Swingers | | Cast : | Vince Vaughn, Heather Graham | | Director : | Doug Liman | | Studio : | Miramax Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | October 18, 1996 | | DVD Released Date : | September 24, 2002 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | A solid, comedic, emotional film with great acting. | Content
 | Doug Liman's smash cult hit written by Jon Favreau is
about a man that leaves his girlfriend and New York
behind for the glitz and glamor of the L.A. scene. He
is shown the ropes by a local that is quite the man
with the ladies and he gets taught the rules of how to
be a Swinger. He finds out that the game isn't as easy
as it looks because of his thoughts constantly on his
girlfriend and her life back in New York, he is afraid
to move onto better things because of that lasting relationship.
Doug Liman has taken Jon Favreau's hilarious and
heartfelt script and made it a solid comedy that keeps
you laughing. Liman's style of direction was perfectly
suited for this film. Although there was some
choppiness in the shots, he really pulled some amazing
performances out of the actors. Especially the star
making performance of Vince Vaughn as Trent.
Sometimes, the camera shaking got on my nerves, other
times I felt that the camera had captured some great
memorable shots that could be studied by future
filmmakers. He isn't as great as some other directors
but he can really hold his own to the fact that he
pays to tribute to some of the directors of all time
with his shots.
Jon Favreau has written one of the most funny,
original and emotional scripts that I have ever seen.
He takes himself and makes the character that he plays
to be absolutely pathetic, but eventually redeems the
character towards the end with a woman with the same
type of personality. He creates a personal triumph for
his character and makes the film so touching and
enjoyable that you basically root for his character
all through out the movie. He had also written some
very memorable scenes like for instance, the "Double
Down on 11" scene, that was so insanely hilarious,
that it is brilliant. Also, He has taken other
influences (Scorsase, Tarantino) and worked them into
the movie. He makes so many references to pop culture,
that you feel that you are living and breathing with
the characters.
What can I say about Vince Vaughn's legendary star
making performance that hasn't been said? He really
took the character written by Jon Favreau and made it
his own. He coined the phrases "You're money!" and
"Beautiful babies". He was hysterically all over the
place, he was making you laugh so hard that you
started crying at the same time. That is how much
funny he has in his system. I feel like that he is
like Robin Williams without the wildness. Every actor
and actress wishes to have a breakout performance in a
film. Vince Vaughn got his early with this. He has
made a fantastically brilliant portrayal of what Jon
Favreau was trying to get across in his writing.
In closing, I had a experience watching this smart and
emotional comedy. I was impressed by the direction and
the writing of Jon Favreau, who also gave a solid
performance. The film was a great cult hit and in my
eyes, will be watched by generations to come because
the filmmakers will see how a comedy should be done
and done well. Hollywood need more of what Doug Liman,
Jon Favreau, and Vince Vaughn had back in 1996, when
they had made this highly original, and fresh faced
film. They have delivered a cult hit that can appeal
to the masses. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 08, 2005 | | Summary | Here's one for the guys | Content
| This is guy movie I've always wanted to see. It felt like a biography on men. It tells us guys how to get women in bars and parties and get a sense of what goes on in certain types of guys heads. For examples...
The main character, Mike, is a guy who can't seem to get over his dumping of his ex-girlfriend. He moves to L.A. and his new friends try to get him a girl. He seems like he's lost his touch and that's where the love advice falls into place. I got a real sense of how some troubled guys can react to losing their special girlfriends.
But the highlight of this movie goes to Mr. Scene-Stealer..Vince Vaughn. There's nothing else I can say except this guy is one funny actor. He's got a great sharp-witted humor in this that makes me laugh non-stop. And he's still got it today.
So attention all guys out there, this is an indy-flick that has ALL of your names on it. Check it out and have fun with it. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 08, 2005 | | Summary | Swingers - the 90's "Hip" movie | Content
| I LOVE this movie! I love the comraderie between the men and the friendship and caring they have for each other. It is quietly comedic and makes me smile every time I watch it. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 04, 2005 | | Summary | Good philosophical theme | Content
| I've heard a lot of the dialogue in this movie from law school students in my class, and I never understood the origin until now. Quotes such as "Vegas, baby, Vegas." I had no idea where such comments arose. Apparently this is an often quoted movie, although you won't find me quoting it. Yes, the movie is of high quality, that is, if you are able to look deep enough into why it was made, and discover the various themes imbedded throughout the story.
The main theme is that people have expectations regarding certain events or people in their life. Typically, the expectation is larger than life and can consume much of our thinking. This happens quite often when the theme involves love: who is rational when in love? Very few. The mind becomes enamored with positive thoughts of the person, and these thoughts will sometimes interfere with other plans that one should be embarking upon. This movie truly centers on that theme, and is one reason why I rate it a 4. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 19, 2005 | | Summary | Small budget + big heart=Swingers | Content
| There aren't many movies that belong in any respectable DVD collection, but Swingers should be an no-brainer of a pick, especially for those of the male persuasion. This movie was made ten years ago for the staggeringly low sum of about $250,000 (more than Clerks, but about a quarter percent of what Terminator 2 cost), but it ended up being yet another of Miramax's independent success stories, and even now it's easy to see why. This may not be the ultimate guy movie, but it's close, as it packs a heavy emotional punch without ever becoming schmaltzy or manipulative. It's paced at breakneck speed, edited and directed with ruthless efficiency, and utterly unpolished in appearance (in their commentary track, the director and editor basically admit they barely knew how to make a movie at the time), but that's all part of Swingers's relaxed, almost improvised charm.
While it may breeze by in a mere 95 minutes, Swingers is successfully largely because it's packed almost to bursting with brilliant dialogue. This is, simply put, one of the most quotable movies of the 1990's, right up there with Goodfellas, The Big Lebowski, and Office Space (in fact, a couple years ago Bill Simmons, aka ESPN.com's Sports Guy, used quotes from this movie for his team-by-team NFL preview). The characters basically use their own language, which may well be how L.A.-area lounge-lizard types actually talk for all this reviewer knows ("Dude, you are so f***ing money" being a typical line), but the central ideas of the movie come across easily regardless of the lingo they're conveyed in. In sharp contrast to the generally loathsome teen dramedies that started coming out just a couple years after this movie's release, Swingers is that rare comedy that never takes the low road and panders to its audience; instead it plays it cool throughout and offers up plenty of humanity to go with its humor. It is hysterically funny, but like great comedies from Better Off Dead to Clerks to Sideways, it's funny partly because it's rooted in a reality that's often no laughing matter. There's one scene in particular that sums up the movie, when Jon Favreau's protagonist Mike keeps leaving increasingly uncomfortable early-morning phone messages for a woman he's just met in a bar until she eventually gets on the phone and tells him never to call her again. Sparsely lit and painfully drawn-out, it's hilarious and agonizing to watch all at the same time. It's one of several scenes throught the movie where I felt somewhat guilty about laughing but laughed just the same.
At bottom, Swingers has such enduring appeal because of the contradiction at its core: it's a movie about serious subjects (lost love, male friendship, the struggle to find oneself), but it never really lets on that it's about anything serious, instead letting the viewers figure it out for themselves. Beneath all the humor, of which there is a great deal, Swingers is about people who have hit their mid-20's and found that everything isn't quite as they thought it would be. In another telling segment, the movie's two main characters hop in the car for an impromptu trip to Vegas, but their excitement gradually fades on the long drive from L.A., and the situation doesn't improve when their casino experience turns out to be far less glamorous than anticipated. This scene (actually about a quarter of the movie) provides a neat metaphor for the overarching theme of Swingers: we all have big dreams at one point or another, but reality often fails to measure up. There are legions of such people out there, and my guess is most can find something to relate to in Mike (played note-perfectly by Favreau, who also wrote the movie). The movie's opening finds Mike struggling to get over his ex-girlfriend six months after their breakup, going nowhere in his standup career, and deep into a spiral of despair and desperation. Sadly, we've all known at least one guy like Mike, the sensitive type who eventually winds up retreating into negativity and self-pity when things aren't going their way.
While Mike is ultimately the central figure, Swingers is nothing if not an ensemble movie, and it's populated by a cast of well-drawn, believable, and decidedly funny characters. Mike is joined in his personal and professional struggles by Trent (Vince Vaughn), Rob (Ron Livingston), Sue (Patrick Van Horn), and Charles (Alex Desert), all of whom have found themselves in basically the same boat. They hit a series of trendy clubs and parties throughout the movie, but remain virtual nobodies on the fringe of the local scene. These guys are, for lack of a better word, a bunch of tools, but they're likeable for precisely that reason. Beneath their hip exteriors, they're just struggling actors with no girlfriends, and the cast obviously has a lot of fun playing characters who aren't to be taken in any way seriously. Vaughn is especially indelible in the role of Trent, the ultimate wannabe hipster, right down to his dapper appearance and frequent use of Rat Pack-era slang. In lesser hands, Trent might come off as a laughable poser, but here he's given an undeniable depth and humanity because his overwhelming good intentions are always clearly visible.
As I've already mentioned, this movie was made for next to nothing, and it does show a great deal. The commentary tracks on this DVD (one with director Doug Liman and editor Steve Mirrione, the other with Favreau and Vaughn) highlight the myriad corners that were cut and cinematic "rules" that were broken due to budget constraints, but in the end it all works anyway. Swingers is wisely limited to a small scale, examining the immense difficulties and occasional victories that are a part of daily life, no matter where you live or what age you are. This fact, along with its hilarious script and sharp acting, combine to make a movie that's still utterly relevant ten years after its release. The term "classic" is thrown around way too often, but Swingers is one movie that definitely deserves the label. |
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