Men in Love

a frighteningly bad film. You almost hope they're trying to poke fun at themselves, but there are some earnest scenes, too. I kept thinking it'd get better, but, like influenza, it got worse and worse. The plot is thinner than a fortune cookie fortune. It's also really bad soft gay porn. I'd be flabbergasted if anyone w/ a frontal lobe ever enjoyed this film.

Went with a friend to see this film. We both began to squirm uncomfortably and at the same time asked each other, "Is this supposed to be a drama or a comedy?" Even with the two of us being gay and trying to cut the film some slack for its attempt at its gay theme, we still couldn't even use that as an excuse for what we'd seen. If appalling direction, awful acting, and bad makeup artistry were capital crimes, every person in this film would be behind bars. It was an absolute paean to pap.

"Men in Love" is an excruciatingly dull film that could potentially be given an "E" for Effort -- and it is an Enormous Effort to watch. A disastrously unappealing leading man (with such heavy eye-liner that he looks like a silent film vamp) is only part of the problem.

First is an earnest but terribly overlong memorial service which is "realistic" in the senses that it's embarrassing if you don't know the deceased, and that in real life people in general are pretty darn ugly. Then it's off to visit gay friends in Maui with the dead lover's ashes. Here our grieving main character immediately begins his healing process by playing messy fruit eating games with a sensitive local man. In fact, everyone in this film is so overweeningly sensitive you want to douse them with ice water. It's unnerving to realize we're meant to take these new-age parodies seriously.

This film was produced in part by "Tantric Films," so it makes sense that the on-screen lovemaking involves a lot of heart-to-heart rocking and breathing and looking into each other's eyes. That's the good part. The bad part is that everyone is always forming into circles and holding hands. And you are there.

If you're looking for some naked flesh, that's here, too -- a couple of cutie-pie extras are on hand to provide some titillation -- but mostly one earnestly hopes the characters leave their clothes on.

I caught this at a Gay & Lesbian Film Festival back in 1990. There were two showings at 7:00 and 9:00 and the director was to be at both. I attended the 9:00 showing and I heard the 7:00 showing was a disaster. People were howling in laughter at the "serious" parts or walking out cause they were bored silly. Obviously the director was not in the best of moods when he introduced the 9:00 showing. He said, "If you find yourself laughing during the film ask yourself why you're laughing." (?????) Well after about 30 minutes in I could tell him why I was laughing. It was TERRIBLE!!! The scenery was beautiful and some of the guys were hot but the dialogue was just dreadful. All the characters came across as idiots and all the "healing" sessions were more funny than interesting. Me and my friends sat there hoping it would get better but it never did. One or two mildly hot sex scenes were nice but that's hardly enough to recommend the movie. I think this has disappeared since 1990...and that's a good thing! Boring and pointless. A 1 all the way.