In our house, one show rules our TV at present, it is the legal drama ‘Suits’. It’s lead is a character called Harvey Specter player by Gabriel Macht who is absolutely fantastic in this role, yet I had only seen him previously in films that have left me not exactly wowed, in particular the Kate Beckinsale Antarctica thriller ‘Whiteout’ and Frank (Sin City) Miller’s The Spirit
Looking at Gabriel’s IMDB page, I came across a film I had not heard of called Middle Mena about the pioneers of Internet Commerce, I mentioned it to the wife as having a look on Amazon I found they were practically giving it away (well for the price of a rental anyway) and we decided to give it a go
This film is certainly worth seeking out, Yes it is about Internet commerce and in particular the ability to pay for things online which we now take for granted. But why was this need put in place? We find out through our 2 internet pioneers Bucky and Wayne (played by the aforementioned Gabriel and Giovanni Ribisi) who have discovered a hole in the pornography world
They find that if you could look at the naughty stuff on your computer in the privacy of your home you are less likely to be found out!! So they write the necessary program to create a membership scheme to allow users to access the pictures for 9.99 a month (as sounds cheaper than 10.00)
The scheme is an enormous success but complaints come in as the members want more new content. Bucky and Wayne do a deal with Mr Sokoloff (played by Rade Serbedzija) to take pictures and videos of the girls in his adult members only club to put on their site. The twist however is they do not know he is a member of the Russian mob so when they fail to pay him the monthly fee they agreed because they have been ‘partying it up’ they fear for their lives.
They eventually get help through Jack Harris (played by Luke Wilson who is our eyes through this incredible and TRUE story) who becomes a partner in Bucky and Wayne’s scheme and he arranges a deal with Sokoloff. He then had to deal with his own morals of family life to be involved in this adult industry world, causing strain on his wife (played by Gabriel’s actual wife Jacinda Barrett) as the temptations get more and more
He makes more money than he can dream of as he falls into this now world of Pornstars, Mobsters and the ever increasingly reckless Bucky and Wayne again cause more headaches
This is a great film and whilst comparisons can be made to the Social Network (which was released around the same time and a lot of this films lack of box office success is blamed on it) it is more like films such as Blow and Boogie Nights due to its almost unbelievable story lines (although of course we have to accept that some of this be stretched for dramatic effect)
A great supporting cast from the likes of James Caan, Kevin Pollak, Kelsey Grammer, Robert Forster and Terry Crews add to the enjoyment of this film written and directed by George Gallo (writer of Midnight Run and Bad Boys 1 & 2 amongst others)
If you like a biopic and want a pleasant surprise I suggest you give this a go, at the time of writing it is just over £3 on Amazon depending if you want DVD or BluRay http://amzn.to/1fL3vpR
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