With Friends Like These... (1998)

Very well executed

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Thought this film would be rather interesting since I love all the actors in this film, however, it held my interest for about an hour and then I simply got entirely tired of the characters in the film repeat themselves over and over again. These actors are all striving to find acting positions and at the same time are good friends from way back when. However, there is a gangster role that seems to be in the making and all these actors secretly make an appointment to try out for the role. All the characters practice over and over again and this film becomes boring right to the bitter end. Do not recommend viewing this film, however, everyone might feel completely different.

I just saw this film in its 2005 re-release. It's really a fun little film, with quite a few laughs and lots of great moments among a really amazing, well-chosen cast.It's so much smarter than the average Hollywood film -- which may have been its problem when released?! Who knows why studios do what they do -- and apparently, they didn't do this film justice in 1998 (after all, it has an ensemble cast where -- gasp -- no one is under 30!)As both a writer and an Italian-American, I got perhaps an extra kick out of the story, which is about survival in Hollywood for these four actor characters and their families -- but the film's humor and theme of friendship is truly universal.

A not too bad effort at chronicling the life and hard times of barely working character actors in Los Angeles. I never know when I check out one of these low budget indies if I am going to be pleasantly surprised or grievously disappointed, so it's always nicer to be the first.Some fine character actors on display, including David Straithairn, Amy Madigan, Adam Arkin, Beverly D'Angelo and an uncredited Bill Murray (pre-Lost in Translation). The story is a little light, even for a comedy, and doesn't really hit many strong notes, but it's nice to see something about those actors whose faces are always familiar to us and yet we rarely know their names. There is a particularly nice turn at the end, when each actor auditions for a "dream part" in a Scorcese film (the elusive goal driving the plot), and we suddenly see them as talented professionals, not goofballs and losers. This is very well done and a nice, satisfying end to the film.If there is a major flaw -- and this is a flaw in a lotta movies -- these marginally successful actors are all depicted as living like Hollywood royalty. Big, stylish houses that would cost upwards of $1 million in So Cal! And yet these actors are clearly described as "out of work", sometimes for over a year. Get real! A real out-of-work character actor is probably living in a one bedroom apartment and lucky if he doesn't have a roommate at that! Still, as someone else wrote, it's nice anymore these days to see a movie about something besides a giant monster, space alien, things blowing up or CGI graphics. So thumbs up!

Wonderfully done! I thought I knew each of the characters. One right after another they became more real. It amazes me why films like this don't get more play! It's realism into the world of auditioning breaks your heart! It shows what people with hearts for their work, these actors, have to go through to get a job! Holding on to HOPE which is all you have. Bill Murray's cameo was right on the money! Unlike in Baseball if you're a 300 hitter you're job on a team should be fairly secure. But with acting, as these characters experience, it's a whole different ball game!This movie will definitely make the out of work actor want to throw a brick through the TV. However it also makes you see that family and friends is what life is all about!