Made

Anyone who loved Swingers will be eagerly awaiting Made. It is the same team (almost). Jon Favreau directs this time, as well as writing the script and starring, with fellow Swinger, Vince Vaughn.

The two films are as different as blood and sand. Swingers was about wannabe Hollywood actors who take a break in Vegas and behave like Rik Mayal on bennies. The humour was self-deprecating and innocent. Made is about an LA building worker who is sent to New York to deliver a case of money to drug dealers. The humour is vicious and unpleasant.

Favreau's character is a grown-up version of the guy who rang his agent every day in the first movie. Now he is locked into a no hope role. He lives with a lap dancer (Famke Janssen) and her five-year-old daughter in a crummy apartment. He lays concrete in someone else's house and is verbally abused by the gay interior decorator. His friend, played extremely well by Vaughn, is all talk and no trousers. To call him a loose cannon would be flattering. He's Trouble with a capital T.

Favreau's boss (Peter Falk, back at his best) makes a offer he cannot refuse. It's a one-off courier job that will cancel his debts in a stroke. Favreau says he wants to take Vaughn. Falk doesn't trust him. Favreau insists. Falk says: "Will you vouch for him?" Favreau says: "I'll vouch for him."

The movie is then taken over by Vaughn, who becomes so obnoxious you want to kill him. The New York assignment appears pointless. What's this money for? Who's getting it? Why?

Sam Rockwell appears as a hotel bellboy and you wonder what on earth he's doing there. The last time you saw him was in Heist, where he played a pivotal role. Now he's enquiring whether Favreau would like his Coke lite, or natural.

The comedy equates to that man in a pub who won't shut up. It's embarrassing and ugly and prone to violence. Favreau vouches for Vaughn because he's been his friend since junior high and he has something that Favreau lacks, the confidence to screw up and not give a damn.

The characters in Swingers were sympathetic. These guys are not. Why should you care?