No fun that way. Okay, is this really gonna be worth it? So downloaded the trailer. And thank you, Tubidy, you saved me a bundle. This is dreary and humdrum and bleak and like one of the other reviewers headlined, "half- hearted" and that is only the trailer. But, believe me, if a trailer looks like a shabby product, it's not gonna be anything else but a shabby product. Looks like some TV movie on a very conservative channel showing something a little bit controversial in subject matter. No doubt there will be some moments of laughter but everything seems down-class with an unimpressive cast.I could be wrong, maybe it's a gem if you see the whole thing. But I wouldn't bet on that. No way. Trailers looking A+ could still lead to ol' dogs, but boring ones indicate surefire losers.The basic idea holds promise, that I concede. But...Back then, in the video shop, I can only gather now something tipped me off. Ten years ago, I just can't remember, but good call! Waste of time, this kind of unpromising, ostensibly paltry effort.

This is a really good black comedy. A gambling addict takes a trip to Vegas to rescue his niece from a life of hooking.Britney Snow is very good - she plays it straight and doesn't overact or make it silly. Broderick has found a role he is suited for. His deadpan is great. Facinelli is great as the sleaze bag boyfriend. The scene with him at the dinner is priceless. But it is the writing that is the best. The way the dialog and situations unfold is fresh and spontaneous.The ending is realistic and although it is a comedy it has a good believable ending. It's also a good look at addiction. There is a moral to the story.

I must be an old fashioned fool. I watched this movie with my wife on DISH Network, and thought it would have a different ending. I thought Amanda and Taylor would walk together into rehab. I also thought Taylor would womp Amanda's idiot and abusive boyfriend with his broken hand. What was I thinking? A real hooker would never be the same, as described in the movie. Anyone who was raped would of course be a troubled person. I kept wondering why Taylor didn't immediately report this crime to the authorities back home. I also wondered how Taylor could take that in stride.So I should have seen the lousy ending coming. My wife did. Very disappointed, I guess, considering the subject matter. Guess I better stick with Turner Classic movies for the happy endings, or Disney. I couldn't wait to delete this movie from my DVR.

It is remarkable to me that anybody could even sit through this film -- I walked out after 45 minutes. The Matthew Broderick character, a TV sitcom writer who I guess we're supposed to feel some empathy for because he's given up drinking and smoking (or so he says) but just CAN'T give up playing the ponies, is basically just a jerk, who lies-lies-lies to his long-suffering wife about his gambling, in ways that are apparently supposed to be seen as clever or amusing but are in fact pathetic and unfunny. (Sample gag: he's calling his wife from the men's room at the track, lying about being at a meeting "at the network"; he's frantically trying to tip/bribe the men's-room attendant to "not sweep" while he's on the phone...and then some other guy FLUSHES a urinal. Wife: "Are you in a bathroom?" MB: "They have bathrooms at the network, you know." Hysterical, eh?) It only gets worse, when he heads off to Vegas ostensibly to "rescue" his niece (the titular Amanda) from a life of prostitution -- and instead heads straight for the casino, after having promised his wife that the trip was "NOT about gambling." He eventually "finds" Amanda (although it hardly seems like he's even interested in looking for her), who turns out to be the most happy-go-lucky 19-year-old hooker of all time. (I don't actually know if she's 19 or not, maybe they didn't even say -- she acts like she's about 13, though.) And get this: despite the fact that he finds her turning tricks by hanging around by the elevators in a third-rate casino (with a couple of other skanky-looking chicks), trying to pick up any guy who walks by, we're meant to believe that she's been such a roaring success as a prostitute that she's been able to buy a nice red sports car AND a house AND support a sleazy boyfriend (who apparently isn't even her pimp). But she's a good person, you see, because the next thing we see her doing is going to a REALLY BAD NEIGHBORHOOD (where she leaves her nice car unattended with the top down, at night) to buy heroin (or something) as a favor to one of her girlfriends -- not that she would ever use such nasty stuff herself, but she buys her friend "a little less each time" because she's helping her quit. Or something like that. By this time I'd had enough, and bolted for the door. Trust me, these comments don't even begin to encompass the lame and obvious jokes, the unbelievable plot situations, the awful performances (Broderick's included), and so on. I've never been compelled to post a comment -- positive or negative -- on IMDb before, but if I can save even one person from wasting their time and money on this piece of junk, it'll have been worth the effort.