Swingers is one of those few films that despite having several flaws, is enjoyable enough that we don't really care, and happily accept it. It doesn't have much of a story and several of the characters are unlikable, yet the film is still one of the most entertainingly fun films to have appeared ... Read review
For anyone who wants to catch a glimpse of the Los Angeles "lounge" scene that was in ... more
vogue during the early and mid-1990s, here's the movie that virtually defined that brief but colourful nightlife milieu. As an added bonus, it just happens to be a ve...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
For anyone who wants to catch a glimpse of the Los Angeles "lounge" scene that was in ... more
vogue during the early and mid-1990s, here's the movie that virtually defined that brief but colourful nightlife milieu. As an added bonus, it just happens to be a ve...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
If you've ever wondered what men get up to when they're out on the town, look no further. ... more
Spend a painfully funny night on the tiles with Mike, Trent and friends as the 'Swingers' hit the clubs and bars looking for love, or even a little eye contact.Wh...
If you've ever wondered what men get up to when they're out on the town look no further. ... more
Spend a painfully funny night on the tiles with Mike Trent and friends as the "swingers" hit the clubs and bars looking for love or even a little eye contact. ...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Production Year: 2004 - Comedy - Director: John Hay - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jimi Mistry, Kate Miles, Dougray Scott
Comedy - Director: Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Carol Cleveland, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Advantages: Great dialog, aware of itself and other films, solid performances. Disadvantages: No real plot, unlikable characters.
Swingers is one of those few films that despite having several flaws, is enjoyable enough that we don't really care, and happily accept it. It doesn't have much of a story and several of the characters are unlikable, yet the film is still one of the most entertainingly fun films to have appeared in the last decade.
The lack of story centres around a bunch of guys in Hollywood who cruise various clubs, parties and bars, always with ... ...there is so much in Swingers to keep us entertained, we're willing to forgive these conventions.
Swingers is littered with standout scenes, whether it be the trip to Vegas that ends in embarassment, the altercation in the car park ("didn't you see Boyz In The Hood? Now one of us is going to get shot!"), or the fantastic climax, a big band dance scene with an energy not seen again until Moulin Rouge. All of these events are ... more
Swingers is one of those few films that despite having several flaws, is enjoyable enough that we don't really care, and happily accept it. It doesn't have much of a story and several of the characters are unlikable, yet the film is still one of the most entertainingly fun films to have appeared in the last decade.
The lack of story centres around a bunch of guys in Hollywood who cruise various clubs, parties and bars, always with the ultimate aim of finding women, even though most of them aren't looking for any kind of relationship, and wouldn't know what to do if they did manage to end up in one. The two characters the film primarily focuses on are Mikey (Jon Favreau), who is still getting over the breakup with his girlfriend that occured six months ago, and Trent (Vince Vaughn), who is quite frankly, an asshole, but still tries to look out for Mikey. On the edges we also have Sue (Patrick Van Horn), Rob (Ron Livingston), and Charles (Alex Désert), although these additional characters seem to serve little purpose than to act as additional foils for Mikey and Trent.
To be perfectly honest, a short while into this film, one can work out where each of the characters will be ending up, as it is a little on the predictable side. Will Mikey, who spends his time trying to get over his ex-girlfriend, find someone else and be able to move on? Will Trent, who despite his confidence, doesn't have a clue what he is doing, end up getting all of the women he goes for? It continues like this, but it doesn't really matter as there is so much in Swingers to keep us entertained, we're willing to forgive these conventions.
Swingers is littered with standout scenes, whether it be the trip to Vegas that ends in embarassment, the altercation in the car park ("didn't you see Boyz In The Hood? Now one of us is going to get shot!"), or the fantastic climax, a big band dance scene with an energy not seen again until Moulin Rouge. All of these events are filled with interesting characters, who seem to hit the sense of what Hollywood is actually like perfectly. All of these guys are trying to make it big in the town, and feel they are helped (and more important than they are) by hanging out in all of the cool bars, when in reality they are struggling just as much as anyone else. Mikey can't get bookings for his comedy standup, Rob is turned down for a job as Goofy as Disneyland and Trent never seems to do anything that even vaguely resembles work.
The film is also hyper-aware, which makes it considerably more enjoyable. It knows that it is a film, and has a little fun with that. Knowing references to every part of pop culture are dropped, but it's when the film takes elements from other films that it, ironically enough, really comes into it's own. The Jaws theme is used repeatedly when the characters attempt to talk to women, and most wonderfully of all, the characters all sit around and complain that Tarantino steals everything he does from Scorcese, before gleefully launching into parodies of both Reservoir Dogs and Goodfellas. These elements add those little touches that make the film more enjoyable than your regular A to B type plotting.
Everyone turns in good enough performances, with Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn being the obvious standouts. The two have an excellent natural chemistry, allowing them to bounce lines off each other seemingly without any effort, and this comes across well. No one seems to play cocky as well as Vaughn does, and Favreau, and the damaged Mikey, is an excellent counter to this. Other characters come and go, no one really standing out, in either a good or bad way. It's clear that we're supposed to focus on Mikey and Trent, and the others are there just as support. This doesn't matter though as those primary characters are strong enough to carry the film by themselves.
The film was written by both director Doug Liman and Jon Favreau, and it's clear that much of the film is based on their own experiences. This leads to an excellent naturalism throughout the film. For several parts, aided by the use of genuine partying photos over the opening credits, we are given the impression that this is less of a film and more of a documentary looking into the lives of the characters. Several films attempt this kind of style, few of them actually manage to pull it off. The standout element of the film though is the dialog, which has managed to start an entire subculture amongst young men, who seem to define the film as the epitome of cool. Much of the dialog demonstrated here hasn't been shown on film before, giving the film a slightly more unique edge than similar films that have come before it.
The soundtrack has also managed to push relatively obscure music into a small part of the mainstream, by using an interesting blend of old Rat Pack songs alongside a selection of contemporary jazz and swing. The most obvious use of this is Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, who actually appear in the film itself in one of the later club scenes. After viewing Swingers, it becomes difficult to forget their tracks, along with a bunch of others, including Average White Band's 'Pick Up The Pieces'. Try and get this song out of your head after the film and discover that it's a pretty futile exercise. This usage gives the film a wonderfully old style to what are obviously modern events.
Overall, Swingers is not a perfect film, nor will it ever be regarded as anything close to a classic. However, this doesn't stop it from being an incredibly enjoyable definition of all that is now accepted as cool. It may have a little difficulty working with those outside of the young male demographic, but for those at least, it is just tremendous fun.
Advantages: Funny in places, very slick Disadvantages: goes off the storyline at times
I’ve wanted to see Swingers for what feels like forever now - obviously it isn’t forever as the movies not even 10 years old yet, but you get the picture. It all started back when I bought Go! on DVD (2001 if my memory still works fine) and saw the header ‘from the makers of Swingers’ - then I watched Go! and decided that Swingers was probably going to be good as well.
Well in the early hours of one morning it was on Channel 4 - so 3 years after ... ...or not enough, where-as with Swingers so long as you quickly pick up on a couple of bits of L.A. slang that they use then you’ll be fine, never once is there a scene that leaves you wondering just what exactly happened and again there isn’t any scene’s where Doug Liman (the director of the movie) insults your intelligence, you always get the feeling that he’s letting you take the story for exactly what you want it to be, which is a nice change in ...
Angelus 18.01.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Swingers (DVD)
Advantages: Very funny. Great Soundtrack. Cool Disadvantages: Nothing
...well worth tracking down.
Swingers is a low budget film made in the mid nineties. Directed by Doug Liman (who went on to direct Go) and stars Jon Favreau (Deep Impact) and Vince Vaughn (Psycho remake).
It's a comedy about blokes out on the town and on the pull.
Mike's a budding comedian who has moved to LA after splitting up with his long term girlfriend in New York City. He is struggling to get over the break-up so his friend, Trent (who's a ... ...dating game.
The film starts off with a Mike and Trent taking a trip to Las Vegas and completely failing to be "Money" (watch the film to see what this means). After this the film explores the relationship between Mike and Trent and their other friends and their attempts to meet women in bars and parties in LA.
Mike meets girls, fails miserably with them while still being stuck on his ex while Trent gives him advice while trying to obtain the telephone ...
Ork1927 29.04.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Swingers (DVD)
Advantages: Fabulous dialogue. Witty, sharp, funny. You WILL start using the catchphrases! A great pick-me-up for single men everywhere. Disadvantages: Its my favourite film of all time. Dont ask me to find faults!
I remember when Swingers was at the cinema I wanted to go see it, but couldnt find anyone to go with me. Apparantly, because it was small budget, with no superstars, it wasn't going to be any good. How wrong people can be.
This is my favourite film ever, for reasons I can't quite define. I will guarantee you one thing though - if you asked every single man who has seen this film what he thought, at least 90% will say, "Yeah, I AM Mikey!"
The movie ... ...quest to help Mikey get over his ex-girlfriend. This involves going to bars every night, fighting depression after getting yet another knock back from your latest audition by day (Mikey is a struggling actor-cum-stand-up comic), and also fitting in a road trip to Vegas, where Trent, after coming out far better off than Mikey, tries to convince his friend that, really, he's the big winner in the casino. As if to prove his point, he convinces a cocktail ...
spacemonkey 23.07.2001 (08.08.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Swingers (DVD)
Advantages: Heather Graham looks stunning Disadvantages: Absolutely nothing happens in the movie at all
Actually this film scores a 0/10. It's utter tripe, total excrement. There, I had to get that over & said. The only people I knew right away were Vince Vaughn and Heather Graham. I did know the guy playing Mike (Jon Favreau), but I never knew his name until I wiki'd the film. Isn't the black guy who "didn't get the part in Deep Space Nine" the same chap who plays the blind guy in the American sitcom Becker?. Basically this is a film with no plot, ... ...IMDB.com described it as a real guy movie? Dude, nothing happens in the film ever. We basically follow the life of a guy (who calls himself an actor & comedian but we never see any evidence of either) bitching about a relationship that ended over 6 months ago (so get over it!), and his friends who just go out on the club and party scene to try and meet women - mostly with no intent to ever follow up on those meetings. This film is described as an ...
atytyut2434 20.02.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Swingers (DVD)
Advantages: Funny, honest, and very cool... Disadvantages: Non-eventful
Touching, true, funny and effortlessly cool, 'Swingers' is a boy's movie that will appeal equally to their "Beautiful babies". A kind of Transatlantic "Withnail & I", in that it follows the lives of a group of struggling twenty-something actors in LA. Although their agenda is more geared to scoring with women than loading up on booze and terrorizing old ladies in tea shops.
The slightly pathetic group is headed by sensitive Mike (Jon Favreau) and ... ...after splitting with his girlfriend, and Trent decides to drag him off to Vegas to cheer him up. After numerous embarassing encounters on the tables and with cocktail waitresses, they head back to LA and trawl the bars with their mates, always on the pull.
So not much happens. They drink, they talk about movies, they crack onto women, they bond over computer Ice Hockey. Just like real life then, and for all it's swaggering cool and quotable dialogue, ...
Plissken 22.01.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Swingers (DVD)
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Advantages: Perfect reflection of nineties pop culture Disadvantages: I dont know its one of my favorite moves.
through the nineties won't help but smile at. As a narrative it succeeds as well examining areas such as friendship, love (old and new), depression and redemption with sensitivity. The story of Mike's journey through the recovery from the break - up grabs and holds the viewer.
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Above all this the thing which holds the film up for me is the style. Swingers looks good. Mike, Trent, Sue and Rob look good as they cruise their way through the club scene from Vegas to the Dresden. They ooze cool not seen since Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin ripped up Vegas in the early sixties.
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Advantages: A decades worth of his best work Disadvantages: Could do with more extras
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WEIRD WEEKENDS: Porn, Head for the Hills,Swingers, Black Nationalism, Wrestling, South Africa,Thai brides, Gangsta Rap.
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Things are looking up for Alan Partridge. Alan has 'Norfolk Nights' the 3rd best slot on Radio Norwich, hosts Skirmish - a military-based general knowledge quiz show on cable, satillite channel UK conquest, which has the highest number of viewers of that time in the norfolk area. Alan also has a Ukranian girlfriend called Sonia who has an obsession with London, the very city Alan has a notable dislike for. Living in a 'static home', Alan is having his own house built and has many run-ins with the builders as well as his geordie friend Michael - who runs the local petrol station and has an american friend called 'tex'. In the best episode Alan meets his new best friend, Dan Moody who owns Kitchen Planet, drinks Directors bitter and shares Alan's love of Lexi (plural). Little known to Alan, Dan and his wife are swingers who attempt to ...
"...Terrific....[Liman scores] from Favreau's exuberantly witty script....[Vaughn is] a scene-stealer..." -- Rating: A (Entertainment Weekly, p.46, 01/11/1996)
"...Writing, directing and acting are all pitch-perfect in a party movie that keeps spinning funny, sexy and touching surprises..." (Rolling Stone, p.78, 31/10/1996)
"...Sweet and funny....SWINGERS is a winningly confident snapshot of the nightlives of a bunch of young showbiz wannabes....Engaging, refreshingly human in its humor and becomingly modest in its aspirations..." (Variety, 09/09/1996)
DVD Description
Hauling his sentimental friend out of his postbreakup funk, a club-hopping swinger takes him on a hilarious odyssey through the dating game of the 1990s, hitting the Vegas strip, fashionable martini lounges, and other modern hunting grounds of the opposite sex.
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