The Men's Club (1986)

6/10

smatysia10 July 2005

Well, at least it's different. This was apparently one of those "art house" type of films, as I cannot imagine anyone thinking it would be a commercial success. I didn't find it terribly bad, but certainly not very good, either. Direction, acting, photography were all OK. The script was what it was, and I can't think of any way to do it differently. One note for the ladies: there do exist a lot of guys who are faithful to their wives. Who want to be, and are. These might not be the best-looking ones, though. You make your choices, and you take your chances. Interesting, the conception of what goes on in high-dollar whorehouses. Having never been to one (in any price range) I've always wondered.

This might be worth watching if you've nothing better to do (or watch)

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5/10

Talky and outdated

jordondave-280856 June 2023

(1986) The Men's Club DRAMA

Adapted from the novel by Leonard Michaels also credited for adapting his own screenplay. The title "The Men's Club" is reference to former baseball player, Cavanaugh (Roy Scheider) and the friends he hangs around with, who are middle age, some are either married or have relationships with other women, holding with them their misogynistic views. Besides Cavanaugh, it also includes. Phillip (David Dukes), Kramer (Richard Jordan), Harold Canterbury (Frank Langella), Paul (Craig Wasson), Terry (Treat Williams) and finally, Solly Berliner (Harvey Keitel), when one of the group's wives breaks up with one of them- tired of her husband's infidelity. Cavanaugh rents out a brothel to vent out their frustrations.

Movie is outdated, but perhaps made during the time when both misogyny and sexism was a problem, when women were not paid as much as men.

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Remake this picture

Steven Strauss9 March 2000

It's not that the ideas in this movie are so dumb, it's just that they are so unambiguously presented. You actually notice the drama getting more subtle and complex when the brothel madam starts talking through a doll. It's too bad, because Roy Scheider really tries to make something of his part. He must have been holding his breath between takes because he has the expression of a man performing a field autopsy. Paul Schrader should re-write this lurid chewathon for Jimmy Smits. There's an actor who can spin gold out of lint.

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3/10

Seedy Films

HarlequeenStudio8 January 2019

This sleaze-o-rama would have been a good theatrical play. But not a movie. I believe the cast made of the finest actors took the roles because the screenplay played like a play in their heads. On screen, it plays like a rather dull porn film because the actors talk too much. There's a beautiful closeup of Roy Scheider in bed with a prostitute. Turn it into a gif and throw the rest away.

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3/10

sad pathetic men in crazy messy movie

SnoopyStyle29 July 2015

A group of men in Berkley form a men's club. Former baseball star Cavanaugh (Roy Scheider) is a hound dog cheating on his wife Sarah. He brings his family-man friend Berkley professor Phillip (David Dukes) into the group. Kramer (Richard Jordan) is a psychotherapist. Solly Berliner (Harvey Keitel) is a real estate broker cheating on his wife. Harold Canterbury (Frank Langella) is a senior partner in his law firm and his wife left him after finding herself. Paul (Craig Wasson) is a manager at an auto parts company. Terry (Treat Williams) is a single doctor. Kramer's wife Nancy (Stockard Channing) comes home to find the group trashing the place. She kicks the men out and they decide to go to a high class gentlemen's club. The club is run by Jo with her puppet. She introduces Harold to Teensy (Jennifer Jason Leigh).

The first half of the movie is a touchy feely inner-self of the Neanderthal man. Many of the men are various shades of the cave man. Then they go to the brothel and things get even weirder. It's insane and not in a good way. Unless you're itching to see Langella in crazy makeup.

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9/10

Not bad at all

konover19 November 2001

This movie usually gets ripped to shreds by a lot of people. Given the offensive nature of some of the material, it's understandable. But truthfully, I enjoyed watching this movie because I really enjoyed watching this intriguing cast work together.

I first rented this movie because I couldn't believe what a cool cast was involved: Roy Scheider, Harvey Keitel, Frank Langella, Richard Jordan, and Treat Williams to name a few. Stockard Channing and Jennifer Jason Leigh also have supporting roles here, but it's basically the guys' show.

The movie is broken down like this: It introduces the characters, it shows the group of actors talking about their personal lives in a therapy type sitting at one of the character's house. And it all culminates at "The House of Affections" (you can figure out what that is).

What can I say, despite the fact that these characters often talk and act like jerks, I still enjoyed watching the cast work and even found a lot of it funny.

Having seen it several times, I can say it could've been edited much more tightly to convey its somewhat diluded message. But still, I enjoyed it and I think it's worth a rent for that cast alone. Just don't throw tomatoes at me if you happen to be offended. Call it a "guilty pleasure".

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8/10

Men being men for both good and ill

Woodyanders15 December 2021

Warning: Spoilers

A group of guys decide to form their own special therapy discussion group in which they candidly discuss their many problems relating to women. Things get out of hand when said guys eventually wind up going to a fancy bordello together.

Director Pete Medak and screenwriter Leonard Michaels start this film out as some kind of sincere examination on the macho male condition complete with trenchant insights on love, sex, and regret, but as the story unfolds this movie takes a surprising and refreshing departure into an altogether eccentric and weirdly comic realm highlighted by a crazy knife throwing contest and an absolutely hysterical impromptu mock wedding.

The top male ensemble cast have a field day with their juicy roles: Roy Scheider as sleazy horndog former baseball player Cavanaugh, Harvey Keitel as the mopey Solly Berliner, David Dukes as the uptight Phillip, Frank Langella as touchy and frazzled lawyer Harold Canterbury, Treat Williams as dashing doctor Terry, Richard Jordan as flaky drunken shrink Kramer, and Craig Wasson as the wimpy Paul. Moreover, there are sturdy contributions from Stockard Channing as Kramer's angry wife Nancy, Jennifer Jason Leigh as the brash Teensy, Ann Wedgeworth as kooky ventriloquist madam Jo, Marilyn Jones as the sweet Allison, Penny Baker as the foxy Lake, and Gwen Welles as sexy redhead. One of the strangest and most unjustly maligned movies from the mid-1980's.

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Noxious Account of Male Inferiority

HughBennie-77729 August 2010

Warning: Spoilers

Easily the worst movie of the 80s, but mesmerizing due to its incredible cast--excluding a twitching, geekish Craig Wasson--hopelessly marooned in a movie of so little depth, it might as well have taken place in a children's swimming pool. Too many artificial moments to name, all of them succeeding in characterizing its male characters as nothing less than lechs, dumbasses and brutes. But that doesn't stop director Peter Medak from indulging in scenes of squirm-inducing intimacy with the scumbags. Roy Scheider even engages in an unbelievable threesome with two prostitutes in front of a roomful of people, then later the trio dances to dixieland jazz(!). Blatant highlights of unintentional hilarity include Harvey Keitel telling Richard Jordan to shove coffee up his ass, a Treat Williams monologue about beating his date for eating his dessert in a restaurant, David Dukes chain-smoking and twitching non-stop for 90 minutes, and the movie's execrable soundtrack of some of the worst yuppie soft-jazz this side of a Dave Grusin concert series. When compared to similar, theatrical tales of male angst, the superior "Boys In The Band", "That Championship Season", or practically ANY Cassavetes film, this one stenches something awful.

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10/10

Very Philosophical movie

banbanban26 July 2003

This movie is consisted of 3 parts: a shrink's home, the whore house and the wedding. The wedding part concentrates what this movie really wanted to tell to the audience. It is extremely philosophical and impressive movie not by naked women but the underlying idea about humanfs nature. The poem read at the wedding was very nice.

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Appalling

onepotato24 September 2002

This movie is a bizarre mess. Long before Frank Langella wanders into camera range in women's make-up with a cigar, the blathering causes you to lose interest. Bewildering. Mind-numbing. Avoid this movie like the plague unless you are planning a triple feature with Showgirls and Battlefield Earth.

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