Product Details

• Actors: Kirby Heyborne
• Directors: Kurt Hale
• Format: Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Halestone
• DVD Release Date: January 1, 2003
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002CVQJU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #38,056 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Jared Phelps (KIRBY HEYBORNE) has faithfully served for two years as a missionary for the Mormon Church. Now that his time of service has come to an end, Jared is anxious to return to normal life and all the perks that come with it: a great job, a loving family, his 1965 convertible Mustang, and, most importantly, his beautiful girlfriend Molly (ERIN ROBERT). The RM is the hilarious story of Jared's return home and the discovery that life rarely turns out the way you want or expect. In the process, Jared's faith is pushed to the extreme as he discovers how God truly works in mysterious ways. A great comedy about the life of an LDS returned Missionary!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good LDS Comedy from the makers of the Singles Ward, August 24, 2004

By 

Nicholas Carroll (Portland OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The RM (DVD)

Before reviewing this film, I must put a disclaimer up front...I'm not LDS but spent 3 years at BYU, so I know the Mormon culture quite well, from the outsider's perspective. The flood of LDS films in the new century is a welcome relief and quite possibly is due to the conflicts I witnessed at BYU between their editing of Hollywood movies to the annoyance of the Hollywood industry, especially the battles with "Titanic" (when I was at BYU) and the controversial anti-Mormon film "Orgazmo"(which was one of the worst movies I've ever seen).

This film, "The RM" follows on the heels of "The Singles Ward" and while I thought the jokes were stretched thin in "The Singles Ward", I found the humor in this film more spread out and funnier overall. This film pokes fun at the expectations that RMs have upon returning from their mission, from a big Welcome Home celebration, to reuniting with one's girlfriend, getting one's job back, and a new respect from family, friends and fellow churchmembers. To the dismay of Jared Phelps (the returned Missionary), life seemed to have moved on for everyone else while he had been away for two years. His attempts to readjust to life outside the mission field offer plenty of laughs, though one would most likely have to be familiar with LDS Culture to understand and appreciate.

One thing I never understood about the LDS is that even though they believe in eternal marriage, why on earth would a person not want to wait until the mission is over to marry the "love of her life". The rush to marry an RM is all too real in Happy Valley. It all works out in the end for Jared Phelps, despite a mischievious best friend who gets him in trouble with the law (which seems more a contrivance than a realistic development in order to move the film along to a climatic conclusion).

For me, the funniest scenes in the movie regards the ponzi salesmanship scheme that people are involved in. At one company that Jared briefly works for, each time a person makes a sale, they have a hilarious cheer that is all too real for anyone familiar with some of the companies in Utah Valley and the promises of high salaries for successful salesman. It is interesting that Returned Missionaries easily adapt to this line of work, since peddling the Book of Mormon door to door gives them the experience of salesmanship and how to deal with rejection/door slams.

After seeing this film, I hope that Halestorm will continue to make films about the Mormon experience in modern society. Its nice to see a positive reflection of a people I've come to love represented in inexpensively made, yet high quality, good acting films. Hopefully they will spend more time working on quality stories with more plausible plots. The talent is definitely there and there are so many more stories worth telling.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clean, Sarcastic Humor, December 13, 2007

By 

S. R. Lee - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The RM (DVD)

I myself am LDS and didn't grow up in Utah, but live there now. I found this movie funny not only because I enjoy sarcastic humor, but because many of the stereotypes, I have found, are almost too close to reality, even if stretched a little. One thing I did notice is that even if you are LDS, but have never spent time in the Utah LDS culture, then many of the jokes wouldn't make sense or seem remotely humorous. This movie wasn't meant to be intellectually stimulating, just a light entertainment. I have been disappointed with movies that have come out since "The RM" like "Down and Derby" and "Home Teachers" which are awful, but I find myself returning again and again to "The RM" for some good laughs. However, if you're looking for an LDS film that has slightly more substance, I'd recommend "The Best Two Years" which is excellent.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Comedy But..., November 27, 2005

By 

Jane (Manila,Philippines) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The RM (DVD)

Like "Singles Ward" this is another entertaining movie.It pokes fun again about us Mormons (in a good way).This is about Jared Phelps,returning from his mission only to find out that his life before mission as he knew it,changed.Everything that could go wrong,went wrong.But being a faithful member of the church,he went through it almost unscathed and with a stronger testimony.I know it sounds simple but there REALLY is more to it than that.There are many funny moments in the film (specially the part as Jared Phelps was being dumped by his girlfriend,her family is watching,and her brother is videotaping it at the same time).Im so glad that Halestorm keeps on coming up with good,lighthearted,wholesome,funny and inoffensive movies about Mormons.

So heres the "But..." part.I only have a problem when it comes to the ending.Its great that Jared became more mature spiritually but I cant help but think his problems werent really solved.No clear resolution.Oh well...