The Truth About Average Guys (2009)

Powerful

The first must-see film of the year.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

So, it took three attempts to try and make this film. Why does it look so amateurish? The framing of the shots is terrible, awful lighting, cheap audio cuts, and poor acting. I guess the acting is excusable, since indie flicks using local talent aren't known for their breakout performances.I don't know why people like this movie though. I laughed only once, really. The whole mentally-challenged angle was old as soon as it was introduced. The writing stalls often. You can't just coast on a few good lines for an entire movie. Also, the main dude is such a whiny bitch, seriously. Girls *hate* insecure, non-confident dudes. They should have never gotten together in the first place. A for effort to actually get the movie written and filmed and edited and sent out. Great, phenomenal. But the actual movie itself really isn't a super strong debut.

I don't know where all this reviews come from, just watched this movie and must say: One of the worst movies ever!Don't get me wrong, its a nice movie, and the actors really try and Erika Walter is gorgeous, but the script, the lighting, the colors, the choreography, cutting, dramaturgy, casting, production design, closing credits, even the graphic design for the film poster, everything seems more like a high school project.If i would not have read all the positive reviews and was curious what might happen to get them, i would have stopped watching the move after 20min...But: Nice Idea, and with some tweaking the script could become a nice one for a good movie...Maybe this movie is genius and i simply don't get it, but until this is proved i have to stick to the above written!No hard feelings, i love you guys!

I was pleasantly surprised by this comedy, made on a micro budget (5 grands according to IMDb) by two guys. Ken Gayton and Jason Schaver are not only the two male leads in this flick but also wrote, produced and directed The Truth About Average Guys.The limited means obviously show everywhere in the film but nonetheless, it offers several funny moments, some which are golden. The premise is nothing new. An average guy decides to get the attention of his dream girl with an elaborate lie, requiring the help of his best friend. Once the plan works, he must maintain the lie or risk losing her. The movie works because the treatment is often raw and very indie underneath the clichés. Ken Gayton adequate as "the average dude", a classic underachiever with an ensemble of weird friends. I thought he was the weakest of the three leads and some of the characterization is just awkward. Better writing could have fleshed him out more which would have led to a much stronger film. A scene where he "rehearses" asking Katie on a date talking to himself in a mirror just makes you cringe because of its unbelievable nature. How can you properly act scenes that make no sense and no one can relate to? Yet overall, he does okay.Jason Schaver plays the best friend and sidekick. I have no idea who this guy is but I wouldn't be surprised if he had done stand up comedy. Oozes natural comedic talent and timing and makes all the scenes he is in better. Unfortunately, sometimes the writing lets us down again when it tries to hard to be hilarious or outrageous. I'm thinking this movie will be a great calling card for Schaver to get small roles in comedies at the very least. He was the best actor on display here.Erika Walter was a good casting choice as "the girl", mixing very well a hot, unattainable young professional vibe with some depth as a genuinely nice gal. Walter wouldn't work as just a "hot bimbo". It's the fact that she adds soul and personality to her character that makes us find her so damn gorgeous.So the three leads are very solid choices overall. The basic characterization is there. It's just the delivery that sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. The micro budget doesn't help, of course. But that's why many indie productions will instead focus on pre-prod and go for more ad-lib dialogue. Here, the actors stuck mostly to their lines and it shows at times.The writing is a mixed bag. I can't help but think this thing needed another pass. Then again, these guys didn't get the luxury of Hollywood writers, who get their "bad stuff" cut off in the editing room. Overall, I appreciated the raw approach, several of the jokes and many of the peripheral characters (TTAAG has an ambitiously large cast of quirky characters, considering its budget).If there's something that disappointed me, it's how sometimes, I got the impression both writers took the easy way out. For instance, how the relationship between Troy and Stacy was "resolved" in a neat, Hollywood way. This kind of convenient resolution is what prevents characters like Troy from growing. The worse aspect of the movie by far is the crappy editing. Again, one of our two jack-of- all-trades (in this case, Gayton) was in charge and it shows. It's just terrible and hurts the potential of many scenes. The rest of the direction is adequate considering the budget but these days, there,s no excuse for the poor editing. Overall, you'll laugh a few times and be introduced to Gayton, Walter and Schaver. All three of which may have a bright future ahead of them. I do hope to see more of them, be it behind or in front of the camera.

In "The Truth About Average Guys," filmmakers Ken Gayton and Jason Schaver take the classic "average guy meets the girl of his dreams" formula and turn it on its head, with hilarity and and a heart of gold. Here the guy meets the girl, but a whole hell of a lot more funny things happen along the way.Gayton, who plays average guy Jason, is perfectly cast as the everyday twenty-something who's so very average in life that he can't just "be himself" to attract women. So when he first meets co-worker Katie, he falls flat on his face, as expected. But the lengths with which he goes to draw her interest and attraction is what also draws in the interest of the eager viewer. Jason enrolls the help of his floundering actor friend Troy, played by Schaver, to portray himself as Jason's mentally challenged brother in order to win over the heart of Katie, who has a mentally challenged sister."There's Something About Mary" ripoff, you might think? No, too easy. "The Ringer?" No. "Average Guys" takes this plot line to some expected conclusions, which is natural, but it also digs deeper, taking the film, and its well-written characters, into more than just formula comedy, and into the "I can totally see it happening like this, and I really feel for these characters" realm that only the best comedy can achieve.Long story short, "Average Guys" is funny as hell with a hidden heart of gold. Check it out!