TMG Scale 8.0
Starring Luke Wilson, James Caan
Joy Lynn: This is a guy flick with sexual stimulation, nudity, drugs, violence and a good story line. It’s the “Social Network” of the online porn industry based on the true story of Christopher Mallick, the film’s producer and current online porn billing entrepreneur. Luke Wilson’s performance is excellent as Jack Harris, a regular guy who has the talent to fix companies with problems. He gets sucked into the porn industry while he is simply trying to provide for his wife and kids. At times his character seems too calm and cool to be dealing with the hypocrisy he faced therefore somewhat unbelievable. However, I did find Jack’s narration of the story to be interesting and insightful. There were a couple of scenes that made light of a serious situation that I thought was inappropriate.
Overall, this is a movie about the power of porn and how it affects a person spiritually, emotionally, physically and economically. Fantasy becomes reality for Jack as he deals in the world of porn and drugs. Will he make it home alive? Will his wife forgive him? Is he worthy of such forgiveness? You decide. Certainly not a film for everyone based on the subject matter, but one that will have you thinking about what you would do in the same situation.
TMG: I agree with Joy Lynn for the most part. I would strongly recommend this film to any serious, adult, movie fan. It’s a film about the business of porn, it is not a pornographic film though. I loved the premise that the US military actually worked with these internet porn promoters to locate suspected terrorists and used the intel to hit them with cruise missiles. There is some irony, humor and screwed up justice in all that. And to think that E-bay and pretty much all online purchases with a credit card can be traced to porn on the internet? Truth be told, so can most every innovation on any decent web site today as well.