Friends & Lovers

So cliched stupid, that even the nudity fails. The capping scene when the father and son let it all hang out and bury their emotional hatchets into your poor headached viewer skull, while a string quartet nearly drowns the dialogue, is offensively bad in the offensively bad extreme. This is one of those movies where you can tell everyone onscreen is having the time of their lives, and that fact all the more irritates you because you are being tortured while they are up there making merry millions. Whose son or nephew is George Haas for pete's sake?

Okay, this movie isn't necessarily as god-awful as many of these reviews would suggest, but I have to agree it is a waste of time and talent. A group of reasonably engaging performers (Robert Downey, Jr., George Newbern, Stephen Baldwin and the amazingly sexy Leon) are on display here, but the movie suffers from sitcom-like superficiality and terribly amateurish direction (from George Haas, who may never work again after this mess.)

Basically a sexed-up romantic comedy about a groups of friends vacationing at a ski lodge, "Friends and Lovers" has its moments of fun and frivolity. But the film is full of ludicrous "anatomy" jokes and pointless nudity, and the aforementioned direction by Haas is sloppy and laughably inept. The echoing effects in the ski slope scenes are preposterous, and the blocking of the performers is straight out of a high school play, with the actors facing the camera talking sideways to each other.

Perhaps in the hands of a competent director, a good movie might have been made. This isn't it.

I rented this flick on the strength of Neil Barry's nude scene. I had a silly crush on him from OC & Stiggs, a terrible Altman film from 1985. I ran across a full frontal nude shot of Barry on the Web and it mentioned Friends and Lovers as the source. The image was so odd, Barry brazenly naked, except for a heavy winter coat and surrounded by snow and a Baldwin. This wasn't some sideways dark shot, grainy screen grab. I'm talking 'Blueboy Hits the Slopes - Special Issue' quality shot. What the heck? He's not much to look at now, but I had to know how any American movie worked in such blatant full-frontal male nudity. Dear god, I have paid for my sins. This was one of the worst pieces of thrash I've ever seen. Long story short- There is a juvenile discussion of the characters penis that makes the girls all twitter. Then, continuing in the cheesy-teen flick vein (mind you, all these folks are in their 30's), The Baldwin tries to get the girls to strip for the Jacuzzi which leads to, 'Boys first! No Girls First!' Then the boys concede and Barry drops his towel to show off his healthy endowment. The girls all run away, supposedly never having seen a penis of any size before. When The Baldwin complains, Barry gets to smirk and say, 'It was your idea, dude.' Gee, why did the screenwriter think it was necessary to ask an actor to do a full frontal shot? Did they place an ad in Variety looking for well hung actors? Did Barry have to 'measure up' at the screen-test? And I wonder if Barry was comfortable with such exposure as it was completely irrelevant to his character. Oh, wait! Barry was the co-screenwriter on this crap! So that means the writer/actor actually wrote in a scene where he gets to expose himself and show the world what a big wiener he has. Lord knows that Hollywood is just a big tinkling contest but to actually write a scene for your own exhibitionist tendencies is too weird.

'Friends & lovers' is not all that bad to deserve this low a rating. It may not be iconic but it manages to make you chuckle throughout. I probably would have given this movie a miss had I not been reading Downey's biography. I just got curious to see the pre-Iron Man movies of Downey & I am not disappointed.

The plot is simple. Friends decide to go skiing when one of their dads invites them over. In this journey they find their partners and mend their bonds. Finally all is well that ends well.

Robert Downey Jr's role, although brief, keeps your eyes glued to him. This is probably one of his most sassiest yet cheesy performance. I guess the role required him to be that. His German accent is quiet funny. The highlight of the movie is when Downey reveals that he is from New Jersey & not Germany. That explains the fake accent I guess. I quiet fell for his funky hairdo.

Worth a watch. You will enjoy it better with like minded friends.

I didn't think this was such a bad movie. I've certainly seen worse. As for Robert Downey Jr.'s accent, it was supposed to be bad (his character was from New Jersey!). I like Danny Nucci, and I wish I could see him get better roles. All in all, I think this is a fair movie. 5/10