Fresh and Exciting

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It wouldn't be quite right to call the comedy-noir 100 Mile Rule "charming", however a smart script and several very nice performances makes this one of the little films you never heard of but are glad you grabbed off the video store shelf.Bobby and Jerry (Jake Weber and David Thornton) are mechanical parts salesmen from Detroit. They're attending a sales seminar in Los Angeles with their manager, Howard (Michael McKean). Bobby's a devoted family man, Jerry's a sleazy horndog and Howard's like a very smart and successful fusion of the two. When they're not stuck in a tiny conference room listening to a consultant go on and on, the three men try to have a little fun in LA in the spirit of the "100 mile rule". That's Jerry's theory that whatever or whoever you do, it doesn't matter if it's 100 miles from home. Jerry and Howard are quite content to indulge in strippers and hookers. Bobby, though, wants to stay faithful to his wife Katherine (Shawn Huff). He probably would have, if he didn't run into Monica (Maria Bello), a waitress/aspiring actress who works in the hotel bar where Bobby is staying. She's cute and vulnerable and throws herself at Bobby until he finally gives in. Then we find out Monica may be cute and vulnerable, but she's far from innocent. She's part of a scheme to blackmail Bobby. Neither Monica nor her big, violent boyfriend Paul (Nick Chinlund) came up with the scheme, but she quickly takes over the plan from its originator. When Monica gets a little too greedy, Bobby turns to Jerry and Howard for help and the best laid plans of everyone involved go really bad, really fast.100 Mile Rule is a well written film. It has the mark of all smart scripts in that you can't tell where the story is going before it gets there. It's not hard to put surprises into a movie, but it's not easy to make them believable surprises and that's what this movie has. There are several points where the story could have gone in one direction but it makes a 45 degree turn to be just a little funnier, just a little more realistic. The only real flaw in the writing is that when everything has gone to hell, Bobby takes a walk and when he returns he's suddenly this in-command badass. He's the main character and his major transformation happens off screen while we're looking at Howard's planning to dispose of a body and Jerry's decent into cocaine-fueled paranoia. I always think it's a little cheap to push big, dramatic moments off to the side like that. It was sort of clever the first few times movies and TV shows did it, but it's gotten to be its own cliché now.The smart script is helped out a lot by very good work from the cast. Jake Weber has to make us believe Bobby is a genuinely decent guy and then he has to make us believe he would do this bad thing and not have us hate him for it. The film can't work unless we want Bobby to get away with it and Weber pulls it off by making the character nice enough to root for but not so nice that you'd like to see him taken down a peg or two.Weber's job is made easier by David Thornton's and Maria Bello's convincing and well-thought out roles. It becomes easier to not judge Bobby harshly because we can contrast him with Jerry, who's a much bigger ass and loser in every way. Jerry is desperate, crude, self-centered and he makes Bobby look much more sympathetic. Even though Bobby cheats on his lovely wife, the comparison with Jerry makes him look like a good man who's made a terrible mistake and not a jerk who deserves what he gets. It also helps that Bello is tremendously appealing, making it simple to believe the Bobby couldn't resist Monica. And as the story unfolds, Bello refrains from making Monica into a stereotypical femme fatale. She shows the vulnerability in Bobby isn't completely an act, it's part of who she is and you see it in the rest of her behavior.Michael McKean should also get high marks for his portrayal of Howard. He doesn't have much screen time in the first half of the film, but still manages to establish Howard as a tough-minded, take charge guy so you can understand Bobby and Jerry turning to him for help. There's a funny scene where Howard is haggling with a couple of hard-edged hookers and Howard's behavior, while humorous, establishes him as less wholesome than Bobby but more grown up and less pathetic than Jerry.100 Mile Rule is a truly adult comedy. Not "adult" in the sense that it has bad language and boobies, though it does, but adult in the sense that it's funny about real things and real situations and doesn't go over the top into adolescent ridiculousness.As I mentioned before, 100 Mile Rule is one of the myriad of titles on your local video store shelf that you've probably seen and passed over many times before because you've never heard of it and there's nothing about it that stands out. While most movies like that are fairly crappy, this is one of the rare ones that is pretty good,

OK, so it isn't a great movie. Who cares? It has Maria Bello and that's enough for a peek if you have nothing else to do. She plays a con artist who takes advantage of the saying, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." In this case, it's what happens 100 miles from home doesn't matter. Businessmen at a corporate training trip taking advantage and getting caught. The movie spends a lot of time filming the trainer. Time wasted that would have been better spent film Miss Bello. Our loss. Also stars Dawn of the Dead's Jake Weber, and The Ring's David Dorfman as father and son. There are a bunch of others in the movie, but hey, I'm watching because of Maria Bello so i really don't care about them.

I picked this up because it had Jake Weber in it, who I love, and because I find Michael McKean hilarious. I didn't know what to expect, but I loved it. The comedy is quite clever and had me on the floor quite a few times. The acting is top-notch. Maria Bello is perfect as the femme fatale and makes sure not to go for the jugular in her scenes, brilliantly underplaying them to snare her game. Jake Weber has the dorky family man role down pat. Everything from the shifting of his glasses to his walk to his horrendous shirts. One of the funniest scenes involves him and his wife attempting phone sex.Don't expect a mastepiece, it's just lightweight entertainment. But it's incredibly well-made, clever, funny, and well-acted.9/10

I don't believe I would have enjoyed this film in a movie theatre if I'd had to pay for admission, but for a sleazy, at-home, kicked-back-on-the-couch with-a-Screwdriver type of diversion, it was good enough. I agree with Gene 34 that the ending was much too predictable; -=- POSSIBLE SPOILER -=- they could have easily come up with some sort of creative way for him to outsmart Monica, after all. I think Maria Bella, Jason Weber and Michael McKean were far better than the material (which is an understatement), but it's got a good title and a fairly good premise - too bad the writer and director couldn't do more with it. Ultimately unsatisfying and banal. I give it a 4 (the Rogue-32 equivalent of **).