Without Men (2011) Reviews

• Banking on half clothed women to carry a film

  r-pattengale2011-09-22

  The creators of this film seemed to believe that the heavy sexual undertones and half clothed women would carry this film. They were mistaken. The movie begins with Christian Slater, a reporter stuck scrounging for a story, coming across a journal of Oscar Nunez (Oscar from The Office). Oscar describes a village that had all of it's men carried away to fight in a war which left all of the women to fend for themselves. Considering many of them can't read or write, or even change a light bulb, this would be no easy task. Eva Longoria declares herself mayor and tries to get everyone to work together to build the Utopian town of women. From the beginning this movie was hard to sit through. It became obvious very early on that the movie would not be carried on it's own but rather gambled on the fact that the hope of seeing girl on girl action would keep the viewer in their place. I cringed at the thought that Christian Slater, Oscar Nunez, and Eva Longoria actually read this script and went on board to make this ridiculous movie. The acting and storyline were bad and the only thing I came away with is wishing I could have that part of my life back. I would have rather gotten the laundry caught up.

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• Middling but Longoria gives it her best shot

  mbs2011-08-06

  Film has a good enough premise but little else. Small Mexican community loses all of its men when they're all rounded up against their will to fight in some unnamed war and the women end up taking over just fine thank you...but as time goes on they find themselves missing their men and wonder what they're gonna do for survival ultimately deciding to try and repopulate their town by sleeping with the one man who is still there--the local priest! (played in a Way over the top performance by Oscar Nunez from "The Office" and "The Proposal") Meanwhile in an almost completely tacked on subplot hotshot intrepid war correspondent Chrisitan Slater is told of this village and sets out on his own to find it as a human interest story in the midst of all this war. Movie keeps you watching in hopes that it will go somewhere interesting or so but ultimately goes nowhere. It doesn't help that almost every character in the movie is a one dimensional cartoon character--and even less subtle too boot. Film would actually be a complete and total mess were it not for the professional performance of Eva Longoria here. In fact I would go so far to say the reason why the film works at all would be because of the slightly greater depth Longoria gives her character. She actually manages to make her character seem like a better thought out character then the other assorted characters here and while i don't know if that's because the script focuses more on her or if its because Longoria gets to resemble an actual human being as opposed to the more comically exaggerated people here, i give her all the credit in the world for providing the film with someone to actually somewhat care about. (if only Slater's character had been given as much screen time to develop into someone worth caring about as well) Longoria plays the uptight wife of the mayor who gladly takes over after her husband is taken alongside the other men. Film is mostly about how she comes into her own while taking charge and making decisions for once, and also how she learns to loosen up while engaging in a flirtation with a lesbian drifter who becomes the sheriff of the town (as well as the town's resident bad ass) As a case of a former wallflower coming into her own the film actually works---as anything else however the film really doesn't. The film's tone is very broad and played in an over the top farcical style which doesn't really gel with the subject matter. While its nice to see a film with this subject matter not played in heavy handed award baiting sympathy mode...i'm not sure if taking the complete opposite tone was the right track either. The mixture of tones-- wild sex farce and true love amongst suffering village women could work well but doesn't really come off as well as it could here. The film should play well on cable TV tho where the bright colors and bouncy energy will help it stand out from what else is on tho it might not sustain your interest past the second or third commercial break.

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• Fun, cute and just a good time

  ettinger_lee2015-03-31

  Wow - those folks that wrote nasty reviews must be too serious! I thought this was a super cute film. Very funny premise, and handled the sexy comedy really cute I thought. I was especially pleased with the way Christen Slater was added to the story line. Smaller films are harder to make - everyone in the business knows this. Yet this Director got some big and medium names to fill out clever casting choices. Well done I say! Honestly - some of the scenes just had me laughing out loud - they were just what you want out of a light hearted, cute, escape from reality, fun film for an hour and half. Its both light hearted kind of sexy - yet empowering for women. Didn't anyone else see that? You don't always have to be super serious to get your message across. Bottom line - watch this cute little film and you will be glad you did - I guarantee it!! Cheers and happy movie watching lee

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• Insulting to Intelligence

  godzilla682011-10-24

  I didn't think that in this day and age and how far we have advanced, that a movie could be this bad. To think that people sat in a room and said, I think this is a good idea for a movie, AND people agreed to do it!!??? Shame on everyone involved to put this garbage out. I guess people will do anything for money! This movie is easily one of the worst movies EVER made hence its 2.3 score. I sat through about the first 10 minutes of the movie and couldn't continue. My wife sat through it because she's an Eva Longoria fan, but after this movie I'm not so sure anymore. Horrible acting, horrible story with horrible attempts at I'm not sure what accents. Did I say this movie was horrible? Don't waste your time and show these people you wouldn't stand for this kind of garbage anymore.

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• Without Men(from a man's perspective)

  scorpion-522011-12-22

  I truly do not understand the negativity towards this film at all, it dosen't deserve such a low rating. The premise of an entire town of women is carried out pretty well, I can see how some might be offended by the female characters not being able to read or wanting to do work, but if you can look past that, you'll see a charming, witty(funniest part for me was the women learning the joys of masturbation), lighthearted film with warm and likable characters, the relationship between Eva and Castillo is truly beautiful and heartwarming. There's also some interesting social commentary and female customs, for example, the women decide to make up their own time of 28 suns instead of 30 days(to go along with a women's cycle), the male performers do an adequate job, though their shortsided(understandable given the premise)Oscar Nunez is a hoot as the impotent priest and Slater does well enough as the straight man, all in all this film was a very pleasant surprise and I would highly recommend it.

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