Friends & Lovers

There are some good things and bad things in this movie. The worst is probably Stephen Baldwin, the least talented of the Baldwin brothers, and that's a low bar indeed. Robert Downey Jr. was also insufferable, and I'm not even criticizing the accent. George Newbern was decent, as was Claudia Schiffer, a non-actress. Impressive were the performances of Alison Eastwood and Suzanne Cryer. There are worse ways to spend 1 3/4 hours.

Okay, so they're twenty-somethings. Okay, so they've got problems or whatever. But does it strike anyone as odd that these guys tool around in Land Rovers and E-class Mercedes'? And, if they've got the cash for their little romps, why do they road-trip to their ski resort rather than fly? The first twenty minutes alone kill the film, the rest is just its fall to the ground.

I came to check out a few facts on this movie after watching it. I saw too many negative comments to not make a comment of my own. Critics review this movie very harshly. I thought this movie was awesome. Downey, Dasche, Baldwin, and the rest of the cast will make you laugh for sure. Though Leon wasn't in the flick as much as I would've liked, I still thought it was a great performance. I found myself being drawn in and very interested in this movie. In fact as soon as it was over I immediately rewound it and watched it again. FIND THIS FLICK, AND WATCH IT!

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.