Middle Men (2009)

Chronicles Jack Harris, one of the pioneers of internet commerce, as he wrestles with his morals, and struggles not to drown in a sea of con men, mobsters, drug addicts, and porn stars.

Director:

George Gallo

Writers:

George Gallo, Andy Weiss

Stars:

Luke Wilson, Giovanni Ribisi, Gabriel Macht

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Luke Wilson	...	Jack Harris
Giovanni Ribisi	...	Wayne Beering
Gabriel Macht	...	Buck Dolby
James Caan	...	Jerry Haggerty
Jacinda Barrett	...	Diana Harris
Kevin Pollak	...	Curt Allmans
Laura Ramsey	...	Audrey Dawns
Rade Serbedzija	...	Nikita Sokoloff
Terry Crews	...	James
Kelsey Grammer	...	Frank Griffin
Graham McTavish	...	Ivan Sokoloff
Robert Forster	...	Louie LA LA
John Ashton	...	Morgan
Jason Antoon	...	Denny Z
Martin Kove	...	US Senator

Storyline

Wayne Beering and Buck Dolby are drugged out geniuses with lots of ideas but they can never seem to get their act together. But when they come up with the idea to create a porn site - and charge for it (the first ever site to do so), their idea may be too lucrative for them to handle. Straight-laced business man, Jack Harris, is brought in to team up with them and turn their profitable idea into a legit business. Making money in the pornography industry is pretty easy, but staying true to yourself when surrounded by that much wealth, luxury, sex, crime and temptations, is much harder.

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Plot Keywords:

bare breasts | female nudity | topless female nudity | female rear nudity | nudity | 

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Taglines:

The Guys Who Brought the XXX to the www.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language, drug use and violence

Did You Know?

Trivia

Based on the true story of Christopher Mallick, one of the producers of the movie. He still owns an internet billing company.

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Goofs

50 minutes in at the AVN Awards listed as the year 2004 in the movie, you can clearly see in multiple shots that all the posters for the event say 2003.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jack Harris: [narrating] I had several million dollars in a duffle bag and had to go and see a bunch of low-life Russian mobsters who would most likely cut my throat, take the money, and kill an innocent kid just for sport. It doesn't get any worse than this. But I had no one to blame but myself. I'm the one who put myself and my family in this situation.
Jack Harris: See, life's all about choices, choices we keep telling ourselves are for the greater good. But somewhere deep inside, we know they'll lead to a...
[...]

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Connections

References Splendor in the Grass (1961)

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Soundtracks

The Way You Move
Written by Sleepy Brown (as Patrick Brown), Carlton Mahone and Big Boi (as Antwan Patton)
Performed by Outkast featuring Sleepy Brown
Courtesy of La Face Records
By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment
Sleepy Brown appears Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Seriously underrated, action/comedy/drama

A movie about family values, about vices and how people succumb to them, a movie about money and power and the fact that there's never "enough".

A beautifully crafted piece of work that keeps you in pretty much throughout. Performance is great from Luke Wilson and the story goes seamless.

One little, probably needless, piece of action that I didn't quite understand why it was there, is the confusion at the end with Russian mafia taking the wrong "thing", but it's probably just me and it's not that bad anyway.

Definitely deserves more than the actual 6.7 it's got. Also recommend "Limitless" and "Fracture".

Details

Official Sites:

MySpace Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 August 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Middle Men

Filming Locations:

Avondale, Arizona, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$325,641, 8 August 2010

Gross USA:

$754,301

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$754,301

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Mallick Media, Oxymoron Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1