Into the Lion's Den (2011 Video) User Reviews

Bad !! Bad !!

[itsvivek4u · 4/10 · 5 August 2012]

Started off well, this movie soon became one of those wannabe's bad bad thriller gay movies. The story is simple but then its the acting, execution and just about everything else which makes a huge huge difference.

Three friends are on a cross country road trip from LA to NYC. Johnny is the eldest of the group who does not miss any opportunity to hook up with a stranger on the road. Mikey owns the car and is dealing with a breakup. Apparently he just found out that he is positive too. The third friend is just coming out and wants to live life a little bit. When they are few hours away from the city, they decide to spend the night at a motel and Johnny drags all of them to a bar called 'Lion's Den' where he is meeting a trick from internet. Johnny gets into an argument with his friends who leave him and go back to the motel. It turns out the motel owner duo of husband-wife have some other plans. The husband likes men and the wife tortures the guys while the husband is having sex. AFter Johnny is tortured, he tries to run away but the wife kills him. They then call his other 2 friends and kills Mikey as well. The third friend is all who is left and he somehow manages to escape. Thats it!!

The so called 'thriller' scenes are so bad , childish and amateurish that I was giggling and laughing at those. I have nothing against independent and low budget cinema but common!! At least make those believable and not amateurish specially considering how much is available today in terms of technology, acting, directing etc. As if OTT Johnny wasn't enough, the husband-wife duo of Lion's den were horrible. Only saving grace was a restrained acting by Mikey. He has potential but he really needs a better director.

How I wish I could say that you should support independent cinema. Alas!! not this one.

Unpleasant and badly done

[preppy-3 · 2/10 · 4 December 2012]

Three gay guys are driving from California to New York. They are Johnny (Jesse Archer) who will sleep with any guy he can get, Mikey (Ronnie Kroell) who's the serious sensitive type and Ted (Kristen-Alexzander Griffith) who seems to have no personality at all. They decide to spend the night at some small southern town and Johnny insists they go to a str8 bar called the Lions Den for drinks. Actually it's for Johnny to hook up with a man he met online. However things slowly (VERY slowly) go from bad to worse and all three are fighting to stay alive.

The basic plot is OK and you have to give the film credit for giving it to gay audiences quickly (there's full frontal male nudity and graphic simulated sex in the first 10 minutes!) but then it just falls apart. It moves VERY slowly (the film is half over before anything happens), Johnny is easily one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen and it's not scary or thrilling--just unpleasant. It's routinely directed and some of the acting (particularly by Jodie Shultz) is dreadful. On the upside the acting by Kroell is pretty good and he has a lengthy full frontal nude scene. Also the script itself is not bad and has some interesting lines. But, all in all, I was bored and couldn't care less.

As sad as it is bad

[hddu10-819-37458 · 10 September 2019]

Here's the thing: the "gay road trip" genre is actually very tried and true. It taps into the psyche of many gays trapped in their "gay ghettos" who actually WISH they had the opportunity to travel across country/see new places. Had this simply been a character study and/or comedy, this would probably have been successful. But of course that would have involved actually insight and writing, as opposed to taking the easy way out. Bad writing, VERY bad acting and unbelievable plot overall. Not worth watching.

Disgustingly Bad!!

[aretel · 1/10 · 3 July 2014]

This definitely rates as one of the worst movies of all time. There is absolutely no talent being showcased in this movie. The only horrifying thing about this movie is a combination of bad acting, bad directing and bad, bad, bad writing!!

Both writer Philip Malaczewski and director Dan Lantz should apply for a refund for their post graduate schooling because if this film is any indication of what they learned in school, it was all for not!

This film merits no further comment other than that it was an utter waste of time! Time you will never ever get back!!

I was just informed by IMDb that my review had to be a minimum of 10 lines to be accepted. This is the 11th.

Dire

[orcadiansmeghead · 1/10 · 5 May 2014]

(Just so you all know, I am straight) Blimey, I tell you all what, I have seen some truly dreadful films in my time, some that were so bad they were actually funny - this unfortunately does not fall into that category. The acting is totally abysmal from the outset and a man's erect helmet 2 minutes into the film did not lift MY spirits in the slightest, nor did the slightly flaccid one 60 minutes in. The three main guys in this film all act like they are making this film themselves for laughs with a camcorder - appalling dialogue, script, story - the lot - if that wasn't bad enough, the other characters in this film such as the hotel manager, Frank the barman and his female accomplice are without a doubt, the most HAMMY actors I have ever watched, far worse than anyone The Young Doctors could have ever employed.

I found this film by accident after looking for the Argentinian film 'Lion's Den' - I will definitely be more careful in future when searching! This move robbed me of 75 minutes of my life and I WANT THEM BACK!!! (I have to watch films all the way through before passing judgement)

For me, this film raises a serious question regarding 'special interest' movies such as this pile of pig's number twos, and that question is this - do gay men and lesbians watch films like this and think they're good just because of the homosexual content, or do they like me also see how utterly atrocious this is from beginning to end? Jeez.....

You want a really good film with homosexual content? Butterfly Kiss with Amanda Plummer, or even Awaydays with Stephen Graham - both at the total opposite end of the cinematic spectrum to this.

Don't waste your time on this

[jerryfagundo · 1/10 · 25 April 2022]

This may be one of the worst movies I've ever watched. Waited until the end just to see what finally happened but it was a torture. Is a low budget film, with bad plot, bad acting and bad everything.

awfull

[Kirpianuscus · 4 June 2022]

It is one of that film who could be better, having as premises a simple story and a fist of cliches. But, unfortunatelly, beginning promissing, it ends as a very stupid film , a cocktail of gay and cheep horror . The good thing - the intro scene , used again, in wrong way , for a too sentimental end, being more than atrocious kitsch.

So, easy to define, for save it, as a short film about a trip, friendship and bad luck.

But that is all.

Nothing to save it and the music of the last part is just a huge mistake.

The problem are not cliches - the story is fair, the acting is good intentioned , the premises are seductive, the story has the gift of pleasant predictability - but their use is totally mess.

So, less than dissapointment. .

Three guys, a night in southern town, a bar and difficult situation for heroes of film.

Not bad. Only waste of time.