hyped garbage

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I almost feel bad for mocking this film. It's so amateurishly poor that I can't help but feel like I'm kicking it while its down. Its like laughing at a kid in a wheelchair. But good lord, this one just transcends "bad". Its about the a gay couple who want desperately to get married, but the law and one of their brothers stands in the way of their happiness- not a bad basic idea, really, and in the right hands, it could have been a very important film about acceptance and putting ones own petty intolerances aside for the sake of other peoples happiness. But it's not in the right hands. It's in the hands of writer/director/producer/composer/star Sam Mraovich. Who is Sam Mraovich? Well, that depends on who you ask. If you ask Sam Mraovich who Sam Mraovich is, you'll be told he's a true visionary and a cinematic genius who dared to dream. But if you ask any of the few people who've actually heard of him who Sam Mraovich is, you'll be told he's a delusional airhead with no grasp of even the most basic techniques of filmmaking or storytelling, who probably got kicked out of the glee club in high school for being too flamboyant and annoying.So why is Ben and Arthur so bad? Well firstly it's hard to take a film about intolerance seriously when your star embodies every negative gay stereotype you could think of, and then some. Secondly, its even harder to take a film seriously when it's shot on the kind of camera people buy to film kids birthday parties and family trips to Disneyland. Look Sammy, I know the purse string must have been tight on this film, but Hell, even Tommy Wiseau shelled over enough for a decent camera. And really, what else is there to say? We have a supposed homophobe who greets people at the door wearing a fluffy pink bathrobe. We have a Christian minister who also seems to believe in karma, a crazy ex-wife who seems to believe becoming a lesbian will make her gay husband come back to her, a square jawed Adonis who totally goes for short, fat balding men, and a finale that truly has to be seen to be believed. I can't even bring myself to type what happens. Its that horrible. But despite all this, I'd still recommend this film. Why? Because its funny as Hell, thats why!

In the history of film, there are only a few pure cinematic perfection. One of those films is Ben & Arthur. Sam brought this to an high level of cinematic understanding, thus how the world communicates with us today. Mraovich wants his audience to express the experience of Ben & Arthur. For example: Arthur and The Detective driving the identical red car. Within the last 10 years of my life, Ben & Arthur really expresses my "emotions". One of my favorite actors throughout the film has to be Mildred. She is totally amazing, its not her acting that shows the audience, its her real emotions and appearance at the same time. Her dialog in the coffee shop is totally one of the greatest I have ever heard throughout my entire life. Mraovich is a truly inspirational man, there are only a rare few of men like Mraovich himself in the world. It is indeed sad how Mraovich himself doesn't work in the film industry any more. His talented work in Ben & Arthur is truly amazing. One also best scene is Arthur dancing in the nightclub. His dancing is also "amazing". So to all of you, you must experience Ben & Arthur. My rating is 10/10 Experience it. That is Ben & Arthur.

A friend showed me this last night and I think I'm mainly writing here as a means of therapy, a way to come to terms with what I saw. We watched it on Youtube and, even alongside all the thousands of videos of teenagers singing karaoke and cats riding around on vacuum cleaners, it must be one of the most dire things I have ever witnessed on that website. The fact that this has been sold on DVD, and that some poor, unfortunate souls have paid money for it, is deeply troubling.The first 10 minutes are taken up with the name Sam Mraovich flashing up repeatedly over what appears to be an image of a sceptic tank - this is in many ways a metaphor for the rest of the film - absolute sewage, made all the worse by the fact that ever element of the production has been controlled by one strange, talentless oaf who even plays the lead character. Paradoxically, despite being possibly the most poorly made film in the history of the universe, Ben and Arthur is somehow extremely entertaining, and it has been a long while since I've laughed so much at anything. The plot is some nonsensical story about two guys who go off to somewhere in the US where gay marriage is legal and get wed - but one of them has a nutty, camp, wannabe Bond-style villain for a brother who happens to be part of some loony Christian sect that hates gays and loves violence. The film degenerates further and further into a great big farcical mess as the Christians kill off the gays and their friends, and the gays kill off the Christians, until it arrives at one of the oddest finales ever - the director/lead character (a vigorously unattractive man) gets naked, gets forcibly baptised and then starts pleading with the psycho-brother to have sex with him. Basically there is no real sense in trying to explain the plot, as it is just far too strange for words.The acting is abysmal. Like, really, really, really bad. You hear "actors" blatantly mess up their lines and see them stare directly into the camera. The film is absolutely full of mistakes, too numerous to mention and the entire thing looks as if it was filmed on someone's mobile phone by a Parkinson's sufferer. I mean, surely it can't be too difficult to find someone capable of at least holding a camera vaguely still, can it? Then there's the music - the opening credits are accompanied by a plinky-plonky version of The Entertainer, whilst the rest of the score was created by a mentally-deficient chimp using a keyboard. There is nothing good about this film, literally NOTHING - well, apart from the fact that a lot of it is unintentionally hilarious. Watching it will fill you with a deep sense of loathing and pity towards anybody who had anything to do with it's production, the fact that there are films ranked lower than this on here astounds me. It truly is the antithesis off all that is good in this world.

Just watched this after hearing about how bad it was and wanted to see for myself. Seriously, even if you read all the negative comments on here you will be nowhere near able to comprehend how awful this film actually is, although it has to be one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen! Never bothered to post a comment on here before, but this piece of crap really warrants it. Firstly the entire plot is ridiculous and nonsensical. Brother of the lead character (either Ben or Arthur, I forget which is which, and frankly it's never very clear) wants to stop some kind of gay marriage by killing everyone in sight - because homosexuality is abhorrent to Christians, but apparently mass murder isn't. Then there's some other crap thrown in about one of the gay couple's ex-wife trying to force him to remarry her at gunpoint. This leads to nothing, but provides us with one of the funniest lines of dialogue in the whole "film" - "I don't make sense? You don't make sense! That's who makes sense!". Brilliant.Then there's the acting, which is just atrocious. It must be seen to be believed. My personal favourite is the apparently stoned civil rights lawyer woman, who is clearly reading her lines off of something, yet still managing to mess them up. Enough said. The gay couple couldn't be less convincing. There's the vaguely attractive and completely gormless guy, and his boyfriend who looks like that little cartoon dough man of the bisto adverts. Only fatter. And less talented. The "film" has also been filmed by someone who is incapable of holding a camera even remotely still, and the number of mistakes throughout is amazing. The whole thing kicks off with the fat main guy in bed with a pair of boots on. Yep.But anyways, we all know how terrible this thing is, so I'd like to highlight some of the most priceless comedy moments that the "film" provides. When the fat guy sets the church on fire and then prances like a six year old girl across the car park to make his escape. Hilarious.Mildread! No idea what relation she is to the main characters - sometimes they know her, sometimes they don't, but she pops up in a couple of scenes nonetheless. Hilarious.The stoned lawyer. Already mentioned her, but she's so funny she's worth another mention.The evil brothers dinner of crackers that he lays on for his guests.The evil brother's anti-gay potion.The evil brother's cats.The ending, which I won't give away because it MUST be seen to be believed. I warn you though, make sure you're not eating at the time!!!! The tub of lard main character/director/producer gets naked. It's foul. Basically, Ben and Arthur is indescribably bad, but unintentionally the most comical thing you'll see for a long time. Literally, nothing is good about this excuse for a film, the goon of a director even manages to make the opening credits into a joke by writing his own name about 15 times.