Review of Middle Men (2009) by Manny C — 17 Feb 2011

Keep an eye out for this one, now on DVD. Premise: three guys get filthy rich off of a then novelty service: internet porn. It's 1995, and Wayne Beering (Giovanni Ribisi), an ex-vegeterian, and Buck Dolby (Gabriel Macht), a NASA employee, are both nursing drug habits, and they are in need of cash to keep it going. So they steal pictures from porn magazines and put it on their new internet site.

Enter Jack Harris (Luke Wilson), a Texas family man with business savvy, who has an idea: make their site an internet billing service. They're just middlemen, they don't need to produce their own porn, they need only take a piece of every transaction they make with porn businesses, as well as a whole nation of horny men with computers. The story is based on the real life experiences of its producer Christopher Mallick, with a script by Andy Weiss and director George Gallo (Midnight Run). What results is a little movie with a lot of raunch.

Ribisi and Macht are great, epitomizing shameless sleaze. James Caan makes a welcome appearance as a conniving lawyer, but even he's outdone by Rade Sherbedgia as a Russian crime boss. But the scene-stealer is Wilson, in his best role in years, who deeply humanizes this stylish morality tale. He's the real deal.