Sadly Over-hyped

People are voting emotionally.

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Based on everything I had read regarding Angora Ranch, I wasn't expecting much and rented it for the same reason I rent so many gay-themed Indies: To do my part to assure they continue to be made.First, two disclosures:1) I'm of a certain age that precludes me from understanding what many viewers expect from a movie.2) I don't typically "watch" a movie. More frequently, I listen as I'm working on any of my dozens of hobbies. I glance at the screen from time to time, but am almost always doing something else at the same time. For me, the very best movies are those that insist upon my total attention and I'm forced to stop whatever else I was doing. This was not such a movie. Listening, for the most part, was sufficient for me.Many on IMDb have written about the poor production values and poorer dialog of this movie. My challenge is this: If someone filmed your day-to-day life, would your scenes be better or your dialog more substantial? I wonder if the simplicity, commonness and lack of polish weren't intentional.What I got out of this movie was honesty. There were three generations of men who all knew who they were. They remained true to themselves while assuming all responsibilities expected of them. I could also rephrase that as: There were three generations of gay men who loved themselves, loved living, and loved others. (Let's not banter about how straight the 'dandy' was. BTW, dandy inherently has nothing to do with sexuality. This was an obvious error on the part of the scriptwriters.)In short, I found this to be a disarmingly deep movie. By definition, we humans are all flawed. I think this movie tried to demonstrate those flaws using film as the messenger. Despite their weaknesses and personal losses, it was an exclamation point for me that each character hadn't lost the ability to love.I can't know for what audience the directors/producers/actors made this movie. I can say it reached and touched me. I'd love to see this level of "Average Joe humanity" in many other movies.Would I "watch" it again? Probably not because I got it the first time and there are so many other movies. Was I glad I watched it? Absolutely.

Okay, admittedly the acting, pace and dialog are not up to par with some high budget movie. That's part of the charm of "indie" films, isn't it? Putting aside the merits of the the physical attractiveness of some of the actors, the story is good on. Not only is this positive about overcoming fears/anxieties/hangups about age differences; it emphasizes the good and bad aspects of the family responsibilities and relationships and tensions between parents and children. These are realities, just as the awkwardness of some dialog and acting reflect what actually happens between and among people, whatever their sexual identity.ANGORA RANCH is not a great film but it's at least a passably good one and worth watching. I felt better after seeing it than when I watched EATING OUT.

No, this is not another version on the Brokeback Mountain theme though the title might give that impression. This little Indie film made on a shoestring budget is more like an updated Farmer's Daughter story and as such it has some charm.Justin (the very hunky Thomas Romano) is an ad executive whose father sends him on his first solo run to a place in Texas. While driving to his appointment Justin swerves to avoid a rabbit in the road and his car gets stuck in a ditch that just happens to be in front of the home of Jack (Paul Bright, who also wrote and directed the film) and his loony senile father. Jack's life partner died a few years back and he is determined his plight in life is to live in solitude as caretaker for his father. Justin is invited to spend the night while his car is fixed by the local tow truck/mechanic. And the story unfolds from there into a May December romance that while it may not be acted very well at all, has its moments of warmth. The plot has enough twists to keep the attention span enduring the amateur acting status (both fathers figure significantly in surprising ways) and the cast of animals and eccentricities maintain attention. But the eye candy provided by Thomas Romano is the strong point - if only he could act.... Grady Harp

First off, it seems that Tim Jones, the executive producer and a actor in this film, passed away in August of 2006. May he rest in peace, and thank you for having made the film. Critiques are fine, but I also want to point out that, regardless of constructive criticism, that these people made the film at ALL puts them a far sight ahead of most people. Congrats and cudos to the entire cast & crew! That said...This has some good potentials, but suffered from pace issues in several places. Pregnant pauses that should have been picked out by a decent editor made the film drag. The audience would certainly have preferred a shorter film that moved at more brisk a pace. Some of the dialogue is trite, some of it awkward, and too often the blocking looks as though it was made for stage. The best scenes are between the two leads when they forget to act and just have conversation, while they're getting to know each other.The filmmaker intended to have fun with it, and it does demonstrate a somewhat surreal whimsical feeling, but we could have had more constant reminders, whether via some mechanism, lense coloring, or something to remind us not to expect reality. Then the departures might not have been so taxing.Did I enjoy the DVD? Yes, despite the flaws (and myself) I did. But I wouldn't wittingly have parted with $27 for a copy, except to support the work.It's a good first draft. I'd have re-edited, re-shot some scenes... but that would mean remaking the film altogether in this case. The expenses were obviously minimal by Hollywood standards. With some fine-tuning and rewrites, maybe some more outside help, this could have been a much better movie.I applaud the effort. It's good to see gay independent filmmakers not falling back on cheap sex sells. Now to lose the clichés. To The Writer/Director: Paul, there ARE some homo men who don't have gay mannerisms. They may even be a substantial portion of the population. They're just inherently unseen. It might have been nice to show this as well, and set another example of tolerance in the process, as you did by this remarkable town you've created. Get ahold of me before you start your next production. I'd be glad to pitch in!