Video Picks Archive

December 12, 2001
This Week's Video Picks
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Reviews by Eugene Kopman <eugene@filmhead.com>

This week my picks are Made (2001 - ) and Swingers (1996 - ).

The two video picks for this week were both written by Jon Favreau. He, along with his friend Vince Vaughn, also stars in both films.

The first one is Made, a story of two nobodies, Bobby (Favreau) and Ricky (Vaughn). They are construction workers who box in their free time, while waiting for their big break to come along. That breaks comes from a local mob boss, Max (Peter Falk), who sends them to New York to do a money laundering operation. Made is filled with hilarious dialogue and good acting by both leads, but Ricky gets annoying after a while and is the downfall of this film.
Full review from August 21, 2001

Made is a follow-up to Favreau's 1996 film Swingers, which I and a number of other people consider to be one of the funniest movies of the decade. Swingers is also about two nobodies who are aspiring actors in Hollywood, Mike (Favreau) and Trent (Vaughn). Mike recently moved to L.A. after a horrible break-up with his girlfriend of 6 years. He is a quiet type who stopped enjoying life. Trent is a fast talking player or swinger who goes out with a different woman every night. Trent takes it upon himself to make Mike a player like himself. Just like Made, Swingers is filled with great dialogue, including some lines that will be remembered forever. For example, the classic line that Trent tells Mike, "You're money, baby." The reason why this movie was better then Made is because Trent was not annoying, but extremely entertaining. Even though Mike is the main character, it is Trent who is the highlight of this film.

Both films are fun to watch and enjoy in the company of your friends and "beautiful babies" whom find you "money."

Here's some merchandise for sale at

Made (2001)	-- VHS
Made (2001)	-- DVD
Made: Soundtrack	-- Compact Disc
Swingers (1996)	-- VHS
Swingers (1996)	-- DVD
Swingers: A Screenplay and the Swingers Rules, by Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn	-- Paperback
Swingers: Music From The Miramax Motion Picture	-- Compact Disc
Swingers Too!: More Music from Swingers	-- Compact Disc

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