The R.M. (2003)

Wonderful character development!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A Disappointing Continuation

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

I have lived in Utah for 12 years, and like another reviewer, I had seen part of this on a local TV station a couple of weeks ago, and thought what I saw was pretty funny, so I rented the DVD. The first half of the movie is hilarious! Nothing goes right for the main character after he returns from his mission to Wyoming (a big laugh right there...). My daughters and I laughed our heads off. Toward the end of the movie, the momentum was somewhat lost by the convoluted story. The movie tried to turn serious, and it came off as a bit preachy. It was a bit heavy handed toward "jack" Mormons and toward non-Mormons, as they are depicted as heavy drinkers and just all around bad people. It wasn't a bad movie, however, and we got some good laughs out of it. "Big Budah" the local radio personality did surprisingly well in his acting debut! The DVD has a lot of fun extras too. All in all, I recommend it for good family viewing and a few laughs.

loved it!!!! I thought it was good clean fun. I wish there were more movies this clean and entertaining. I will admit it was mostly inside "LDS" humor. Possibly not as funny if you don't understand LDS life and/or unable to laugh about it. I have some friends from church that didn't think it was funny, but they don't have much of a sense of humor any way. The whole movie cracked me up. I especially loved the little scene w/ the Lawyer, and the comparisons of the mens and womens church class. I thought it was funny when The Mom is pregnant and the dad says "Don't look at me, I didn't know until the visiting teachers called," thats classic. My whole family enjoyed the movie, and so did some of my "non-member" friends.

Being in the theatre and film industry myself, I've generally been critical of cheesy LDS comedies, but The RM was not cheesy. Almost all of the humor is based on exaggeration, some of it more exaggerated than others. The contrast between Relief Society and Elder's Quorum meetings, however, was almost right on the mark, right down to the doily on top of R.S. radio and the E.Q. instructor's plea to have someone read the first 6 pages of the lesson. Having grown up in the Idaho-Utah LDS culture myself, I found much of the humor about LDS culture delightful; though I expect that members of the church from other states may miss the humor that is aimed almost exclusively at the Idaho-Utah culture.The RM fits into the farce genre, which does not require realism, depth of character, or a poignant moral, so if the viewer goes into the theatre expecting any of these, he or she is going to be disappointed.My one criticism is that the film, perhaps in its attempt to portray the humorous elements of LDS society, comes across as cynical in many scenes, and the more critical LDS viewer may find this offensive. For example, contrary to the film's depiction, Elder's Quorums do have many elders who bring their manuals, who diligently prepare lessons, and who faithfully perform their home teaching--even in Idaho and Utah. It is doubtful this perceived cynicism is intended, and it is more likely that it is merely the byproduct of the film's attempt to maximize humor.My wife and I found the film delightful. We found it far more entertaining than most of the comedies that prevail in movies theaters today--most of which are also farces, but that, despite their multi-million dollar casts, maximize humor with cheap sexual references, foul language, and cynical views of the America and the family and leave us feeling that we need to scrub our eyes and ears with a Brillo pad. Watch The RM. It's well worth your time.

Before you read this review, go to my name and read my review for "The Singles Ward". That will give you the idea about how I feel about these types of movies. I'm very skeptical going in, and come out pleasantly surprised.I have to admit, I like 'The R.M.' more than I liked 'Singles Ward'. Maybe it's because I only went to a singles ward twice, and then decided that I'd rather chew glass than marry one of the obviously desperate ladies there. (I knew they were desperate because they actually wanted to date a dork like ME.)I am, however, an R.M. (Chile Santiago South 1991-1993) and thought that most of the jokes were extremely funny. Yes, some were over the top, but as a whole, I loved it.***MINOR SPOILERS*** My favorite part was the comparisons of Elder's quorum and Relief Society. I almost blew lemonade out of my nose I was laughing so hard.***END SPOILERS***I also thought that 'The R.M.' had less cheesy LDS-related jokes. Not saying that there weren't any, but fortunately they spared us any green Jello jokes this time around.If you are a returned missionary, go see this movie. You will definitely see something that seems familiar.Plus, it's fun to just see a movie that's a lot of fun.