Ben & Arthur

I can't believe I'm dignifying this junior high school quality nonsense with a comment, but I've got time to kill and nothing else to do. The star/director/writer, etc. has ZERO talent in all these areas. The guy who played Ben is a hottie. This was shot on VHS in a couple of people's apartments. The camera/lighting guys must have been the director's nephews or something. The quality of everything was dreadful. This is an unwatchable video. I thought it might be funny bad, but it's unbearable bad. What an ego fest for the sorry guy who played Arthur. How did this home movie find distribution? Is there really a market for this? Arthur tries to be funny and dramatic and playful/charming. He's a total loser. He had to make his own film because no one else would. Brief glimpses of Ben's chest are the only good thing about this home movie. The love scene is achingly silly. The wedding scene was dumb. Then the ex-wife suddenly shows up with her hair and waves a gun around for more "drama!" This is an abomination. I bet the director/writer/star boasts about it to this day. He is delusional.

A blank videotape these days can be had for 99 cents. This film was shot on videotape, and believe me, it was 99 cents wasted. The film is ineptly written, ineptly directed, ineptly acted, and ineptly designed. The same folding table shows up in several of the interiors, indicating that the Mraovich family (whose names are all over this venture) must not own much furniture. The priest's inner sanctum set looks like painted cardboard, and features the ever present folding table.

With a story that wants to be earnest, the director created a slow-moving, poorly acted melodrama. Plot "twists" make no sense (why murder the never-before-or-after-seen secretary?) And if someone takes a bullet in the shoulder, shouldn't there be a wound or some blood at least?

I found myself thinking that someone said, "Hey, I got this video camera at the Goodwill store. Let's make a movie!" How did this make it to the DVD market?

There is absolutely nothing in this movie that shows even the tiniest scrap of talent. Nobody in it has ever tried acting before, even the extras in the coffee shop look as if they've been glued in place. Nothing looks rehearsed.The film quality is terrible. Most of the 'action' takes place in narrow corridors or apartments with the cameraman crammed in as an afterthought, swinging some cheapo camera backwards and forwards between 'actors' as they deliver their lines. No tripod and no proper microphone either, there sound quality is terrible. Even 'Manos' fares better than this, at least they had proper equipment. What plot there is simply gets lost in the production mess.

Stick to home videos, preferably made by some 5 year kid trying out the video feature on daddy's new camera phone. You will be in for a long search to find a movie more inept than this.

Like many young writers who believe passionately in their cause, Sam Mraovich clearly hasn't a clue about what motivates those he sees as "the enemy". Therefore he writes his villains as irrational monsters acting out of sheer evil, not as human beings with their own concerns, wrong as they might be. Ben and Arthur are two gay guys being menaced by one's religious zealot brother, who plots with his priest to murder his brother in order to "free his soul". Meanwhile the other guy is being stalked by an ex-wife who would rather see him dead than lose him to another man. In more skillful hands, this could be the stuff of a wickedly funny black comedy, but Mraovich apparently believes he's writing serious drama. I don't think he even sees the humor in a credit list in which "Sam Mraovich" is practically the only name that appears anywhere, except for the occasional "Chris Mraovich". Sam wrote, produced, directed, stars, photographed, edited, and undoubtedly swept the floors when he was finished. Unfortunately he doesn't do any of the tasks which are visible on the screen very professionally (I don't know how he was at sweeping up). And in one final lapse of judgement, the plain and slightly dumpy Mraovich, sandwiched between two extremely attractive actors, gives HIMSELF the film's only nude scene! Bad choice, Sam!

Oh my GOD. I bought this movie and...I...watched...the...whole...thing. . . Okay, it's going to be alright... I'l know I'll be okay in a month or two. Some time soon I hope to be rid of the flash backs. I was going to eat something after the movie but I just can't seem to get up the courage to try and hold any food down at the moment. Bad? Yes bad. Very BAD. BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD. Wait, bad doesn't seem to get the message across in quite the right way. Hmm... There isn't a word to describe just how awful.... not awful... Hmm disgustingly horribly casted/acted/filmed/directed/written. Now I don't know what to do but throw it out. Possibly burn it I wouldn't want it to end up at the bottom of an architectural dig a thousand years from now. The worst movie ever since "Hey Happy"