Made

I tried not to have many pre-conceived notions about 'Made' before renting it. Then again, having Favreau/Vaughn together again will always conjure up thoughts of T & Mikey. Swingers may well haunt Favreau for the rest of his career. He alluded to that with his guest shot on 'The Sopranos'. It was a special movie, an instant classic which would be hard to top for any writer. 'Made' certainly tries to follow suit with the writing style but it falls flat. Vaughn (Ricky) plays a character who talks exactly like Trent but is more of a lunatic loser who's dream is to give up boxing to be a mob guy. Favreau (Bobby) is the level-headed friend who vouches for him while getting an assignment from his boss (Falk). All he wants is to get some $ so he can make better life for his stripper girlfriend & her child. Basically from there it splinters off into Ricky & Bobby trying to take care of 'the drop' in NYC for the boss (Falk). Ricky's "Goodfellas-like" mentality is causing headaches for Bobby who just wants to take care of business. I thought Sean Combs did a fine job playing himself essentially (a ganster living the high life). Yes, there are some funny lines but overall the movie is just too sloppy. It feels like a low budget flick, the camera work is not very good and the film takes no risks. Characters were not developed & the ending tries to be all sweet but I don't think enough was done to set that up. There were just too many missing ingredients. If Vaughn & Favreau want to do future films together maybe bring Doug Liman into direct it. He did a marvelous job with Swingers and maybe they could recapture some magic. It sure was missing in 'Made'.

Rating 6/10

Peter Falk? How can his acting be anything other than a perfect 10? Peter Falk is undeniably `money!' But, he does not make the whole movie, however. Nay, Peter Falk is only one part of what I would call `Swingers with Balls.' Swingers was a great movie, but Made was even better. `Made' is more in your face! Sure Vince Vaughn is more obnoxious in Made, and sure the characters are pretty close to the same as Swingers; nevertheless, I have this distinct feeling that if Made were released first, instead of Swingers, Made would have been the movie people were talking about, and not the other way around. Maybe it is just my personality and my love for the shock value in movies, but I just feel that this one was more on the `money.' Did I mention Peter Falk's great acting? Oh yeah, there is some real talent and dark humor in Jon Favreau's writing and directing. Jon cannot afford to make too many more movies like this one, and I hope he has some other creative colors in his pallet, but only time will tell, and I would love to see some more dark humor from this guy.

Well, let me start by saying that as a fan of Swingers, I had high hopes for this film despite its bad reviews. After watching it however, I simply wonder why God, why? This might be the most annoying film that came out since "lights, camera, action" first came from a directors mouth. Vince, please Vince, tell me you owed Jon a favor. The character (sorry, I have permanently stricten the name from my memory) might make you feel happy that you were having your wisdom teeth pulled, and I am still dumbfounded how the Saprano's cast go suckered into the roles they played....In any case...save your money...save your sanity...save yourself....chose life.

I thought this movie was hilarious. To clarify things I have seen Swingers, but Made was the first that I saw out of the two. I have read another persons review where he goes on to say that after Swingers he was disappointed in Vaughn's character (Ricky). I agree only its reversed for me, Vaughn's character in Made was way funnier then Swingers, but we shouldn't compare the two anyway. Why? So they star the same 2 guys, that shouldn't mean anything other then that. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed Swingers, I just like Made more. It's definitely a movie that you appreciate more the more you watch it, I happen to own the DVD and every time my friends and I watch it we find hilarious bits that might have been missed in prior viewings. Another interesting thing I ran into while reading other reviews is that some people said if you like The Big Lobowski you'll like Made. I think the 2 movies are really different but interestingly enough I love The big Lobowski as well. Maybe its a similar type of humor, it never occurred to me to draw a comparison.

MADE writer, director, and co-producer Jon Favreau did a good job with this film in that the movie was shot in twenty-six days. That is a very short amount of time in making a movie. With a low budget, Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn steal the show as two would-be boxers that are hired by a mob figure(Peter Falk) to settle business with another boss in New York City. Bobby(Favreau) and Ricky(Vaughn) dont know what is in store for them when they are confronted with the "real mob." Vince Vaughn is hilarious in this movie in that he tries to act like a typical mafia figure with money, women, and a rich lifestyle. He fails miserably in his attempts which backfire on him and Bobby completely. I remember seeing Jon Favreau as Sean Astin's best friend at Notre Dame in the movie RUDY, and as Cameron Diaz' husband in VERY BAD THINGS. I enjoy the work he does and RUDY is one of my personal favorites so that probably has something to do with why I like his work. I thought this movie was well worth watching although there is one thing i didnt like. The fact that Sean "P. Diddy" Combs was given the role of a mob boss didnt take to me very well. He should just stick to rapping and bag the acting. Other than that, I enjoyed watching MADE, especially Vince Vaughn's constant humor.