In the Company of Men

Rating:
Summary: Hideous
Review: My biggest surprise was not that this trash actully got made, found a distributer, an audience and a DVD release, but the fact that LaBute actually has a commentary on the disc. What's he going to say? I mean there isn't much for him to comment on script or directionwise. He didn't do ANYTHING. This film has nothing resembling direction. Some say his style is minimalistic but I think it appears this way by default. With the same logic he could film a child being hit by a car as he passed by with his camera and people would call it realistic. But it only appears this way. LaBute has NO idea how to direct films and should never be given the chance to direct again.

Rating:
Summary: In the company of losers
Review: I gave this farce one star - to be shared by the acters who actually had the guts to be in the film and the producers who who were foolish enough to pay the screenwriter for the script. This was by far the poorest excuse for a (guy's?) movie I've ever seen. This film was embarassing to watch. However, I stayed with it in hopes that it might have some redeaming qualities toward the end. No such luck. Overall, this film was/is a sad commentary on the state of many of the films being distributed out of LA these days.

Rating:
Summary: Like it because it's different
Review: WHY can't most Americans understand that the reason this film is better than average, is simply because it does not follow filmmaking by the numbers??

It's NOT Hollywood. It dosn't want to be Hollywood. Remember Se7en?

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and searing depiction of businessmen in the 90's
Review: A movie such as this should be treasured. It is not everday when a brilliant script comes together with intelligent direction (and yes, it is intelligent, if the camera were moving around all the time it would defeat the purpose of the movie-these men are empty and the camera reflects that. Please, if you are not open to anything new or interesting, go see Armageddon again where you can see plenty of bright colors and ridiculously fast cuts. I, however, will bask in the pure anger and wit that is In The Company of Men.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best, but watch out
Review: One of the top films of 1997, this film has neither graphic sex nor graphic violence, but it is one of the most disturbing films ever made. Neil Labute's directorial debut is literally breathtaking - at the end of the film you feel as though you'd been kicked in the solar plexus (his misogynist focus in this film broadens to general misanthropy in his second and, unfortunately, inferior film, Your Friends And Neighbors). While the three leads are all outstanding, Aaron Eckhart's performance is absolutely chilling in its perfection - rumor has it that soon after the release of the film people would spit at him as they passed him in the street! Even if this is not true, it's easy to see why it could happen - he is so convincingly outwardly charming but, in truth, despicable, that you really have to remind yourself this is only a fictional character.

Rating:
Summary: DISGUSTINGLY BAD
Review: Man...I thought I was alone when I said that this film has no direction. There have been films in the past when that has been so but this one reeked. The acting was pathetic and irritating and the plot was virtually non-existant and the whole affair is SO uninspired.

Rating:
Summary: HARD CORE GRIT AND WIT
Review: What LaButte has done in his first film is similar to McQuarrie's "Usual Suspects". They both bring us in to a dead end and then turn one eighty on an unsuspecting rapt viewer. Sparce and lean, more gasps per scene than any movie in recent memory.

Rating:
Summary: Prepare yourself
Review: Absolutely fantastic movie. However, be forewarned, you've never hated any cinematic character as much as you will hate Aaron Eckhart's. You will loathe him. After the movie is over, you'll be dumbfounded that you can feel that much hate for a fictitious character.

Rating:
Summary: Effectively Nasty
Review: Apparently, this film got under a lot of people's skin. Perhaps this film, written and directed by Neil LaBute, about two corporate cowboys who romantically set up a young deaf woman just to cruelly reject her hits too close to home. It's about the way our drives for power and influence, stymied and constrained within institutional boundaries, become corrupted and petty. In a world where there are no values except success and power is its own end, LaBute seems to be saying, friendship and love turn into manipulative tools. And what's truly ghastly about the film (and what makes it such a success), is that the emotional destruction of the woman is a kind of achievement when you see the world in those terms. The denouement is one of the most effective in years simply for the amount of callousness and pain mixed into it. Eckhardt gives a fantastic performance - he's so absolutely repellent, so shallow and mercenary, that you can't look away from him. Stacy Edwards is also very affecting as the deaf woman the two men set up - her sympathetic portrayal belies the claim that the film is misogynistic. LaBute is a bit too one-dimensional in his intentions - these monsters have no dimensions between their pleasure in their own manipulative abilties although Eckhardt's friend does occaissonally submerge himself in remorse. Yet, few films have so successfully penetrated into the psychology of corporate life and its frustrations. "In the Company of Men" is a dark comedy about one man passing his poisioned chalice on to those around him and I wonder if many of this film's detractors found the cup a bit too bitter

Rating:
Summary: A look at every man's cruel side
Review: No matter what people are saying, everyone seems to have a strong opinion about this movie. It doesn't follow a Hollywood formula and isn't wrapped up into a nice neat package. Perhaps this is what makes it so refreshing. Additionally this movie is a look into the cruelty of which everyone is capable. The disc is nothing special--no special features to speak of. Video quality and audio are ok, but most likely are held in check by the original video and soundtrack recordings as this is not a big-budget film.