VividSimon Simply Perfect

Nonureva Really Surprised!

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Michael_Elliott Ben & Arthur (2002) BOMB (out of 4) Sam Mraovich wrote, produced, directed, shot, scored and did just about everything else in this gay movie, which many consider the alternate of THE ROOM. In the film Mraovich plays Arthur, a gay man happily in love with his boyfriend Ben (Jamie Brett Gabel) and the two plan on getting married in Hawaii. Sadly, the state overturns their policy on gay marriage so they can't be together and things get even worse when Ben's wife refuses to give him a divorce thinking he's just confused. Things take a far more dangerous turn when Ben's brother is kicked out of his church because Ben is gay and he decides to kill his brother and his mate. Oh, what will Ben and Arthur do? Here's yet another film I first heard about in Michael Adams' "Showgirls, Teen Wolves and Astro Zombies" book and yes, it lives up to its reputation. The connection to THE ROOM really isn't all that fair since that movie was at least so bad that you could laugh at it whereas this one here is just plain bad. I guess we can give Mraovich a little credit considering how much he did to get this film made but sadly the hard work didn't pay off anywhere. The film really is a complete mess and we can start with the story itself, which is just so silly and over-the-top that you can never take it serious. Even worse is some of the dialogue and especially during the scenes where the righteous brother seeks advice from the "higher up" about his gay brother. There are many bad sequences here including one "romantic" sequence, which is just downright bad from the word go. Even worse are the performances, which are among some of the worst that you're going to see in any movie no matter the subject or genre. The continuity errors here are also quite shocking and worse than anything you'd see in an Edward D. Wood, Jr. movie. One example has Arthur going to an interview wearing a blue shirt and shorts but when he walks through the door he's all of the sudden wearing a black shirt. One scene he talks about his male lawyer but in the next scene we meet the lawyer and it's a woman. There are many other issues like this throughout the picture. Speaking of Ed Wood, you might want to really compare this to GLEN OR GLENDA? since you have a filmmaker trying to tell a serious story about his own issues.

Jason Evans Finally, a film that isn't afraid to confront the real problems facing homosexual men in the 21st century. Every year, thousands of gays are forced to resort to murder, arson and incest in order to thwart their hyper-religious homicidal family's members' evil schemes, and Ben & Arthur tackles this issue head-on.The word "genius" doesn't quite do justice to writer/producer/assistant producer/director/actor Sam Mraovich's filmmaking talents. As an innovator and risk-taker, Mraovich bravely chose to eschew conventional methods, and filmed his masterpiece using a Nokia 3200 (the same mobile phone was also used to create the film's musical score), thus giving the film a delightful shaky feel - as if it were being recorded by a drunken Parkinson's sufferer.The quality of acting is magnificent - so few actors these days are brave enough to stare directly into the camera, or have the skills to recite their lines as if they hadn't even read the script. Each character is beautifully written: Arthur (played by Mraovich himself) is the hero of the piece, a simple man who washes paper cups for a living and is struggling with a terrible mental illness that causes irrational outbursts, murderous tendencies, and an inability to run like a normal human. His lover, Ben, is a master of deceit - he has managed to be in a cohabiting relationship with Arthur for the last five years whilst being secretly married to woman who was completely in the dark about his other life. How Ben pulled off this elaborate deception is never elaborated upon, as master-director Mraovich really knows how to create a sense of intrigue. Arthur's brother, Victor, is the main antagonist - a fanatical Christian who attends a papièr-maché church. He is portrayed brilliantly by Michael Harboush, famous for his role as "Hospital Intern learning from Michael Mancini" in Melrose place.Sam Mraovich's commitment to equal-opportunities is demonstrated by the casting of a recently-lobotomised stoner as Ben and Arthur's lawyer - a brave move that could have easily backfired, the actress managed to overcome her limitations and deliver an astounding verbatim performance - you can hardly tell that she had had her frontal lobe removed just 3 hours prior to filming!I don't understand the criticism that this film has received - I imagine that those negative posters must either be embittered homophobes, or just too limited to fully comprehend Mraovich's genius.

GHCool A good contender for my least favorite film would be Ben & Arthur; a film I would describe as less than amateurish. I saw it at the Silent Movie Theatre in West Hollywood with a bunch of hipsters who laughed, cracked jokes, and generally had a good time of "Mystery Science Theater-ing" the film. The movie is about two gay guys in Los Angeles who undergo all sorts of crazy obstacles to their relationship. The film has its heart in the right place (its kind of a weird plea for tolerance), but its so incompetently made and so wild and over the top in its plot and dialogue that it plays like a soap opera crossed with an after school special crossed with a West Hollywood camp.

chiliwaterboy I don't know what it is about this movie- director Sam Mraovich somehow messed up just about every little aspect in this movie. I would normally say that this is a movie that should not exist, but this movie may be the most important of all time. This movie should exist for the sole purpose of being without a doubt 'The Worst Movie Ever Made'. I've seen bad movies in my lifetime, but this somehow breaks what I considered bad into something much more hard to imagine.Everything in this movie is hilarious, but the single funniest thing is that Mraovich himself considers this to be a great movie.Oh wow...