Made [DVD]

Anyway, a lot of you who haven't seen this film will be thinking 'Is 'Made' similar to 'Swingers'?'. Well, yes and no. Yes, in that it is another superb film written (and this time directed) by Jon Favreau, who again stars with Vince Vaughn, proving that 'Swingers' wasn't just a fluke, and that it's another dialogue-orientated comedy. And no, because the story and characters in 'Made' are very different to what we found in "Swingers"...

Firstly, 'Made' is a much darker film than 'Swingers'. It's set in a low-key mafia environment, and the action switches from Los Angeles to New York and back again. Jon Favreau plays wannabe boxer Bobby, who acts as protection for his stripper girlfriend (played by Famke Janssen) when she's on call. He loves her and her young daughter (who's "not even his"), and will do anything to make their lives easier - even doing odd jobs for small-time mob boss Maxi (the croaky, almost incomprehinsible Peter Falk - great value, as always), who just happens to employ Bobby's girlfriend as one of his team of strippers. When Maxi calls on Bobby to go to New York to do a mysterious "drop", Bobby gets his life-long friend Ricky to go along with him. Vince Vaughn is brilliant as Ricky, a total idiot, so different to the effortlessly cool Trent, who Vaughn played in 'Swingers'. The hapless Ricky provides most of the comedy in this film, his hilariously cringe-worthy efforts to appear streetwise and in-the-know, especially when trying to impress Maxi and his mob partner in New York, Ruiz. Sean Combs (a.k.a. Puff Daddy / P. Diddy) does well in his limited amount of screen time as Ruiz, although you do get the feeling he's maybe playing himself up to a point.

The cinematography and soundtrack to the film are excellent (especially in and around the New York nightspots), with the soundtrack varying from upbeat hip hop favourites - De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Jurassic 5 - to Dean Martin. There are a lot of familiar faces who appear in peripheral roles (keep your eye out for actors from The Sopranos and a bizarre cameo by a cast member of early 90s teen show Saved By The Bell).

All in all, this is a great movie which is well worth buying, that further enhances Jon Favreau's reputation as a superbly deft scriptwriter, and confirms that Favreau and Vaughn are a marvellous on-screen duo.