The Amateurs: A Surprisingly Good Film! (Review)

[Josh]

When First Look Studios first announced that they would begin releasing titles on Blu-ray, I was, like most, excited to see additional content come to the format. Looking over their initial offerings, 'The Amateurs' was one of those titles that caught my eye. The all-star cast was comprised of familiar faces, and the synopsis lent itself to be one of those films which could really have a lot of heart. The first thing I did, not being familiar with the film, was to go to Rotten Tomatoes and see how well it stood up against the critics. Unfortunately, the critics weren't very receptive, and what appeared to be a promising film was dogged by a 14% rating on the Tomatometer. I immediately lost interest.

That is until the title arrived in my mailbox for review. I had already decided that I wasn't going to buy the film, but who was eye to deny myself the opportunity to watch a film when it would be at no cost to yours truly? So yesterday, after a hard day at work, I decided that I was going to relax my mind by watching a Blu-ray disc. The other titles I have still awaiting viewing are all too long for just a quick viewing, so noticing that 'The Amateurs' comes in at a manageable 99 minutes, I decided to give the film a shot. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

Technically, the release is a failure - not in the general sense, but in that the video and audio are mediocre at best. The scenes which are filmed at the bar seem over filtered, leaving a distracting bright halo around most objects. My first inclination was that this was edge enhancement, but the picture was so soft (think early Blu-ray releases) that there could be no way the picture was sharpened unless the entire film was shot out of focus. I understand that this is a low budget "festival" film, but the transfer is just barely better than a DVD.

Audio doesn't fare much better. The main soundtrack is listed as Dolby Digital Plus on the menu, but it only comes through as Dolby Digital, leading me to think that they ripped the menus from the HD DVD release and simply ported them over. Its not a glaring mistake, but a little QC before pressing goes a long way. I went with the DTS track, and having no idea whether it was 768kbps or the full 1.5Mbps, I have no idea, it sounded decent. Nothing special on the audio front, but the movie isn't much more than dialog anyway.

The only part of the film which really stood out was the film itself.

Andy Sargentee (Jeff Bridges) is always looking for the next great opportunity. While most would see this as a good quality, it has caused him to lose job after job (when frustration causes him to become confrontational) and even his marriage. But it is when he is at his lowest that he seems to cause the most trouble. As he sits in the bar with an empty glass, lost in his own thoughts, his friends fear what idea he'll come up with next - because they know, no matter how ridiculous it may seem, they will be eager to help. His friends Moe (John Hawkes) and Ron (Brad Henke) try to snap him out of it, but no luck. As his best friend Barney (Tim Nelson) walks into the bar, he runs over to his friend to prevent the inevitable next great idea from brewing in his mind. But its too late, Andy has his sure-thing idea - he is going to make an adult film.

After a lot of time spent in front of the TV doing "research", he recruits the local townsfolk to help him realize his idea. Other friends sign on to help, including local nerd Some Idiot (Joe Pantoliano) as writer/director and Andy's lifelong friend Otis (William Finchtner) as Executive Producer - he just wanted to stand around the set and watch, perfect job for an executive producer. After raising the necessary funds, the get started, but finding people to act in him film is a lot harder than he initially anticipated.

While the movie is about a bunch of people making an adult film, there is no actual nudity in the film (despite its R rating). What could have easily have fallen into endless bucket of vulgar humor films, ends up being more on the adult side, with humor that is passive enough to not be offensive. The film tells the story of the friendship and heartache which surround the making of the adult feature in a way which does more to describe this simple town than any words could do justice.

At the end of the day, it difficult for me to rate 'The Amateurs' as harsh as those critics who watched in in the theater. Even our own Martin Liebman's review reflects how good this film actually is. I can't recommend buying this title, though, to even my own surprise, I will be making this a permanent part of my collection to watch over and over again. It is, however, a strong rental which should be on your Netflix queue immediately after finishing this post. You may find, like myself, that the film has a quality that is to be enjoyed many times over, with friends and family alike.