Ben & Arthur (2002)

Strong and Moving!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Tommy Wiseau, James Nguyen, Sam Mraovich - birds of a feather, peas in a pod. If you recognise the first two in this sequence of names, you will know EXACTLY what to expect.This is a melodrama about gay marriage and prejudice. It could have been directed by any one of the three names mentioned above. It just happened to be Sam Mraovich this time.Murky, incompetent, hilarious. The latter only applies if you are in the mood for cinematic compost.

Ben and Arthur deals with gay marriage in America and the issues surrounding it with religious groups opposing legalization and so forth. Obviously, Sam Mraovich cares greatly about this issue as he has made it the painstakingly obvious main theme (perhaps only theme) of his movie. I say his movie because Mr. Mraovich wrote, directed and starred in the movie himself. The problem is that he is not very good at either of these roles, and frankly, neither are the other actors at theirs. Another problem is that Sam Mraovich has taken a very childish, oversimplified approach to the issue in the main theme. They could have had the characters actually discuss the issue, talk it over and have different characters with conflicting views, you know, some drama. Instead, the protagonists overly religious brother decide he must stop them at any cost, and goes to kill the gay couple, and with the that the movie goes from what could have been a decent drama, to a poorly executed action thriller.

First thing I want to say that it is enjoyable as long as you know what you're getting into. It's a bad movie, the acting is horrendous, the sound quality is actually the worst I've seen (within the same scene there are weird audio changes that has background noise then no background noise which leads one to believe they are in the vacuum of space... seriously), the editing is terrible, and the writing is atrocious. However, it ends up being a great combination. It is so bad it becomes amazing whether it be the scene in which his metro sexual hardcore Christian brother who loves cats (not joking) attempts to convert him using a (and this is a direct quote) "secret holy water recipe". While the message has some merit (gay people should be allowed to marry anywhere and anybody who disagrees is a poopy faced meanie head). If it had any sense of reality the story might have been somewhat watchable but not here. Honestly I must say that one should watch Obscurus Lupa's video on it (It's on thatguywiththeglasses.com) as it has the funniest parts of the movie expressed in the best details. I believe this movie should be viewed by film students to learn how not to make a movie with a message. It's fantastically terrible and if one likes these movies it's a must see, same for film students, but at the same time casual audiences will HATE this movie.

What can I say, this is a piece of brilliant film-making that should have won an Oscar. A copy should be kept safe in a secure vault for posterity. It should be required viewing for all high school students across the world. Sam Mraovich is a genius, perhaps the most genius writer/director/producer/chef/babysitter/walmart greeter to ever grace the cinema world with his art.Where do I begin with this one? Every millisecond of Ben and Arthur was so completely breathtaking! And Mraovich as Arthur, wow, he is so attractive I'm surprised he didn't go for Mr. Universe. I couldn't contain myself during the nude scene. I loaned this movie to my brother and he called me on the phone saying how Arthur's nude scene turned him gay. I am totally supportive of course, because of this film and it's beautifully crafted lessons in tolerance. Why just yesterday I burned down a church and I wrote "for Sam and Arthur" in its smoldering ashes.The cinematography was the best thing about this film. When that Fed-Ex plane took to the skies amid the palm trees of Vermont, I wept! Why, I never even knew they had palm trees in Vermont or that people could travel on Fed-Ex planes before this film. It opened my eyes to a new realm of possibilities. This film inspired me to enroll in Sam Mraovich's school of Screen writing, Acting, Directing, Composing, Casting, Producing, Production Design and Real Estate. I just want to say, "Thank you, Mr. Mraovich. Thank you for bringing this creation into the world. We can never re-pay you enough."