Friends and Family (2001)

Very disappointing...

So much average

Just perfect...

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

i don't even know where to begin...if i could give it a "zero"- for truly awful- i would. What is the point of having "gay" main characters when in truth they were really bad straight actors that obviously had in their contracts that there would be no touching, kissing, etc- anything that would actually make them seem like a gay couple. I am sorry but the plot was... Horrible. Not to mention the weird military sub plot that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. This was poorly written, directed, acted, and well lets just get straight to the point it sucked. I would not recommend wasting an hour and half of your life on this BS movie and think that i should have been paid for the time i spent wishing for it to get better. Do NOT listen to the other reviews (i unfortunately listened) go do something better with your time.

Despite what rrfrank writes in his comment, "Only totally undemanding homosexuals desperate for validation will bother with this dog" I am not undemanding, not desperate for validation and I am not a dog. I am very demanding and I am a bear. (For those that don't know, big hairy gay man.) Yes, the movie drug at several points. Yes, there are far too many stereotypical gay type characters ... overly stereotypical ... looks like a homophobes attempt at creating gay characters. Fabulous! Having grown up during the time when a lot of these stereotypes were the only "role models" gay people had it is really amusing to see someone finally making fun of them.I do have to say that you must sit through the entire movie. The first time I saw it, I was not enthused by the title, the cover and the fist fifteen minutes ... truth be known, I went to cook dinner. My other half was watching and would break out laughing ... it became more frequent. I guess it was a good 30 minutes into the movie when I had to come in and watch. Well, I had to finish diner but after fixing out plates I made him start it over from the beginning.I love watching the butch gangsters trying to "act gay" - picture big butch guys with guns trying to queen it up. And during the big party, the god father is terrific trying to make sure that one lady has everything she wants to see at the party.

Like so many gay movies, there is so much potential here, but it never matured during the artistic process. So many things were not quite there. The script with a little more polish, the directing with a little more experience, the acting moving a little faster, and the movie with a little more work would have been totally delightful. Two things bothered me most. 1. The lack of a kiss or any real intimacy between the gay couple. I kept hoping until the end that they would kiss - even a small peck.2. The pace. This movie was slow. Not sure whose fault this was. Did the director over control the actors not allowing them to move it along? Did the editor stretch everything to try meet an appropriate length? Not sure, but even the big action sequence toward the end was a waltz, when it should have been frenetic tarantella.There were a lot of funny ideas here, but the delivery was sooo slow. Pace, pace, pace, screwball comedies are about pace. Keep it moving. It may have been that the production staff (writer, director, etc) where just too impressed with themselves.The acting on the other was pretty good. I think with proper pacing they would have been exceptional. Yes, like so many low budget indie gay movies - I wish for a rewrite and a remake by a competent director. I wouldn't change the cast at all, just the creative/production staff. This could be a delightful charming hilarious movie, but it isn't quite there.By the way, if you listen to the commentary you may begin to understand what went wrong and who is at fault. Oh well, <sigh>.

I watched this flick the other night with my roommate (he picked it out; I didn't), and it was unbelievably bad. We both agreed it was one of the worst movies we'd ever seen. The jokes, about mothers, midwesterners, mafioso, et. al., are hideous and lame. The characters are all horrible cliches. The plot marches on in a ludicrous fashion that really grates on the nerves. Cuts between scenes that are meant to subtly emphasize the irony of the situation only reveal the insipid obviousness of the plot. On top of it all, the over-the-top, hammy acting reinforces so many stupid stereotypes that you wind up wanting to yell at the screen. Despite this, my roommate and I resolved to finish the movie. Don't ask me why -- perhaps we were hoping for a sex scene that never happened.