bkoganbing
If it weren't for Peter Falk playing a middle management Mafia guy this film wouldn't rate as high as it did. After a while stars Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn are more annoying than entertaining.Favreau and Vaughn are a couple of Mafia wannabes they want to become Made guys. Of course the last guy who dreamed of that, dreamed no more and that would be Joe Pesci in Goodfellas, a much better film.Favreau plays a run of the mill boxer with a run of the mill record of 5-5 and one draw. He does some construction work on the side, but his real occupation is bailing out Vaughn from situations he creates with his own big mouth.Vaughn is a small time hustler who enjoys nothing more than getting over on people even when he doesn't have to. He avoids actual work like the plague and has fixed ideas from the movies about how gangsters should operate.Falk sends them on an errand to New York City and of course they think they're on the way up. After that the mission is screwed up in every way possible though Vaughn shows some chops in a bad situation. What is learned is that they're on the mission because they're two of the most expendable guys Falk knows.The audience gets some idea of Favreau's almost unlimited patience after putting up with Vaughn for more than 90 minutes. You'd better have a reservoir of patience to sit through this one.
matthewwalker50
It's strange, but when I had finished watching the full 90 minutes of this unusual but decent Movie that it felt like I was watching a gritty drama rather than an off-beat, dark comedy. Vince Vaughn was decent, but never seemed to keep his mouth shut. Constantly harassing people and winding them up with 600 questions per minute. (It felt that much) His acting wasn't bad, but got on my nerves at times. Jon Favreau wasn't bad himself. The film actually opens up like an old Rocky film in a boxing ring with the huge US flag shown dominating the room. It definitely felt more realistic than any Rocky film and the cuts & black eyes looked real. Great job with the face make-up. At times it was almost documentary like as me myself loving realistic movies as I do, it made the film look promising. But the acting wasn't spectacular and I did find that Ricky Slade irritated me with the countless interrogations. Bobby & Ricky are sent on a job by bobby's father, Max, whom doesn't like or trust Bobby's lifelong friend Ricky because of an incident involving a carpet cleaning van. They fly across the states to stay at a luxury hotel. During the plane journey, Ricky constantly harasses a waitress who threatens to get him in deep trouble. They arrive at the hotel and it isn't long till they fight and smash a lamp because Ricky refuses to give Bobby the phone. The film certainly becomes darker and grittier from them on. I did think it was worth the watch, and with it not being a long Movie, I give it a 6.5 out of 10.
larry.launders
Trying to catch lightning in a bottle once is hard enough, twice is darned near impossible. I liked "Swingers", I thought the balance was pretty good and that made Vince Vaughan effective in his annoyance. "Made" is not as well balanced with Vaughan. It is true you wouldn't have much of a story without his character (a gold medal screw up) but then in order to get the story you have to suffer through a thoroughly overdone taste of Vaughn's idiotic character.I gave 3 stars because there are cast members that redeem parts of this movie and make it thoroughly enjoyable. Peter Falk does a fantastic turn as the lower level crime boss, and even give Vaughn the slightest taste of what I should expect most of the audience would like to give him...short of some violent and brutal death within the first third of the movie. Famke's 'stripper girlfriend' yes is a stereotype portrayed, but she does it awfully well. Special bonus points for getting Michael O'hara to show up in this.And I am sure if you actually like Vaughn's annoying frenzy combined with a humongous yet very fragile ego, then you'll absolutely enjoy this movie.
paul2001sw-1
'Made' is a mildly amusing tale of a failed boxer who takes an assignment with a friendly Mafia boss to help himself out of hard times. The problem is, he feels obliged to bring an old acquaintance in on the deal; and this acquaintance is an egoistical idiot. The film is fairly spritely, but hardly brilliant: the idiot is such a complete fool it's almost impossible to believe that anyone could put up with him for more than a couple of hours; the insight into the criminal world is unoriginal; and what the heroes actually are supposed to do for their money is never remotely clear. It's watchable, but there's not really much point to it: a "comedy crime caper" that delivers nothing you would not expect.
AD
