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 | nudity | porn video | watching a porn video | 

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Taglines:

Business is a lot like sex ... getting in is easy, pulling out is hard.

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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

Details

Official Sites:

MySpace Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 August 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Arabulucu

Filming Locations:

Avondale, Arizona, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$22,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$325,641, 8 August 2010, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$723,714, 22 August 2010

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$24,493,605, 1 June 2015

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

Hollie Winnard was the model for the posters and cover art.

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Goofs

When Buck and Wayne are looking at their computer after their first sale in 1997, the blue and green task bar of Windows XP, which was not released until 2001, is clearly visible at the bottom of the screen.

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Quotes

Buck Dolby: How much are we up to?
Wayne Beering: We just passed the $2000 mark half an hour ago.
Buck Dolby: That's fucking amazing!

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Connections

Featured in Late Show with David Letterman: Luke Wilson/Kristen Schaal/Dierks Bentley (2010)

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Soundtracks

Down
Written by Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo, Eric Kretz and Scott Weiland
Performed by Stone Temple Pilots
Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

User Reviews

Fairly Entertaining, Even if Scorcese Wannabe

I agree with the critics who say Gallo (director) borrowed heavily from Scorcese, and I might even add the background music choices seemed to be "Scorcesian". However, if you can get past that, you might find the movie fairly entertaining and at times hilarious, thanks to some quite original plot twists and turns. Wilson, Ribisi, Cain, Sherbedgia and the rest of the crew were well cast. It's sad that there's total dross that reaps tens of millions of dollars at the box office, while something that's far from a stinker such as this earned a pitiful $700,000, but perhaps the R rating had something to do with it. There actually is not a lot of nudity or sex in the movie, except for a fair bit of amusing talk and suggestive scenes about male masturbation, which is there to poke fun at the porn industry.