Brooklyn Brothers Beat The Best (2011)

Brooklyn Brothers Beat The Best (2011)

Available at Amazon.

The Brooklyn Brothers Beat The Best is a 2011 independent comedy film, written and directed by Ryan O'Nan and starring Ryan O'Nan, Michael Weston and Arielle Kebbel. The story focuses on a failing musician named Alex, who joins an eccentric musician and a beautiful con artist on a tour across the United States. The film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2011.

The film opens with Alex (O'Nan), performing at a club with another artist. The performance goes badly, and Alex is kicked out of the partnership on account of his depressing lyrics. The next day, Alex arrives late at work much to the scrutiny of his boss and co-worker. He tries to leave early to go to a gig, although his boss refuses to let him go, and his co-worker taunts him about it. This prompts Alex to assault him and he is fired immediately afterwards.

Now out of work, Alex goes to his gig, which is at a school and involves him playing guitar for a group of mentally handicapped adults while dressed in a pink moose outfit. The gig goes well at first with the group getting up to dance while he plays, although one of them latter attacks him with a fake knife, prompting Alex to punch him. He is kicked out of the school, and wanders into a park where he meets a man named Jim (Weston) who recognizes him from the failed performance the night before.

After initially trying to chase him off, Jim knocks Alex unconscious and drags him back home where he proposes his idea of starting a band together, since he too was recently kicked out of a band. Alex, upset about being knocked out and abducted, chases Jim out of his apartment and later gets a call from his older brother Brian (Andrew McCarthy) Brian suggests that Alex stay at his place for a while to get his life back together, and Alex initially agrees, although later changes his mind and returns to Jim, agreeing to travel with him.

After borrowing Jim's Grandpa's car, the two begin writing music on the way to the first gig later that night, and arrive only to discover that Jim isn't technically booked at the club he wants to perform at. They meet with Cassidy (Kebbel), who works as a manager for the club and agrees to book them after taking an interest in Alex. That night, Alex and Jim perform together and are a huge success. They spend the night at Cassidy's place and in the morning, she insists on joining them on their tour.

Alex reluctantly brings her along, and she creates merchandise to sell during the shows. At the next gig, the band is greeted with star treatment and a top notch dressing room with complimentary wine and snacks. When Alex asks Jim how he managed to get a dressing room like that, Jim admits that he told the manager that Scott Weiland from the Stone Temple Pilots was fronting them.

Shortly before the gig, the manager confronts Jim about Weilands absence and Jim tells him that Weiland on a bender, and can't make the show. He convinces the manager that the story is true, and lies well enough to bring him to tears. The band doesn't get to perform but sells most of their merch and Cassidy steals a bottle of wine. After Jim falls asleep, Alex and Cassidy share the bottle and chat, although Alex becomes agitated when Cassidy reveals that she read the letter he writes to himself (the purpose of which is never fully explained).

The band continues its travels, eventually taking a gig in an unusual frat house. After the gig, Cassidy and Alex have sex, and Alex wakes up in the morning to discover that Cassidy has taken all their money and left. With little gas, Alex and Jim are unable to arrive at their next gig, and are stranded in a small town, unable to raise any money. Alex gives up and leaves, traveling to his brother's house.

Brian and his family, all born again Christians, are happy to accept Alex back home. He rooms with his nephew Jackson (Jake Miller), and teaches him a little of how to play guitar. The next day, Jackson expresses an interest in taking a music course, much to Brian's dismay. Alex tries to convince Brian to support Jackson's decision but Brian chastizes Alex for being a bad influence on his son. Alex deciding he is no longer welcome, gets ready to leave and as he is saying his goodbye to Jackson, he sees Cassidy walking down the street towards him. Cassidy explains that she returned the money, and that Jim's grandfather has died. When Alex asks where Jim has gone, Cassidy tells him where the club is, and Alex asks Brian to drive him. Brian reluctantly agrees to do so and they arrive to see Jim being thrown out. He reconciles with Jim, and the two perform outside the club.

As they drive away to continue their tour, now with Cassidy rejoining them. Cassidy promises to repay Alex and Jim, and during the final moments of the film, passionately kisses Alex.

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Inbetweeners (2011)

Inbetweeners (2011)

Available at Amazon.

The Inbetweeners Movie is a 2011 British coming-of-age comedy film based on the E4 sitcom The Inbetweeners, written by series creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris and directed by Ben Palmer. The film follows the misadventures of a group of teenage friends on holiday in Crete after the end of their final year at school together, and currently serves as an ending to the TV series. It stars Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison. The film was released on 19 August 2011 in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Friends Will McKenzie, Simon Cooper, Jay Cartwright and Neil Sutherland have finished their A-levels and are about to leave Rudge Park Comprehensive, much to the relief of Mr. Gilbert, their sardonic, mean sixth form tutor. Within their final week of school however, Jay's grandfather dies, Simon is dumped by his girlfriend Carli, and Will's divorced father tells him he has married his much younger mistress. The boys decide to go on holiday together and Neil books them on a trip to Malia, Crete.

Their accommodation in Malia is awful, confusing Neil as it apparently looked different on the booking process. On the way to the bars, the boys encounter a strange youngster named Richard (Theo Barklem-Biggs) who came alone to Malia for a holiday. While walking past the bars, the boys are tricked into entering a bar which is really empty but meet four girls; Alison, Lucy, Lisa and Jane. Their initial meeting goes less than smoothly as Will chats to Alison and pokes fun at her clichéd "Greek waiter boyfriend", Simon bores Lucy talking about Carli, Neil has a non-conversation with Lisa, and Jay gets stuck with the bubbly and overweight Jane. The girls go on their way after Neil seduces two older women, but arrange to meet the boys the next day.

Outside the bar, Simon sees Carli across the street; this is because Neil asked Carli where she was going on holiday and absentmindedly booked the same place. Simon then angrily tells Neil that the point of the holiday was to take his mind off Carli, but decides to go and speak to her. He talks awkwardly with her before being knocked down by a quad-bike ridden by James, an abusive club rep and Carli's new boyfriend. Carli reveals she is going to an all-day boat party later in the week, and Simon pledges to meet her there.

The next morning, Will and Simon awaken to the sound of Neil having sex with a middle-aged woman and find Jay sleeping face-down in an ants' nest outside. After sobering up, they go to meet the girls by their hotel pool. While there, a little boy pushes Jay into the pool and later pulls Jay's shorts down, after which Jay throws him into the pool in retaliation, only to find out that the boy did not lie when he said he can not swim. The boy is rescued by other hotel patrons. At the same time, a man shows up who had reserved poolside sun-loungers by putting towels on them, and is angry because the boys have thrown the towels in the pool and taken the chairs for themselves. The staff then ask the boys to leave. Will tries to convince the staff to let him have the seats and points out that the man's daughter, who is in a wheelchair, does not even need another chair. Having publicly humiliated themselves, the boys are quickly ejected from the hotel.

Outside, Jay argues with Simon over his continuing obsession with Carli and they fight in the street. Will and Neil separate the pair and drag off Simon and Jay, respectively, in different directions. Desperate to buy a ticket for the boat party, Simon sells his clothes to James, including what he is wearing, but never gets paid for them and is left naked. Meanwhile, Jay angrily tears up two of the four boat party tickets he secretly bought for all of them as a surprise. He and Neil then go to a nightclub later that night hoping to meet more girls, only to witness a male stripper performing autofellatio on stage. The duo subsequently run into James and his friends, during which James threatens to injure Jay if they don't leave.

Later that evening, the four boys meet back at the bar and bury the hatchet. Before long, the girls turn up and suggest that they all go skinny dipping at the local beach. Jane attempts to kiss Jay, but when two men poke fun at him over her weight and Jay pulls away, she leaves him behind. Will has better luck with Alison until she spots her boyfriend Nicos having sex with another woman, and leaves crying. Lucy and Simon appear to be growing closer until he sees Carli on the beach and leaves Lucy alone in the sea. Will contemplates suicide in the hotel pool, but Neil cheers him up and the boys go out partying.

Eventually, they are able to obtain tickets for the boat party and on board. Carli kisses Simon passionately in order to make James jealous, and Simon realises he is being used, and leaves Carli. Jay apologises to Jane, and she takes him into the toilets to perform oral sex. After finishing, they encounter James, who mocks Jane's weight and demands a banknote from Jay, so that he can snort drugs. Jay gives him a €20 note that had been concealed in his anus to be used as a bribe for 'corrupt foreign police' when necessary, resulting in James unknowingly walking around with faeces on the end of his nose. Neil bumps into Richard during the boat party and is introduced to Richard's parents (both senior citizens), who came over at Richard's request to pick him up. When Neil is about to kiss the mother as a polite gesture, Lisa rushes over and tells her to back off, as she thinks Neil is trying to make moves on her like he did with the other older women at the bar. After Neil tells Lisa that his girlfriend back home dumped him, and he did not want to tell the others to save on being embarrassed, they feel no longer limited in the kind of sex they have.

Meanwhile, Alison hunts out Will and asks to be his girlfriend, which he eagerly accepts. Simon finally sees that Lucy, who gave him her ticket so that he could attend the party, is more worthy of his attention than Carli. Knowing that he has been less than kind to her, and encouraged by everyone on the boat, he decides to swim all the way to shore to tell her how he feels, as a grand romantic gesture, and dives into the sea. However, he nearly drowns and has to be airlifted to shore. As paramedics load him into an ambulance, a concerned Lucy rushes forward and kisses him, and they reconcile whilst Simon tells her 'It's normally bigger, it's just cold'.

After the boat party is over, the other boys and girls visit Simon in hospital, and once he recovers they all spend the rest of their holiday together as couples. Eventually, the four boys head home to the UK. As they meet their families at the airport, their girlfriends exit the same terminal and introduce themselves to the boys' parents as the film ends. Neil and Lisa quickly rush from the airport when Nicole is also waiting for him at the airport (Neil had lied about Nicole dumping him during the boat party). In a final scene before the credits, a drunken Mr. Gilbert is seen riding a quad bike through the streets of Malia in his underwear with a tie round his head in a John Rambo style.

 

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