Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

The Amateurs

(The Moguls, 2005)

I almost couldn’t find this at the IMDb. Turns out the original title was The Moguls. Jeff Bridges, a loveable small-town loser (very much like his performance in The Big Lebowski) joins with his quirky, loveable small-town lower friends to get rich by making a porn movie. This is very much in the mold of The Full Monty, but like all imitators so far, doesn’t quite manage to capture the fun of that one. It’s a sweet movie, maybe too sweet. Maybe we could have used a few more belly laughs, a bit of a harder edge. The supporting cast is some of the best character actors around these days. Too bad it doesn’t quite work. Must mention … Valerie Perrine is in it. Remember her? She was really big in the early ‘70s, but then her career petered out into guest shots on TV. She’s 64, and doesn’t look it.