Middle Men

Writer-director George Gallo's wild ride through the seedy underbelly of the early Internet focuses on Jack Harris (Luke Wilson), who accidentally becomes involved in the online porn business when he agrees to help Wayne and Buck (Giovanni Ribisi and Gabriel Macht), two hapless goofballs in dutch with Russian mobster Nikita Sokoloff (Rade Serbedzija), who invested in the pair's homespun sex site. Jack not only smoothes things over but becomes, in effect, the company COO, transforming the enterprise into an Internet billing service that camouflages embarrassing credit-card transactions under a discreet-sounding name. Business booms and Jack gets rich, but complications arise when Jack hooks up with a porn actress and aids an FBI agent trying to pinpoint the location of terrorist customers. Further wrinkles include the accidental killing of one of Sokoloff's men and a deal involving a website featuring underage girls—a legal no-no in an era obsessed with the evils of child pornography. While this complicated scenario offers numerous opportunities for sharp satire and nutty comedy, Middle Men unfortunately fumbles many of them, while Wilson brings zero energy to the central character. An optional purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary (by director George Gallo, editor Malcolm Campbell, and cinematographer Lukas Ettlin), deleted scenes (6 min.), outtakes (2 min.), and a brief montage. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an uneven film.] (F. Swietek)