Middle Men

Summary: Jack Harris (Luke Wilson) is a negotiator who happens to be in the right position to broker a deal with two idiot pals (Gabriel Macht and Giovanni Ribisi) as the duo are in over their heads despite a fantastic idea in processing internet transactions like porn. Things soon change as the lifestyle consumes the former family man Jack Harris and his actions have consequences.

Review: Luke Wilson just isn't quite as strong as a leading man as some other actors when it comes to a drama. He lacks the charisma of his older brother Owen and seems best for comedy roles and an older version of Michael Cera. James Caan and Rade Serbedzija played the shady figures very well. Giovanni Ribisi played half the erratic duo and was the only great acting job in the film. Gabriel Macht, who played the other half was decent, but Ribisi was movie's bright spot. Jacinda Barrett plays a lovely wife well and Laura Ramsey was attractive, but her role as a seducer is questioned as it's said in words, but not shown with actions. The storyline was an intriguing one and seems to be based on Christopher Mallick and epassporte fraud. The filming wasn't terrible, and there were plenty of lighter moments in the film, but Luke Wilson's leading ability has to be questioned as this movie fails to captivate. It did have an interesting narrative style though with a lot of breaking of the fourth wall by Wilson.

Further Question/Philosophy/Theme: Do we get corrupted by external influences eventually? Be careful who you surround yourself with. Does this story resemble some of the things that went on with online poker companies and their transactions?

Power Rating (Out of 5): 2 I can definitely see how this movie bombed at the box office pulling in 750k while having a budget of 20 million dollars. Maybe there was a financial engineering in those numbers, but the movie should have had great potential. The plot was decent, but it was executed so poorly that I had moments where I didn't want to finish the movie. I don't know how they turned such a story into such a boring and mundane product.