One thing that has always been a bit of a sensitive subject to me is when a distributor changes the title of a film. One of the few exceptions to this peeve of mine is when the title is in another language (especially when the language is one that I have a great deal of difficulty with… like anything that ends with an "ish"): in that case, the title change is understandable providing they use a translation for the English title (i.e. La Noche De Los Mil Gatos becomes Night Of A Thousand Cats). If the movie is pure sleaze and the distributor was, say, a fly-by-night drive-in exploiter extraordinaire, well… then I simply have to bow to their skillful mastery (releasing Tombs Of The Blind Dead as Revenge From Planet Ape? Pure genius!).
Sadly, the fine art of title changes comes crashing to a halt when someone apparently underestimates the intelligence of the audience. The movie in point was filmed (and released Internationally) as The Moguls. Upon it’s release on United States soil, however, someone somewhere felt the urge to rename it to The Amateurs. Why? Hell, I don’t know, but I imagine that it could be because the Internet-savvy generations that may decide to watch The Amateurs would probably become confused with a title like The Moguls due to the fact that they would have no fucking clue what a mogul is.
I could here it now: "Moguls… aren’t those the non-wizard characters in the Harry Potter series?" Doh!
So, at the risk of offending the 5% of America that has a vocabulary beyond that of your average public school education, they (and I would like to point out that I honestly have no idea who "they" are) chose the word Amateurs. Amateurs… now there’s a word we all know, right? And why is that? Because of porn, silly! Porn, porn, wonderful porn! It’s better than cheese, greater than gold, and a hell of a lot cheaper than a new car because you can find it all over the Internet (for free in most cases… you just have to buy a new computer every now and again due to all the viruses your hard drive becomes infected with).
 When you see a film that boasts this impressive of a cast, there’s a 50-50 chance it will either be a masterpiece or the motion picture equivalent of Dresden around March of 1945. Fortunately, despite the fact that the film’s new moniker is practically a polar opposite from the old title, The Amateurs is a great film.
Andy Sargentee (Jeff Bridges) has "had enough of not having enough." Life just hasn’t worked for him thus far: his employment history is deplorable, his ex-wife, Thelma (Jeanne Tripplehorn), has re-married and his son’s new step-dad, Howard (Steven Weber), is filthy-stinking-rich. Howard is so rich, in fact, that young Bill (Alex D. Linz) has a basketball court in his bedroom - complete with several professional-grade basketballs signed by Michael Jordan. Andy, on the other hand, can’t even afford one $79.99 non-professional-grade ball and tries his best to haggle with the owner and clerk of a sporting goods store (Brad Garrett and Elden Henson, respectively).
Naturally, Andy feels like shit. It’s time he did something with his meager existence… but what?
And then, like a diamond-studded bitch slap to the face, it hits him: porn. The porn industry is a lucrative one, right? Hell, people are making fifteen billion dollars a year selling tits and ass, so why can’t Andy cut himself a slice of the pie, right? So, after convincing his lovable ragtag group of loser-buddies, they set out make an amateur adult movie with full support of their community, of course.
 The only problem is that our intrepid, naïve heroes have no idea what they’re doing.
If that isn’t enough for you to go out and buy it (and you will want to buy it), let me introduce you to a few more of The Amateurs: Tim Blake Nelson (who is allowed to expand his acting talent by actually playing a normal guy for a change), Joe Pantoliano as Some Idiot (the writer/director who works in a 4 Day Photo booth), Ted Danson (in a dangerously close to over-the-top performance as a homosexual-in-denial named Moose), William Ficthner (playing Otis: the character with some of the best lines ever), Patrick Fugit (the video-obsessed cameraman), John Hawkes (was he separated from birth with Vincent Gallo or what?) & Brad William Henke as the inseparable duo Moe-Ron, Valerie Perrine as V (Otis’ childhood babysitter-turned-stripper), Glenne Headly, Tom Bower, Lauren Graham, Isaiah Washington, Judy Greer, and Eileen Brennan! Yes, this is what you would call an all-star cast, kids. Yes, this is also what you would call a damn good film, too!
Another thing that The Amateurs has going for it is it’s believability (something that is noticeably lacking in most modern films). No matter how unbelievable the movie may get, you can sympathize with these well-written characters so much that your doubt will turn itself right around. You cannot help but love these guys, no matter how brainless they tend to be at times.
 Writer/director Michael Traeger (who had previously written Dead Man On Campus and produced the equally-enjoyable Julian Po) steps out of the shadows with this one. It is clear that he has some seriously good talent and I eagerly await his next project (whenever that may be).
My only problem with The Amateurs is the fact that it took three years from the first screening to make it’s debut on home video (it only received a limited theatrical run in America a few months prior to that) and an additional three years to actually evolve from an idea to the filming stage. Yes, that’s how movies in America work, kids. "What’s that? You have a good idea? Nah, we don’t want it!" Sad, really… and yet, anything that stars some no-talent ass-clown like Larry the Fucking Inbred Cable Guy will infest theaters near and far before spreading throughout the home video section like a plague! What has happened to our once magic world of cinema? Arrrggghhh!!!
…
Okay, I’m better now… I should also point out that, aside from being a great movie, The Amateurs also has a soothing effect on me when I stress out. It’s kind of like a glass of Chivas. Enjoy.
 Presentation
First Look has done a most-splendid job with The Amateurs. The anamorphic widescreen transfer looks absolutely beautiful and the English DTS soundtrack is superb. If you don’t have a DTS setup, you can take your pick between an English 5.1 and 2.0 soundtrack. For you hard of hearing folk, there’s an English SDH subtitle track and a Spanish subtitle option as well.
Extras
First off, there’s an Audio Commentary with actor Jeff Bridges, writer/director Michael Traeger and producer Aaron Ryder. These three have a blast throughout the entire session and it’s a highly recommended listen.
Behind-the-Scenes With The Amateurs (25:47) is an in-depth look at (and with) the cast and crew (and then some… Mary Steenburgen even shows up to tell how she got Ted Danson his part). Everyone offers their insight on the film, their characters, etc. (the boys all stayed at Jeff Bridges’ beach house the weekend before shooting to get acquainted with one another). The volume on this featurette is very low, so get ready to crank it up.
Jeff Bridges brings us another wonderful set of photos with The Amateurs Photography (36:07). This wonderful set of panoramic photos taken by actor Bridges on the set is divided into chapters and features a commentary with Bridges, Traeger and Ryder.
 Trailer-wise, there’s the theatrical spot for The Amateurs and King Of California, The Contract (Morgan Freeman and John Cusack… this looks really good), 10 Items Or Less (Morgan Freeman y Paz Vega), Journey To The End Of The Night (Brendan Fraser and Mos Def vs. Scott Glenn), The Proposition (Nick Cave ditches the Bad Seeds to write a western), Relative Strangers (yet another guy-finds-he-was-adopted-and-his-birth-parents-are-loonies flick only this time it stars Ron Livingston, Neve Campbell, Danny DeVito and Kathy Bates), A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints (Robert Downey Jr. returns to Queens and the drama he left behind), Paris Je T’aime, Sex And Breakfast (Macaulay Culkin and Eliza Dushku swap partners as part of sex therapy), Smiley Face (Anna Farris in a lame looking stoner comedy with John Cho) and Day Zero (a throwback of a Vietnam-era military draft film set in modern times).
The Bottom Line
It’s probably time I face the fact that the Complete Works of Rene Bond: Special Edition will never make it’s way to DVD… good thing there’s The Amateurs.
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| The Amateurs |
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| 4.5 |
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| Feature -
Absolutely wonderful! |
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| 4.5 |
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| Video -
Groovy baby… groovy. |
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| 4.5 |
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| Audio
- Even guys eating tortilla chips through the rear right speaker sounds good! |
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| 4 |
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| Extras -
No deleted scenes, but I’m not arguing. |
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