<http://schema.org/reviewBody>
"&lt;p&gt;It would be easy as hell to tell you what a comic shambles &lt;em&gt;The Amateurs&lt;/em&gt; is, but I had too good a time to let it bother me. Writer-director Michael Traeger sets his freaky fable in Butterface Fields, a small American town (pop. 3,149) that could pass for Mayberry if the menfolk there decided to pass the time by making a porn flick. For Andy Sargentee (Jeff Bridges), who has lost a series of jobs and his wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn), amateur porn is a growth industry and a chance to pursue a better destiny.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;wm:embed type=\"related\"&gt;&lt;/wm:embed&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before you can say, &amp;quot;What the fuck,&amp;quot; Andy has recruited his pal Some (Joe Pantoliano, in sweet mode) as the writer-director. Some, short for Some Idiot, has taken film courses at a junior college. Emmett (Patrick Fugit), the kid from the video store, will do the camerawork. Barney (Tim Blake Nelson) will handle press. Moose (Ted Danson), who denies he&amp;apos;s gay, offers to provide stud service. And Otis (William Fichtner), who calls Moose what he is (&amp;quot;assmaster&amp;quot;), just wants to hang out and escort the &amp;quot;porno peacherinos&amp;quot; to their next hump. He is named executive producer.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;You&amp;apos;ll notice that the actors are way overqualified for this nonsense. But the kick they get out of one another is what pulls you in. Traeger&amp;apos;s script does more than strain credulity, it administers multiple fractures. Still, it&amp;apos;s hard not to laugh when the boys decide their film needs &amp;quot;carpet munching, black men with elephant dicks and a half-dozen guys unloading on a gal until she looks like a melted candle.&amp;quot; You won&amp;apos;t be surprised to learn that they fall far short of their goals.&lt;/p&gt;\r\n&lt;p&gt;Though &lt;em&gt;The Amateurs&lt;/em&gt; talks a kinky game about &amp;quot;the big porno weenie,&amp;quot; it&amp;apos;s no more shocking than &lt;a href=\"../../../movies/reviews/the-full-monty-19970813\"&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Full Monty&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; or other pop entertainments your Aunt Bee can see without a blindfold. As Andy re-arranges his film into something to make the town and his son (Alex D. Linz) proud, visions of a spin on &lt;em&gt;It&amp;apos;s a Wonderful Life&lt;/em&gt; with babes who, in the words of Some Idiot, &amp;quot;get boned and give head,&amp;quot; go out the window. You may expect group sex, but what you get is a group hug.&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-amateurs-20060607>