X
  • 1999
  • R
  • Miramax
  • 1 h 45 m
  • 1999
  • R
  • Miramax
  • 1 h 45 m

Summary What happens when you're an actor and you get a secret audition with Martin Scorcese? If you're Johnny (Robert Costanzo), who makes a living playing television hit men and corrupt cops, this could be your big break. But when his struggling actor friends Dorian (Jon Tenney), Steve (Adam Arkin) and Armand (David Strathairn) find out about ...

Directed By: Philip Frank Messina

Written By: Philip Frank Messina

  • 1999
  • R
  • Miramax
  • 1 h 45 m
  • 1999
  • R
  • Miramax
  • 1 h 45 m

With Friends Like These...

Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 8 Critic Reviews
54
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Where to Watch

Summary What happens when you're an actor and you get a secret audition with Martin Scorcese? If you're Johnny (Robert Costanzo), who makes a living playing television hit men and corrupt cops, this could be your big break. But when his struggling actor friends Dorian (Jon Tenney), Steve (Adam Arkin) and Armand (David Strathairn) find out about ...

Directed By: Philip Frank Messina

Written By: Philip Frank Messina

Where to Watch

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 8 Critic Reviews
54
38% Positive
3 Reviews
63% Mixed
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 8 Critic Reviews
54
38% Positive
3 Reviews
63% Mixed
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
80
An entertaining, clever look at the backstabbing actors do in search of recognition and fame.
FULL REVIEW
70
The perennially insecure world of two-bit character actors is humorously and knowingly explored in With Friends Like These.
By Todd McCarthy FULL REVIEW
70
Originally released seven years ago on home video, is only now surfacing as a theatrical release. Although it's no classic, it's a cut or two smarter than the average Hollywood comedy. At its best, it plays like a less acerbic, less Jewish triple episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." (review of re-release)
By Stephen Holden FULL REVIEW
50
Only sporadically amusing. (review of re-release)
By Lou Lumenick FULL REVIEW
50
Not even amusing cameos from Bill Murray as a freeloading producer and Michael McKean as a proctologist can keep With Friends Like These... from being as minor as the film careers of its two-bit protagonists.
By Nathan Rabin FULL REVIEW
40
Gives off an air of clammy desperation that feels all too authentic without being especially funny and bogs down early in repetitive shtick. (review of re-release)
By Maitland McDonagh FULL REVIEW
40
Messina's characters gripe at being typecast as goombah hit men, yet the director seems blissfully unaware that he dooms them to the very fate they protest by painting them with such prosaic, uninspired strokes. (review of re-release)
FULL REVIEW

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Details

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Production Company Parkway Productions, Quadrant Films, Robert Greenhut Productions
Release Date Mar 12, 1999
Duration 1 h 45 m
Rating R
Genres
Website http://www.withfriendslikethese.net/Home.php
View All Details

Awards

Munich Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Cinequest San Jose Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
US Comedy Arts Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination

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