When I first saw the trailer for George Gallo’s Middle Men, I was excited to see one of the minds behind Bad Boys, at the helm directing an exciting looking flick. Does a film about the pioneers of internet porn profiteering make for good cinema?

Film

The film follows a plethora of characters but the main protagonist is played Jack Harris by Luke Wilson, a businessman with a specialty for solving problems. He gets thrown into a situation where he needs to help two bumbling idea men who just came across a multimillion dollar idea… distributing porn on the internet.

The movie felt similar in tone to The Social Network due to the fact it deals with events in recent history and it manages to stay entertaining throughout. The film has many notable actors such as Giovanni Ribisi, whom with his sunglasses and cocaine problem comes off much like Johnny Depp in Fear and loathing in Las Vegas. Some of the talent feels wasted, such as Terry Crews whose character never really gets developed as much as I wanted and having Kelsey Grammer in an awkward cameo felt like potential wasted as well.

The script is a bit predictable and at times the script leaves characters that were set up to be main characters and lets them fade into the secondary status while wasting time trying to build connections with them. The film does it’s best to balance both comedic moments and some pretty intense scenes that helps keep the film fun, but overall the film feels a bit jumbled.

George Gallo’s direction is a strong point in the film and he mixes high octane cinematography and tight cuts to keep the excitement up. Nothing feels fresh or new for most films relating to drug use tends to follow the same shooting formula, but for Middle Men the fast paced storytelling helps the film get the story out without feeling like it’s dragging on.

If you’re a fan of any of the actors in the movie or simply looking for an interesting dramedy that plays out almost like a crime film, then Middle Men is a good rental.

Video

Middle Men’s video is displayed using the AVC codec. The video quality is definitely a strong point for the Blu-ray. The details are nice and sharp and can be showcased by the clear skin during close-ups. The skin tone is within the orange/natural range which is always pleasing especially in contrast to the vivid colour grading.

The transfer is free of any noticeable artefacting minus a bit of aliasing on intricate patterns, but nothing that really draws the eye away from the subject. However some of the lower lit scenes have a bit of noise that is a bit distracting.

Audio

Middle Men’s audio comes at us using the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio codec. The audio is bit of a step up from the video quality and manages to create a really encompassing mix that takes advantage of the surrounds and LFE.

The mix is spread amongst all the speakers in its 5.1 set-up and it uses the surrounds to recreate atmosphere of clubs and parties, while maintaining clear dialogue. The low frequencies get used mostly during the score and music that plays throughout but the sound effects get some emphasis added with some low rumble that sells each element.

Special Features

The extras are really light on this Blu-ray. We’re given an audio commentary with George Gallo the writer and director as well as cinematographer Luke Ettlin and editor Malcolm Campbell. It does a good job getting some details about the production out but fails to be very insightful or entertaining.

The rest of the extras consist of some deleted scenes which consists of three clips that clearly drag the film on, there’s an extended conversation between Luke Wilson’s character and his wife that felt so long winded and was replaced I the theatrical cut with a simple snippet that really shows how unnecessary these scenes were. There was also a scene that showed the young Jack Harris talking to his dad, supposedly on his death bed, and it encapsulates the film’s struggle on trying to be serious and funny all at once and not really succeeding in either department.

Then there’s the outtakes (self-explanatory) and a Slap Montage which is literally a compilation of all the slaps from the movie edited together in time with a song playing… Pretty stupid.

Final Thoughts

The film is entertaining and has good technical presentation to back it up, but lack of extras really makes this disc a rental. If you’re a guy who doesn’t mind a movie that isn’t anything new, but simply brings some laugh then you might enjoy Middle Men.