Made
2001, USA, Directed by Jon Favreau
Colour, Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD, Region 2, Momentum, Video: Anamorphic 1.75:1, Audio: DTS
Struggling professional boxer, Bobby, has managed to bag himself a gorgeous girlfriend who also happens to be a lap dancer, the problem here being the fact that he can’t stand seeing her slide her smooth body all over other men. Because his main vocational passion isn’t proving to be particularly lucrative (even when he pays his mate to fight him and take a fall he ends up with a draw) he also supports himself doing small jobs for a mob boss while accompanied by his loser friend, Ricky. After beating up one of his girl’s punters Bobby is forced to do the boss a favour, this fortunately landing him and Ricky with a shot at big time earnings as they’re persuaded to temporarily spend some time in New York performing some ‘drops’ there for gangster Ruiz. Once on their way, however, the socially retarded Ricky can’t seem to help making complete fools of both of them as he manages to get on the wrong side of just about everyone (including the gangsters) they encounter in a vain attempt to somehow prove himself worthy of street credibility and sex-god status. Will Bobby’s one chance at carving a normal life for him and his woman be ruined in the process?
Probably financed on the success of Swingers and with a bigger budget to boot, this reunites the two main stars of that film once again though Made is not actually a sequel (as much as the marketing department would probably have wanted you to believe otherwise with statements such as ‘They used to be money but now they’re made…’ and ‘The guy‘s [sic] from Swingers are back…’). The similarities are this: Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn play the lead characters (here, Bobby and Ricky respectively) in both films, and Favreau wrote both films. They’re not the same characters so this is no sequel, plus they’re in entirely different situations compared to Mike and Trent. In fact, with Favreau also producing (alongside Vaughn) and directing, this seems like something of an ego trip. Despite that, it’s Vaughn as Ricky who gets most of the onscreen lines, his voice probably taking up about 70% of the soundtrack and becoming a little tiresome along the way. Ricky’s irritating nature is well played by Vaughn but he also succeeds in irritating the viewer no end, to a point where you’re hoping his head will explode just to shut him up. The dialogue is good (aside from exorbitant use of the word ‘fuck’) but it’s not as relevant to the human condition as in Swingers, seeming to go nowhere of any significance. The other thing that bothers me is the documentary-style shaky-cam - there’s no talent involved in randomly swinging the camera back and forth between two conversing characters and visual composition becomes a redundant term in the process. The soundtrack and editing are much better but they almost appear to be concealing the fact that there’s not a great deal of value in the core material itself. It’s not actually a ‘bad’ film but the ostentatiousness on display along with Vaughn’s excruciating character prevent it from rising above average. On first viewing it almost tricks you into thinking you’re watching a credible follow up to Liman’s film but after a while (or perhaps a second viewing as was the case with me) you realise Made is not nearly as smart as it is pretending to be.
Surprisingly accompanied by a very able DTS track the image on the disc is detailed and naturally coloured while the ratio is slightly pillarboxed to anamorphic 1.75:1 rather than the 2.35:1 claimed on the back of the UK DVD packaging - a strange choice anyway considering the intended projection ratio is reportedly 1.85:1. There are lots of extras padding out the disc making it a package worth trying out if you can find it at a reasonable price - you may like the film (Empire magazine did, for whatever that’s worth) but I think it fails to hit its intended nail on the head by a notable margin.