Best Men (1997)

Very well executed

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Best Men is the most charming, dainty and innocuous movie about bank robbing that you'll ever see. It's premise revolves around a wedding party that unwittingly gets roped into a heist, but they're all solid folks, including the perpetrator, and all just want the best for the happy couple they are celebrating for. Therein lies both the comedic and the touching moments, of which there are many, supplied by a diverse and very capable cast. A troupe of best men accompany a groom (Luke Wilson) on the way to his matrimonial bliss. One among them is a hotheaded adrenaline junkie named Billy (Sean Patrick Flanery, never more adorable). Billy has knack for robbing banks whilst reciting Shakespeare. Demands, commands, profanities. All in the Bard's tongue. He brazenly holds up a rural branch and drags his friends in, including two others, an ex military stud (Dean Cain) and a squirrelly, pussy whipped Andy Dick. They soon find themselves trapped in the bank with law enforcement prepping a siege outside their front door and Wilson's determined Bridezilla (a feisty Drew Barrymore) marching straight into the crime scene to furiously give her fiancé what for. Billy also has severe daddy issues, which probably led to him lashing out in such a theatrical fashion in the first place. Coincidentally, the local sheriff (Fred Ward) happens to be his Poppa, and the two face off in scenes which undermine the lighter tone and dig for pathos that's worth pausing for. They're threatened by a gung ho FBI agent (Raymond J. Barry) who wants to blow them to kingdom come so he can go to lunch. They also find themselves sequestered in the bank with a sketchy Viet nam vet played by a wicked funny Brad Dourif in quite the commanding little supporting turn. Amid the screwball roughhousing, him and Cain find a few aching moments of truth relating to Cain's sexual orientation, and his shame regarding it. I love a light, harebrained comedy, but I love em even more when they take deep breaths between fits of lunacy to gift their characters with some gravity that makes you feel something besides your sides splitting. This ones sadly forgotten, and you should all give it a go, it's a gem.

My friend bought this movie out of the $5 bin at Walmart for a laugh. I was just expecting a stupid, mindless romantic comedy. What I found was a brilliant piece of work. The script is quite impressive. The story actually focuses on the "Best Men" like it says, not on the bride and groom. The whole film is chock full of lovable (and not so lovable) vibrant characters from nerdy little Teddy to Billy, the classical romantic hero, to Buzz the top-notch soldier with a heart of gold to Sol the lawyer you don't want to trust. Why had I never heard of this movie before?!? This definitely deserves a place on the shelf for anyone who loves comedy and good writing.

BEST MEN Aspect ratio: 2.39:1Sound format: Dolby DigitalTamra Davis' OK comedy-drama toplines Sean Patrick Flanery (POWDER) as a Shakespeare-spouting bank robber whose latest heist goes spectacularly awry when a group of his closest friends (Dean Cain, Luke Wilson, Andy Dick and Mitchell Whitfield) stumble into the very same bank whilst on their way to Wilson's wedding, obliging them to join forces with Flanery and take staff and customers hostage as the building is besieged by trigger-happy cops. Raymond J. Barry is the hard-nosed FBI agent who takes charge of the situation from sheriff Fred Ward (playing Flanery's estranged father!), employing heavy-handed methods which ultimately threaten the lives of everyone in the immediate area.Narrative parallels with DOG DAY AFTERNOON are acknowledged in the dialogue (there's also a hint of THELMA & LOUISE, and a significant dollop of BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID), but Davis and her scriptwriters (Art Edler Brown and Tracy Fraim) forego heavy drama for a light-hearted examination of friendship under duress, at least until the climactic showdown, when events take a slightly darker turn. Nicely played by an experienced cast, the movie takes time to establish a roster of likable characters, particularly Cain as an ex-Green Beret whose dreams of a military career were shattered when the Army discharged him for being gay, and Brad Dourif as one of the hostages, a fiercely loyal Vietnam vet whose own Army service ended when he dared to question his superiors' ethics. Drew Barrymore gets lost in the mix as Wilson's bride-to-be, left standing at the altar following his involvement in the heist, but Flanery excels as the benevolent bank robber who steals from the rich and distributes his gains amongst local orphanages; his recitals from "Hamlet" are a highlight of the picture.

Maybe I shouldn't have liked "Best Men," but I did. I watched it late last night on either HBO or Showtime, I don't remember which, with reservations and low hopes. The rating of 6 here seemed decent enough, but the comment(s) that showed on the main info page seemed rather negative. Still, I decided to give the movie a chance.I'm really glad that I did. This movie had some laughs and some teary-eyed moments. I, personally, both laughed and cried hard, and I know for a fact that it wasn't just because of the late-night time affecting my rationality and/or emotions. I missed the first 10 minutes or so of the movie, which had me a little confused, but I don't think it mattered too awfully much--I'll be sure to rent or buy (this one should be cheap if I can find it) it and watch it again to find out. That being said, I'll move on to my opinions of the individual actors/characters.I'd never heard of Dean Cain before. I vaguely recognized him without knowing from where--turns out he was the host of "Ripley's Believe It or Not," which I used to watch fairly frequently. That's the only place I'd ever seen him, so I had no idea of what his acting skills were going into this movie. I was pleased with Cain's performance as Buzz. He had a perfect body and attitude for the "tough military guy," although he could've been a bit softer during certain scenes. Still, he did well enough, and certainly didn't detract from the movie.I went into the film liking Andy Dick. He made me laugh my head off in "Hebrew Hammer," I watch his series "The Assistant" whenever I can, and I've enjoyed all the little guest parts he's had in a great deal of movies. With the exception of "The Assistant," I'd only seen him in slapstick settings. Although he was certainly funny--even hilarious at times--it was a different type of funny, and I really liked it. I'd like to see him in more roles like this: funny, but a little serious. He did a great job as Teddy; I only wish he would have had more time on-screen. Maybe if I'd caught those first minutes of the movie I'd have seen more of him.Sean Patrick Flanery was definitely the star of the show in my mind. The only other movie I'd seen him in was "Powder," and I didn't recognize him at all here--I only found out it was the same actor when I checked his bio page here. In "Best Men" he did a truly superb job as Billy. He delivered his Shakespeare lines incredibly well, without sounding hesitant, fake, or anything like that. The lines just flowed out, and I think I fell in love a little. His scenes with his father were perfectly believable. All in all, Billy was just my favorite character.Mitchell Whitfeld did well as Sol. I'd never seen him before this movie, so I didn't know what to expect; I wasn't disappointed. His best line in the movie is the "I'm Jewish" one--so funny!I've seen lots of Luke Wilson's movies before, and I've always found him thoroughly enjoyable. This held true in "Best Men" as well. I felt really bad for his character, Jesse--I mean, come on, stuck in a bank robbery on your wedding day? That just sucks. A good character, though he (surprisingly) wasn't on screen that much compared to the other characters.Finally, there's Drew Barrymore as Hope. This woman is one of my favorite actresses of all time, so I was a little disappointed to see that she was barely ever on-screen. For the few minutes we see her, however, she did well.Although this movie seemed a little random--unequal parts humor, drama, and action--it was still a very good watch. I'll definitely rent this, and if I ever see it for sale I'll be sure to buy it immediately. I give it a 7 out of 10--a slightly more coherent plot would have given it an 8.