merklekranz When the lawyers start coming out of the woodwork towards the end of "Breast Men", most of the entertainment value has already drained away. What starts out as an insightful look into the female psyche, winds up splattered all over the courtroom floor. Along the way, nice performances by David Schwimmer and Chris Cooper get lost in the dramatically glorified corruption which results from their success. This uneasy mix of professional plastic surgery and promotional advertising eventually ends in a fun house of mirrors. After the intriguing beginning, things steadily slide downhill, and the characters become less and less likable, as does the entire movie. - MERK

MBunge Breast Men is a very entertaining film, and not just because it features more naked boobs than Russ Meyer could shake a stick at.Somewhat loosely based on a true story, this is a film about the creators of the silicone breast implant. Kevin Saunders (David Schwimmer) is the desperately intense and socially clueless young medical student and Bill Larson (Chris Cooper) is the arrogant but somewhat insecure doctor training Kevin to be a plastic surgeon. Kevin comes up with the idea and Larson initially resists it but comes around in frustration at other physicians considering plastic surgeons to be nothing more than "beauticians". They encounter nothing but resistance, both from the medical profession and from women. The only real support they receive is from Dow Corning chemical company, who is more than pleased to find a new use for the silicone on which they own a patent. With no other options, Larson decides to use his own money to open a clinic to provide implants to women but it takes Kevin breaking another medical taboo and advertising to start them on their way to success. And what success they have. They can barely keep up with the demand. But then Kevin and Larson have a falling out, sending Kevin down a dark road of strippers and drugs and ever larger implants for ever more neurotic and unhappy women. Then the great silicone implant medical scare almost destroys both men and their practices, but it's ultimately Kevin who finds the silver lining in that dark cloud.This movie works on several different levels. It's both a fun little history of the breast implant era, an examination of partnership, a look at women's complicated relationships with their bodies and it tells the story of Kevin's growth from dysfunctional and somewhat emotionally stunted young man to a grown up but not particularly nice guy.David Schwimmer really gives a fine performance, even while burdened with a retrospective of bad haircuts of the later 20th century. Yes, for a while it does seem like he's just playing Ross from Friends. That's probably an albatross he'll have to carry on every acting job he ever has for the rest of his life. But it doesn't take him long to shed that persona and show us that Kevin Saunders is quite a different person. He's one of those guys who's always wanting, but never quite sure what it is he wants or how he can get. That need drives him to do exceptional things that other people wouldn't do. Without the more controlled and self-aware Larson as his partner, however, Kevin would have never gotten anywhere. Like a car without a driver, Kevin would have just sat in the garage getting rusty. Larson is like the driver. Without a car, he's stuck on the side of the road going nowhere. Kevin's ceaseless wanting eventually leads him to want to be both car and driver, but he can't handle it. Without Larson's stability, Kevin degenerates as a person and as a doctor. Even at his peak success when he's fabulously wealthy, Kevin is crude and needy and unhappy.Larson is the smaller role in the story, but it's not uninteresting. He's the man who makes the Faustian bargain. He always believed plastic surgery was important but needs other people to validate his status. So he latches on to the breast implant as his version of an organ transplant or miracle vaccine. But as the use of breast implants for simple enlargement, as opposed to cosmetic or reconstructive uses, comes to dominate his profession and his practice, Larson grows more and more bitter and insecure. It's as though he realizes that sticking big boobs on otherwise perfectly normal women really is more like being a beautician than a doctor.Emily Proctor also does a fine job as a young nurse who somewhat reflects cultural attitudes toward silicone implants. At first she's offended at the suggestion she get them. Then she wants implants to feel better about herself. Then she wants them removed as a way of taking control of her aging body. And yes, we do get to see her unaltered knockers. They're very nice and the fact that a beautiful woman with such a fine, normal bosom feels the need for surgical enhancement is one of the ways this film tries to grapple with the ethical questions of breast enlargement.While the movie does wallow in some of the sleazier and more libidinous aspects of breast implant, it takes a generally even handed view of the issue. Beyond their use for women who've suffered some sort of damage or trauma to their breasts, this story suggests that women simply wanting bigger breasts so they feel better about themselves isn't such a bad thing. But it also acknowledges that once you open up that door, it becomes almost impossible to close it again. To put it another way, Breast Men accepts that it's probably okay for a woman to want to go from an A cup to a C cup. But it also implies that if you accept that, there's no way to really object to unhealthy extremes like multiple surgeries and going from A to C to FFF.If you'd like to watch a movie that addresses the cultural questions and arguments over the silicone breast implant, while making you laugh more than a few times, you'll enjoy Breast Men. If you'd just like to ogle an enormous number of bare boobs, this movie is good for that as well.

Peter Hayes A young plastic surgeon comes up with a "eureka" invention which changes him and the cosmetic surgery world for good.Despite being someone that did good for people - well in their own minds anyway! - this reminds me of one of those Average Joe tales where Mr Average stumbles in to history despite being unbelievably dull.Horrible miscasting of "Friends" David Schwimmer as Dr. Christopher Saunders, he is totally wrong for anyone in the medical field. The guy might be good in comedy, but comes across as a bit goofy. Can the guy listen to anyone speak with his mouth closed? The producers don't really know if this is supposed to be a comedy or a drama and given that there is no laughs I would side with drama. Yes there are moments of irony - who would want to be the first to try out something like this?There isn't a movie in breast implants and the producers are finding it out the hard way.Give it giant miss - unless you want to look at some bare breasts and can only justify it on medical grounds.

Razorblade It was so awful. Not a single funny part or a clever part about a subject that, clearly, would be pretty easy to ridicule. And all those breast shots were added just to have some interesting moments in a piece of crap flick.