“Pop Porn”
The trailer and poster for “Middle Men” promises a movie that could be the “Boogie Nights” of internet porn movies. But George Gallo is clearly not as skilled or as visionary a filmmaker as Paul Thomas Anderson. So what we’re left with is a teaser of a film that actually plays like a feature-length trailer for the film we’d like to see.
“Middle Men” is the story of the invention of credit card billing on the internet. It’s why we have Amazon today. It’s why we are able to purchase anything online. And the origins of this idea came out of selling porn on the internet. It involves a world filled with topless showgirls and russian mobsters. There’s almost no way to screw up a movie like this, but Gallo has done just that.
Our main character is played by Luke Wilson who serves as the middle man in facilitating the merger of a credit card billing service for internet porn sites. Nearly the entire movie contains Wilson’s voiceover narration like some wanna-be Scorsese crime saga. Scenes and timelines jump back and forth so often you feel like the film was edited in a blender.
If there’s one bright spot in this mess, it’s the surprisingly effective supporting performance of James Caan. Here he’s giving one of his finest performances for this stage of his career. In a better film, this performance might even be recognized come awards season. But Caan is actually better than the film itself, which only enhances the disappointment.
DVD Double Feature: Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 epic “Boogie Nights” used an all-star cast to tell the story of the porno movie industry during a time when it had to adjust to the transition from theatrical to video releases. Among the cast is Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Heather Graham, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Don Cheadle, Julianne Moore and many other familiar faces.
Michael The Moviegoer
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