Reviews

I took this off the shelf at my local library thinking I would enjoy Maggie Smith and a British comedy. What a disappointment. Perhaps it is the way British people are portrayed as just so nauseatingly tolerant it makes me know how the country is in the state it is in now with the social justice warriors out in full force.

Here you have this woman who for all intents and purposes is nuttier than a fruitcake, she stinks too, and yet the whole town seems bent on not appearing "prejudiced" and so they go along with it to make themselves feel better - they admit this. None of the characters held my interest including the milquetoast writer who ends up with her vehicle in his driveway for years.

I am all for being intrigued by the lives of those who appear lost and homeless. But this was nothing but a vanity exercise for Smith and not a very good one. I would not want to live in this neighborhood and at the rate Britain is going, who else will want to either?

Another disappointment from Netflix. As another review said, this is silliness compounded with a lot of homosexual unfunny jokes. When I was a boy, boys did not joke around about being gay all the time - if ever. There would be lines on a sports field for example, but not like these boys today or at least in this movie. And all the male characters look as if you could have them anyway for not too much persuasion. Their clothes and the way they walk and everything.

As for the plot, it is even dumber. Ripping off drug dealers etc. and not seeming to feel any danger whatsoever. "Big Time" dealers who leave strangers in their bathroom where their stash is hidden and not even noticing it is gone? And the teasing the white kid gives to the Asian one is so homoerotic you know they would do each other if either one had the nerve to just go for it. The same goes for the Tony kid and his older brother. You just get the feeling they suck each other off. The whole thing about going to Brazil? What fantasy awaits there I wonder? And on and on. I didn't wait till the end to switch channels. The only obvious thing missing was sex. For example, why didn't Tony bang the gangster's girl when he had the chance? Probably because we saw the real him at the disco when they did "moon rocks."

Netflix has this out under the title "Brace for Impact" which apparently has been the title of about a million other movies. Anyway, we get our heroine who is afraid of flying and is in a support group to conquer her fears. They take a flight and it crashes but not before our heroine senses something and gets off just before take-off, leaving her gay brother on board to die. THEN, we discover that she is in fact an FBI agent who is the LEAD INVESTIGATOR for crashes! Kind of like an Admiral who is afraid of water!

It seems that everybody back at FBI HQ in Quantico knows her as a hothead who gets entirely too involved in her work but hey, she is just dedicated, right? It appears that she is always on some kind of forced vacation to cool off but that does not stop her from leaning on her co-workers for access to information so that she can indeed continue to investigate or from using them for sex just to take the edge off of a busy day.

She has a mother too, who seems to know her all too well and who also had some kind of problem with the gay brother being gay and the idea of meeting his "widower" is nauseating to mom but in a miraculous 180, she embraces the guy with no hesitation whatsoever. It helps that the dead sibling haunts his sister - I guess.

Our heroine has a variety of FBI co-workers, some Muslim for example, to let us know that Muslims are good - like gay men (who as usual in movies are handsome and virile and totally at ease and leave you with that "what a waste" taste in your mouth). She originally catches the boyfriend breaking into her dead brother's place (since he did not have key (hmm)) and who the dead brother had even already broken up with and never even mentioned on the ill- fated flight. Apparently, the deceased broke up with him "all the time." But it was great having a boyfriend "everybody wanted" even if it was a bore having to shoo them all way - all the time.

I wish I could say how the movie turned out but I could not take another minute of this stupidity.

I do not know what the point of this film is unless the moral is incest is taboo and for a good reason. Otherwise, maybe the lesson is incest is okay. In any event, it follows a spate of gay-themed films where the one coming out is relieved to hear from their parents (usually father) that "he is a little gay too." The idea that this kind of thing runs in the family is cute too, giving it even more legitimacy.

The frustrated part is that once again, we have a young guy with supposedly everything including a Yale degree and parents with Yale degrees and uncles with Harvard degrees and ballerina girlfriends and a cool career as a chef and yet, the first chance he gets, he allows himself to be totally whipped by his slutty cousin whom he has never met in his life!!! Just like that. Of course there was no problem when mom (aunt) catches them in bed together either and her father tells him to help him butcher a hog because, if you can screw my daughter, you can help me kill a pig! Are things really that loose these days? To ask what was he was thinking is useless. Then, when he does find out the long hidden family "secret" he (and the rest of the "family") seems almost relieved. Watch The Bad Seed and you will know what I mean. And that ending - really? Will he never learn?

Continuing with my "gay film festival" on Netflix this week, this is at least the third film of this genre that goes nowhere fast. The film is set in modern day South Carolina in a large, urban town. It concentrates on one particular congregation and the issues (mainly of a homosexual nature) that affect them, albeit in the closet. It claims to center on three high school seniors and the requisite angst of maturation. A lot is evident from the beginning, namely who is gay and who isn't. The boy of the trio of friends is one of those that everyone probably knows or at least suspects is gay; his mannerisms etc. give him away as does the "clue" that you can find these types in drama class, i.e. theater. In no time at all you figure that their drama/music director at church is gay too, although he has a voluptuous wife and a couple of kids. I get the idea that he was always gay and got married, etc. to try to fix it; I even suspect that may have gone through some kind of "conversion therapy." His wife knows it too and just how this marriage will survive is not much of a guess. Will he wait until the kids are grown? Will the wife finally confront him? The guy practically molests his teen-aged charge in the kid's own bedroom while a party goes on downstairs to give him an expensive gift. He obviously has a crush on the boy and the pent-up kid goes for it and then we think feels remorse. We think. Then there is the kid's single father who, as in a couple of films I have seen, is quite supportive of his son. I get the feeling that father is gay too and I think his son thinks so too. How we know the father knows is left a mystery except that a younger male sibling finds "material" on his brother's computer that spilled the beans and blabs to dad. Dad's reaction was apparently that it would take time for him to adjust to his older brother's gayness. The kid, however, never seems to troubled by everybody knowing he is gay and manages to smirk his way through the movie which is supposed to be so fraught with worry and indecision. This is a large town and we must assume many gays (the kids managed to take their adult atheist friend to a gay bar) who gets a phone number from a woman while boy makes out on the dance floor and nobody in the party seems to mind at all. I mean, how worried were they? Then the closeted church director ends up stalking the kid again and confesses that he too, thinks he is gay, and cries about it. In fact they both hug and cry about it. Why they did not end up in bed is beyond me. Then, you have the two girls who one would swear were closeted lesbians themselves but surprise! One turns out to admit to the others that she no longer believes in God but no big deal; we still think you are super. The other girl, who we are led to believe has a major crush on he BFF end up being the most devout and hooks up with a cute guy from college and we assume will lead a Christian life. At one point she has lunch with another woman - who - we don't know - but this woman professes her love for Christ and says she wants to go into ministry but the church frowns on women ministers. The younger girl lays her out for it and tell s her that is she wants to cherry pick from the Bible, then what good is the Bible? Very powerful and a welcomed moment in the film. Finally, someone with the courage to speak of for the faith. There is also a throwaway involving a young couple up for the position of youth pastor. At one point the frustrated wife of the closeted music director makes a play for the young youth pastor, who is so inexperienced, he really does not know how to handle the situation. he does not get the job.

In the end, the kids go off to their respective colleges, the boy and lost-her-faith girl to New York City. At Christmas Break they all come home. Boy's father asks if he has "met anyone"? The boy giddily says there might be one guy to which his father replies, that is real fine son. That father is gay!!!

As in may films with a Christian backdrop, this one too leaves you feeling that they find a way to marvelously blend their "faith" with their homosexuality - God is a kind God; God made me this way; God loves us all, etc. so people need to stop judging. Yawn. Who is judging? I see no evidence that the "whole town" would not have found out the kid was gay and yet, I saw no pushback or worry on the kid's face at all He grins through it all. The idea that in this day and age of gay liberation, that a teenager in a large town would not feel at home with his gayness is baffling. These kids have the internet and all and laws against bullying etc. There is a vast network of support for these kids and we are constantly told that their generation could care less. But this is a bout a religion and once again it is handled in a oh well, God will understand mode. And again, why are fathers portrayed now as more understanding than mothers when their boys come out? I think that is propaganda or wishful thinking on he part of these writers. I hate it.

I am a product of the Harvey Milk Days and this film illustrates a new kind of 21st Century gay. Oh sure, the "good 'ol days" had their share of pathos and heartbreak - drama - but I find it curious that in this day and age, after 40 years of come out, come out and teaching in schools that homosexuality is okay and everything, that this kind of shallow, passive-aggressive, timidity among young gays (particularly on campus) still exists.

Early on our hero poses to his Academic adviser (he attends a top religious-based school and refs to himself as a seminarian) that his belief is that if God is "good", then why does he make "love" so difficult to achieve? He fails to complete the thought, however, in that he stops short of saying, why does God make it so difficult for homosexuals? If he had gone that far and perhaps examined his own life and all those he surrounds himself with, he might find his answer.

He has two or three equally closeted co-students and they have to be the most boring crowd anyone can imagine. They are all cute in a nauseating way, concerned about their physiques, etc. They get online and cam-sex. They all give varying rationalizations for even being at seminary, none of which have anything to do with having faith in Jesus. I would feel better if they just admitted that they came to meet guys.

In what has to be some of the most stilted dialogue ever and equally dull performances, this film is the flip side to the flamboyance of say Bear City, although both illustrate the desperation and hopelessness of pursuing the homosexual "lifestyle." And all of this couched in that magic word that has been so bastardized - love.

Hey seminarian, lust is not love; sex is not love; you are not making love in the back seat of some trick's car nor in the tea room at college - right there, where anybody could walk in and see you, Mr. in-the-closet!!!!

Love is not difficult if you do it the way God designed. It isn't. Only when you go outside of His plan, do the complications occur. Likewise with any of Jesus' prohibitions: drink too much, smoke too much, fool around on your wife, steal a car, lie on your taxes, etc. There is a REASON God says don't do it. Because it will hurt you!!!

Usually, in these gay Christian vs. the Bible flicks, homosexuality wins, mainly because the subject finds some way to justify their "love" for another man through the so-called love of Jesus. No where have I ever seen one of these that acknowledges the existence of Satan or the possibility that sodomy itself is a product of evil intentions on the part of Satan. Jesus talks about Satan a lot so he must exist. We know that men can love one another with no hint of homosexuality whatsoever too. So, if the belief is that God created man and woman to be together and not the proverbial "Adam and Steve", if we acknowledge that God does not "make mistakes", then like the fall of Adam and Eve at the slithering of the serpent, it can also be true that sodomy was part of the curse inflicted upon mankind as part pf that Original Sin. In other words, were the serpent to say to a man of another man: God says do not put that into your mouth but He just wants you to be miserable; He knows you will like it, i.e. forbidden fruit, and you fall for that line, then guess what?

You wanna tell these poor slobs to just get a life. Sitting around waiting for the phone to ring from some guy who is even sicker than you are, even more guilt-ridden than you are doesn't sound like much fun, particularly when all of you are such beta doormats it isn't even funny. Makes you wonder what would happen to any of these twinks were they to find themselves in a rough leather bar. All, however, would make excellent prison fish.

Heck, I am straight and even I would smack them around and make them do what I wanted.

Just caught this on Netflix and I must say it shows that, like those other scum bags, the Krays (or Capone even), so-called gangsters are and just scared cowards and momma's boys and the fact that they are openly gay makes it even more bizarre.

I am sick of the excuse that they have to do this to survive. That we have a reputation to withhold. And I note that in Britain (Scotland, Ireland), the relationship between parents and adults is appalling. No one seems to have any respect for their parents and do whatever they damned-well please (smoking at 8 years old etc.) and the attitude is oh, well, what can you do? The idea that children can actually be negatively influenced in sitting around with adults while they brag of crime, curse to high Heaven, etc. is disgusting as well.

There just seems, on these "Estates" to be an overwhelming stench of debauchery, incest and more. Like the gay Kray brothers, who were reported to be sadists in their romantic pursuits, I figure there is more to Dominick as well in that area. He obviously likes them young. His rationalization foe being gay is curious as well. He basically says he is gay because from an early age he was repeatedly gang raped. Huh?

And the whole Catholic thing is nauseating as well. What is it about that religion that its followers feel perfectly "free" to do all kinds of sinful acts and then think they can go and "confess" and it is all over --- until, As Noonan himself says, tomorrow when I do it again?

You get a totally cartoon funeral for older bro Desi, knifed to death by some crack dealer he was trying to intimidate but who apparently had not gotten the memo on who he was messing with. And of course, The Noonans will not accept that this guy probably had every right to off their brother and even have it announced at the funeral that vengeance will be theirs, not God's. The did, however, say it "respectfully" since they were in church and all. And then the priest asks God to forgive all Desi's bad deeds and let him into Heaven. Oooooookay....

And, the cortege is led by pipers and cops and firefighters. On the take? Schools and businesses close etc. - just like for Al Capone.

The family supposedly took in millions but you won't really see that here. They all look like classic trash that had been on the dole for generation. Everybody looks like they need a bath and after all those sausages, eggs and beans, what the place must smell like ....

Did they know ANY girls at all? All I saw was one of Dom's obvious tricks running around in a t-shirt that says "slow suck." I suppose, in different outfits, these boys would be the notorious Scallies who turn tricks in between mugging foreigners or making bad amateur porn and in general creating havoc for the hell of it.

As is the case in real-life Britain today, fathers are virtually non-existent, and when they are, almost always in a cuckolded way; sad drunks for whom neither wife nor children have any respect. And the dads know it and accept that too.

This film, and its depiction of Britain, make the U.S. look better and better and I cherish what we have here and can understand why we left. I pray we do not become like that; generations of bums content to do anything, say anything, and justify it in the name of survival and then expect God to understand as well.

Interesting if only to illustrate how not to live and who not to idolize. Capone used to hand out turkeys too and even Hitler had a mother, but so what?

Okay. I am old skool, back when Harvey was still alive and Sylvester screamed Do ya Wanna Funk? Guys went to bathhouses as a group, like it was a club; the whole Y-M-C-A thing.

I spent a lot of time in a mixed group of straights and gays and the pathos and drama have not changed at all. The insecurities, the depression, the self-loathing - still there.

I knew many many couples who were never monogamous - ever. This was back when it was expected that ANY delivery boy, phone installer, etc. was going to have sex with you - and they did. This was before dating sites on the Web or even cell phone chats. When it was an effort to see a gay porn movie and there were maybe the same dozen guys in every film - two of them black!!! Fat guys? Are you kidding? "Silver" guys? Get outta here. Bald guys? Uh uh. Nope. Too many muscles were even seen as denoting an empty-headed jock. Chest hair was a must. Men were wanted not pubeless boys. Delivery boys and prison scenes were about it - and hitchhikers. And nothing was Gonzo or hand-held or "amateur" in your bedroom either. ALL the military guys were actors too. Heck, they didn't even bother to cut their hair!!! It was the time of the gay magazine.

Anyway, the guys I knew who considered themselves as having "lovers" would always be seen at the bars too. Spend time alone with them and you usually found that if they were not having sex, they fought, and generally could not stand each other; they could not really be alone together and just do nothing. So they had to always surround themselves with the "gang." Everything was about cruising, scoring, new meat on the block. Nobody but nobody had a "supportive" family. Hell, why do you think they left Des Moines?

As for Bear City, I guess it is right that everyone find his crowd for support. It is just so contrived and so much work has to go into creating a reality for themselves. US against the world.

As for these characters, the only fun part was the three-way with Uncle Milton or whatever. That dolt could not even remember HAVING the threesome. Of course this only came about because of pressure to spice up our relationship. So many daddy issues in this film too. I found the so-called hot boy dismally annoying and his so- called Silver Daddy love interest an insecure loser.

I had no idea the back room orgies at bars still happened. None at all. Nice they show the occasional condom but in the shower with the water running? I doubt it. Oh yeah, they call that barebacking. And of course every bar has its so-called hottest guy who has had everybody and has first dibs on any chickens. BEWARE

And the whole thing with the cute cub and his 400 lb daddy bear and the kid being so upset that daddy might actually lose weight was absurd. How does a kid like that get so hung up on a slob like that? No offense to the slob, but come on. I know there are guys who go for fat chicks too but that just proves my point. I do not think it is normal for some Brazilian hottie to be ga-ga over a 400 lb guy. I don't. The guy has issues.

All-in-all, I could see myself talking to these guys but hanging out with them would only bring me down. The mad cruising, the anonymous groping, the constant double-entendres are fun for awhile but after that I think people to to face reality and grow up. It may be boring but at least it is real. Men were not meant to be married to each other and that is why it does not really work. It doesn't. Opposites attract and that means biologically mostly. The rest is just lust and it is fleeting. Good luck though.

Ah, hustlers. Ah, eastern European hustlers. Ah, stupid older men. What is so terrific about that really? Do we really need to get inside the minds of rent boys? Why? I know, they are just doing what they have to do, right? Hanging around ripping off people. Having gay sex. big deal. Call me homophobic (a totally stupid term by the way with a fake definition - irrational fear of homosexuals? Irrational?

Anyway, I could barely get through the set up opening. I have travelled a lot in my time and seen many of these things up close - in Thailand, Philipines, etc. Or in Hollywood. It is a sad, depressing life. I have noticed lately that more and more boys turn to this and try to rationalize their gay-for-pay. I think it is laziness. I know that in some countries, the hustler child is the only breadwinner in the family. I can even remember going to one country and a young boy stood on the sidewalk and offered his entire family for sale - males and females - everyone from his siblings to his parents and even grandmother ($5.00). His littlest brother he had in a blonde wig and lipstick. I am not kidding. So sad. How could somebody take that little boy?

I guess I am just tired of these scenes as if they are something to be admired. If it is just meant to show reality, then that is even more depressing. Go anywhere on the globe and you will find this. It to me is disgusting.

For the record, I came of age in that brief period between 1975-80 known as Disco. It was time of The Castro, Sylvester and Harvey. It was the time of cocaine and Studio 54, Liza, Bianca Jagger and Andy Warhol - part Two. It was a time when the "thing" was for men to not be uptight about our masculinity and to not freak out at two men tongue kissing, etc. Heck, try it yourself: don't knock it if you haven't tried it. So, most of us did because our girlfriends wanted us to!

I have been watching gay-themed films this week on Netflix, having been out of the scene so-to-speak for many years, I wanted to see what the gay crowd was up to on cinema. Boy, how things never change.

Much of what I considered gay culture came to a halt with A.I.D.S. Bathhouses and such. However, having watched a half dozen or so contemporary gay-themed movies, it seems things are back to square one, except once in a while you see a condom.

The gay life is a drag - pun intended.

I watched another called Bear City and was amazed that clubs still have orgy rooms in back; that guys go to glory holes etc. I thought that was over. I also notice that all the jealously, backbiting and insecurity are in tact as well. And of course EVERYBODY has serious daddy issues.

Often these films throw in religious references, usually to highlight the spiritual battle (God always loses) or to simply mock God and blame HIM for the depression, etc. Still others, like this one, give us the all-accepting loving family and lately, those families have all been BLACK - which is total baloney. Black families DO NOT traditionally welcome their sons home with a white boy (or any boy) in tow and happily lead them to a bedroom. I have also noticed that in these films the father (if there is one) is more-than-happy to welcome gay sons and may even confide to them they they too had "urges" in that area. Great dad!

If there are couples, it is generally all about sex and you see that they spend a lot of time in bars since if they are not screwing each other, they fight and so cannot really stand to be alone together if not having sex. Likewise, monogamy is a joke.

I can recall going with a mixed group to a bar back in the day and they had this chain suspended from the ceiling attached to a Harley. As it descended, there was a guy in "open" leather gear and for a buck you could fist him - a buck a thrust. All this went on while the music blared and most of the club paid no attention whatsoever. Meanwhile, take a "wrong turn" and you could enter a dark space where the only thing you recognized were hands and mouths. Super!!! I actually lost my wallet once and went back to this bar to retrieve it and when I saw the "dark space" in the light it was very depressing. As Bette Davis might say, "what a dump!"

All of this is to say that I am glad that was a phase and not my life. I am totally bored by gay boys, twinks, daddies, bears, whatever. Maybe it is a thing for youth, I don't know, but in hindsight, I would skip the whole thing. It gets you nowhere.

Maybe it is just me but there seemed to be millions of gay men back then too but today it seems that EVERY guy under 30 is gay. Every guy with a beard is a daddy or bear etc. It amazes me.

It is boring. Maybe if they brought by the neckerchiefs in various colors guys used to hang on their behinds - left or right. I don't know.

No one seems to mention this is a play on the Biblical Prodigal Son. As such, it is interesting that the leads are homosexual. Imagine if, in the Bible, that is why the younger son left!

I have only seen about 20 minutes and I could already tell, from the body ink of the lost son, that he was a porn star, amateur or otherwise since that is how they look nowadays. It is also interesting that, as in the Bible, the younger son goes off to live a life of total debauchery and comes home because regardless of his "charm and talent", no one wants him for anything but his body either and they get tired of that too - been there, done that, see ya, it's been fun, etc.

I can also tell that the Elder Brother is a bit envious of the daring do of his little brother although I do not think he would like it for long.

The setup had the father, who by all accounts was a good one, simply admonishing his young sons against sodomy. What is so bad about that? Nowadays, I guess it is child abuse. Sigh.

So the younger son resented Daddy; he stole Barbie Dolls from his school friends and of course this was cool because he had already seen Big Brother's Blue Boy mag. Did they fool around ever?

And then he went off to seek his fortune or to get out of that stinkin small town where nobody can be gay, yadda yadda yadda. And of course he has that "look" that gets you picked up in 10 seconds because well, you have that "look." Are we supposed to blame all his problems on daddy?

I am on a gay film fest this week just to see what the world is propagandizing in that area. Next, some flick about gay boys who like "bears." It's a comedy so should be hilarious, huh?

Here we go again. Boy meets girl; girl grows into woman; boy stays boy. The married men are doormats too and the single ones are Neanderthals. In other words, once again, all the females are Tops and the men Bottoms. Burglar in the house? Don't expect hubby to get too excited. Hubby gets beat up ALL THE TIME in front of you? That's okay,honey, etc. You're just sensitive and that is what I love about YOU!!!

And the magic pot? Well, there are people tossing our house and trying to kill us over it but hey, lets' just leave it out and answer the door holding it, etc. Hell, lets' even take it to a motel room so some shady Asian can talk us out of keeping it. I mean, HE won't try anything fishy, will he?

And on and on and on. Is this supposed to be screwball? Slapstick? or just people behaving illogically and stupidly?

Weak men everywhere. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

What a sack of junk. I am sick and tired of characters who are so Christian and such family men who out of nowhere "decide" to be the real whatever. And of course the wife and kiddies are supposed to be all for it! And of course this guy manages to drop careers like breath mints and always come up with some great boyfriend, etc. I absolutely HATE IT when the new "husband" sits there smirking while the ex-wife is on the phone.

As for gay sex in prison, give me a break. There is nothing romantic about it - they are just horny captives, that's all. The old line that lifers write the best love letters is true. What else do they have to do with their time?

I simply did not find the premise charming at all but I guess if you are hardcore gay you latch onto any film that you think appeals to your "community." But prison sex is just prison sex - big deal. I did not stick around to see what he was dying from because frankly, I did not care.

Was this supposed to be an inspiring film? Was it based on "true life"? I am of the Harvey Milk Generation, and black, so I have been a living witness to the "revolutions", both sexual and race- wise. This has it all in a way that even Birth of a Nation could not match.

When did black male youth become so blase about homosexuality? Kids were nothing like this when I was a boy. And the whole Christian angle. All of the self-loathing and praying and wailing and for what? To come to the revelation that sodomy is cool with Jesus because it is all about love? That's what Mamma said. And dad - well, mom cucked him with a "kinda cute Asian boy one time" - tongue and everything. Better than I thought it would be and she got off on it too!!!!!? REALLY?

And whose idea was it to do Romeo and Juliet as gay? At Christian High School, which is obviously co-ed? Okay, lets pray some more.

Enter now, Mr. Plantation overseer himself, in the form of the experienced, older white boy - the thug hunter, if you will. So the kid say he is not gay over and over and the white boy keeps NOT taking no for an answer in a classic example of seduction that ruins millions of boys' lives every damned day. Every instinct this boy has says not to do this and yet cute white boy (trailer trash for emphasis I guess) just won't let go. This is just what they have BOTH been waiting for I guess. He takes advantage of this kid so much that he screws him right in front of the kid's house, after having this big discussion about God and how they both believe and all. The kids pleads that he is confused but cute white boy just moves in. Before that, he took the kid to a park where gays cruise AFTER the kid would not come into his trailer (where the white boy lives with his folks!!!) to do it there! Meanwhile, his best friend who IS gay "openly" gets VD and endures an HIV scare. Ah well, just everyday stuff. Oh, and the preachers's daughter gets knocked up too and SHE is upset because there is not ONE abortion clinic in all of Mississippi!!!!! Black kids!!!! What the hell happened?

End in the end, all is rosy, everybody loves and accepts everybody else. Everybody is cool with everything. Its' all about "love." Just like THAT, they are spooning naked in the kids' bedroom!!!! And he is still in high school and his boyfriend is 21.

What a pile.

I imagine that many on this critic's board are old enough to remember the real Grace Kelly and perhaps even old enough to have "been there" at her wedding etc. That would explain all of the pompous reviews.

Kelly was not a complicated person. Anyone reading any biographies of her contemporaries (Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Garland etc.) will know that she was not exactly Little Miss Goody Two-Shoes in Hollywood. Quite the hot tamale actually, if you catch my drift. According to Tony Curtis anyway, the "goody-goody ones" are the nymphomaniacs! But I digress.

The movie is just fine. Kidman is very talented, as is the rest of the cast, except for Parker Posey, who is somewhat cartoonish in her character. Perhaps if I had not seen her in so many satirical films with Chris Guest and Company....

The film highlights a time in history when the Jet Set was in full swing. Jackie, Princess Margaret, and of course Grace KNEW Jack Kennedy, much to Jackie's chagrin. Plus, we see Ari and Maria and realize what a small incestuous circle it all is.

The plot to overthrow Ranier is presented in a sloppy fashion and is difficult to follow if not paying close attention; it may require a bit of re-wind to figure out who is friend and who is foe.

The film is very pleasing to the eye as well. It is Miss Kidman's film all the way and she does a superb job. No need to nitpick or split hairs over the details in this one. It is re-watchable.

I guess it is en vogue to make films about weak men so this is no exception. Here we have this guy who against all his better judgment accepts an invitation to see his ex-wife, who has been in a nuthouse for two years where she apparently met her new husband. Yeah, sounds like a party!

Anyway, the "old gang" (from college?) gather for this reunion and there is the typical (obligatory) progressive, hip melange: interracial and gay couples (who are the most PDA of course) and the whole thing is just stupid.

New "friends" are introduced too - all creepy and enough to make anyone who was not already high, get the hell out of there. But no, not these clowns.

And on and on and on and on they go. GO HOME ALREADY!!!

Was this supposed to be like some Manson, Tate-LaBianca thing?

I am so tired of films showcasing otherwise successful people (men in particular) who are so damned weak emotionally. Here you have the classic old pal comes back after years (army buddy, college roomie, etc.) and the old plot to come on man, let's live a little - whatever happened to that wild man I knew, etc.?

Why would this guy fall for this? The only clue given is that his wife apparently feels the need to go off on "girls' retreats"????? So, hey, why not? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Worse than a teen camp slasher movie where you hope and pray the little idiots get slaughtered.

If I say I want to go home, then I am going home. If I say I have had enough, then I have had enough. Period. Locked doors, no phone reception, torture(?) and still you stick around?

You come home to find your house has been completely redone: where the hell was your wife? You have just "escaped" this madness and yet you punk out when you find your torturer in your tub in a bubble bath and you STILL don't throw him out!

Blackmail? On what basis?

I don't know. By the end I thought it was supposed to mock Tom Cruise and the whole Scientology thing. But then, they come in with the products angle, which also made no sense whatsoever. Why anyone would need to go through that to sell laundry soap is beyond me.

Again, another weak dude film. Yuk.

Here we go again. The overriding question for anyone straight watching this film is why the hell is this guy gay? Why so much angst to get the audience to accept this hunk of beefcake for only other men? Sure, he is a mechanic and loves sports and all - a real guy - but .....

You have the posse who are all macho bluster but hey, lets' show our bud how much we care so let's go to a gay bar and have an absolute balll!!!!! Lets hook up to gay dating sites and get our pal a man!!!!! Lets get drunk and almost make out!!!!! Lets APOLOGIZE and then kiss just to see if we both like each other or not!!!! Hey, who knows, we might ALL be gay!!!!! Worth a shot.....

Meanwhile, this, and all the spate of films like it, continue to illustrate that homosexuality is a problem for all involved. And seriously, this guy is supposed to be 24? In this day and age? And still act so innocent? And the whole religion thing which was kind of laughed off - as usual. Complete with priest.

I suppose the worst part of this little slice of propaganda is that this is the kind of guy who we are to imagine "marries" the Prius guy and they have a couple of "kids" so that grandma can be happy and the kid will have lots and lots of uncle role models. Yippee. Hmm, I wonder why the guy has TWO kayaks already?

Whenever I see guys like this I always wonder what they mean when they say they "need a man." Judging from the type of guy this "kid" lit up for, he seems to have daddy issues to me. In short, if he is lucky, those he knows will kind of go along but there will always be that undercurrent that is homosexuality and only Adam will be able to find peace with that internally, not externally. In other words, so long as he stakes his happiness on "gay love", it will be hollow. It always is.

Moral: accept homosexuality or be thought of as a hateful bigot.

Sorry, but I am tired of somebody always having to come out in movies nowadays. This sideline in this film was obvious from the jump. Look for the sequel, where the kid Eli is gay too. I mean, the kid is so "sensitive" and everything. So the guy kisses some jock in the locker room and gets busted in a Jerry Sandusky kind of way. But was that all there was to it? Just a kiss? Was there a scandal at school? Did all the kids know? Is that when he "became gay?" Awwwww, but big brother knew. So then why is the kid so broken up? For dad's approval? The flashbacks of the "incident" do not make sense. Was the kid molested? What happened to the jock he made out with? The pompous, insensitive British boyfriend? Was the bowling match and the fist fight afterward supposed to prove to Dad that his boy is really a man after all? And what was with the suffering young widow? What a mess just to advance a gay storyline. Especially since the guy didn't seem to happy with being gay to me. Kind of like it bothered him.