Product Details

• Actors: David Dukes, Richard Jordan, Harvey Keitel, Frank Langella, Roy Scheider
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Polygram Video
• VHS Release Date: November 5, 1996
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304263481
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387,612 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good entertainment . . . not, April 8, 2007

By 

C. J. Leach (Midwest, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Men's Club [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I recently watched this old 80s heavy hitter with the all-star cast (Roy Scheider, David Dukes, Richard Jordan, Stockard Channing, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Harvey Keitel, Treat Williams and more). This major production kind of withered on the vine and I don't think it was ever even transferred to DVD (VHS only).

The story is of a group of successful Berkley, CA professional guys that get together for their initial "club" meeting. There is a bit of somewhat interesting personal revelation/introspection, then the alcohol starts flowing and the action progresses to a stupid over-the-top scene of them all howling at the moon, coyote style. At this point the wife (Stockard Channing) comes home and sees that the house is severely trashed and the carefully prepared refreshments for her women's club meeting on the morrow have been ravaged. I don't care for Channing, but in this case I really felt sympathy for her character. No slack from the director however, as she is turned into a co-bad guy (more of my take on the women's issues below).

The action then relocates to a surprise visit to a high-end brothel. The use of women in this film is another topic. They are so much chattel. I'm not "enlightened", liberal, or anything near it - but it was apparent that this film consistently trashes women (and by reflection, trashes the men that abuse them).

I'm not sure what deep or intellectual message the filmmakers tried to get across. These characters (women included) underwent frequent inexplicable personality changes. You can't really credit the alcohol, because no one really acted drunk. Just the senseless over-the-top mood shifts and subsequent over-intellectual speeches (exception: Penny Baker who as a prostitute is overtly stupid - and is of course mocked for it as a "beautiful stupid blond" cliche). If there are really people like this, I'm glad I haven't been hanging out with them.

Production values were pretty good. This was not a low-budget project. Foul language - yes, nudity/sex - yes, violence - yes (fights, gunfire, etc).

This failure's closing scene was this dopey upbeat shot of these "happy buddies" jogging back over the Bay Bridge at sunrise. Be assured, there is nothing upbeat about this film. It is depressing and crude. After finishing it, I felt like I needed a shower.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars a film all about women, October 10, 2001

By 

Peter Shelley "petershelley" (Sydney, New South Wales Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Men's Club [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Director Peter Medak's adaptation of the Leonard Michaels novel hovers midway between an all male confessional and a testosterone-soaked bull session, and perhaps it's this nebulous stance that has disappointed so many. Michaels also did the screenplay, though it is said that the visit to a brothel - The House of Affection- which comprises the second half is new. The plot centres on a group of 7 men in San Francisco, in various stages of marriage, meeting. We don't expect consciousness-raising, as we would of women, since men don't tend to be as insightful, simply the telling of stories. It's tribal, culminating in a group howling to the moon, but not barbaric in spite of the drinking and pot. We do get the de rigueur anti-gay joke but it passes relatively painlessly. Medak may include the raiding of a frig, full for a wife's next day women's club meeting, and knife throwing, but these men are still presented as reasonable and intelligent. Their hang-dog reaction to the appearance of Stockard Channing as the wife tells us that. The anecdotes we hear are free of malice, which makes the sojourn to the brothel the more interesting, since what expires is more than just about getting laid. It's more practice after the meeting's theory. The men talk of their hunger for "The Other Woman", cleverly realised by the concept of the prostitutes, whose seeming disempowerment gives way once the lovemaking is over. The climactic faux wedding scene and conclusion may be hard to read and have elements of fantasy eg the brothel being so exclusive that is has no other clients, but it also highlights the need for simple pleasures that can ease the battle of the sexes. It's unusual to see a male ensemble, and in a large group naturally some performers emerge as stronger than others, unless the material is like the film of the play That Champion Season, where the writer gives each character an aria. Here, Craig Wasson in particular is wallpaper, though he has an amusing resistance to his seductress, and Frank Langella has just as little, though he gets to look bacchanalian in Devil makeup. Treat Williams delivers a speech about a former girlfriend who gets between his food and his mouth, Richard Jordan as the houseguest is goofy bleeding from the head after Channing hits him with a frypan, and Harvey Keitel reveals a sentimental soul under a stud exterior. Keitel is responsible for the brothel wedding and is the actor most exposed as an object. It's hard to believe Roy Scheider as a great womaniser, in spite of the scene where he mounts his unconscious wife. He's more surprising when he dances to a jazz version of When the Saints Come Marching In. However the film inexplicably belongs to David Dukes, an actor who otherwise has been annoyingly mannered and lightweight. Here he is a revelation. The women make less of an impression, even with Jennifer Jason Leigh as one of the prostitutes. Ann Wedgeworth's madam carrying a doll gets a payoff, and I was actually sorry not to see more made of her anaylsis of Scheider, particularly as they circle each other near the end.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Missed opportunity, June 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Men's Club [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Rarely do you get a cast this loaded with talent. I mean everyone is top-drawer. Unfortunately, they've been tossed into the bottom drawer with the dirty underwear. A meandering, inexplicable disappointment, and a bore to boot.