Ben & Arthur

Plot synopsis:
Ben (Jamie Brett Gabel) and Arthur (Sam Mraovich) are a gay couple eagerly awaiting the legalization of gay marriage in Hawaii so that they may travel there for their dream wedding. After a news bulletin that a judge has made a ruling that will allow gay marriages to take place, the men purchase plane tickets and prepare to depart; however, before they leave, they discover that a challenge to the judge's ruling has resulted in a suspension of gay marriage in Hawaii, pending further judicial review. Ben takes advantage of the delay to inform Arthur that he is actually already married to a woman named Tammy (Julie Belknap), whom he wed out of societal pressure before he came to terms with his homosexuality and from whom he has been separated since before he and Arthur met. Arthur becomes angry, but decides to stay with Ben anyway. Shortly thereafter, Ben contacts Tammy, finally comes out to her, and asks her for a divorce.
After the disappointment of their near-wedding, Ben and Arthur resume their daily life, working in a small diner in Los Angeles, where Ben is a dishwasher and Arthur is a waiter. Although Ben—a former nurse who quit to pursue a music career—enjoys the manual labor and hours, Arthur has grown impatient with servitude and putting up with needy customers. One night, Arthur decides to quit and go back to college, so that he can earn an MBA and open up his own sex shop. Although the loss of income to the household means that Ben will have to quit and return to being a nurse, he agrees to do so in order to help Arthur pursue his dream.
To finance his education, Arthur tracks down his estranged brother, Victor (Michael Haboush), whom he hasn't spoken to for seven years. Victor is a religious fanatic who believes that Arthur's homosexuality is a sign of demonic possession, although Victor himself appears to be flamboyantly gay—even greeting Arthur in a pink, feathered bathrobe. Although Victor lashes out at Arthur for his failure to turn straight, he nonetheless offers to give Arthur money for college if he will bring Ben by the apartment and allow him to evangelize.
While Arthur considers Victor's offer, he and Ben hire an attorney (Gina Aguilar) to consult for advice on getting married. Despite Ben's still being legally married to Tammy, the attorney counsels them to travel to Vermont, be wed in a civil union, and then return to California and attempt to be recognized as members of a domestic partnership. The two take her advice, and are wed in a private ceremony in Vermont.
Suspicious of Arthur's lack of response to his monetary offer, Victor hires a private investigator to tail Ben and Arthur. The PI tells Victor about the men's marriage and their attempts to get their union recognized in California. In response, Victor follows the attorney home one evening and shoots her to death in her apartment's parking garage. At the same time, Tammy arrives at Arthur's apartment and tries to force Ben to take her back at gunpoint, but Ben successfully disarms her and throws her out.
Following their attorney's death, Ben and Arthur agree to come to Victor's apartment. Rather than evangelize, Victor and another congregant from his church, Stan (Richard Hitchcock), lash out at the couple with homophobic insults and slurs. When Ben and Arthur leave, Victor and Stan start making plans to exorcise the couple by feeding them Holy Water that Stan has cooked in his kitchen. The plot fails, and Ben and Arthur leave town to enjoy a honeymoon in Hawaii and allow the tension with Victor to blow over. In Ben and Arthur's absence, Victor is summoned to church by his priest, Father Rabin (Bill Hindley). Rabin informs him that he is being excommunicated because the congregation does not want the relative of a gay person attending church services, fearful that he will bring them bad karma and negative energy. A dejected Victor reaches out to Stan for help, who helps Victor come to an agreement with Father Rabin that Victor will be permitted to rejoin the church if he successfully murders Ben and Arthur. To this end, they hire a hitman named Scott (Nick Bennet), whom Father Rabin has apparently used to kill gay people in the past.
When Ben and Arthur return from Hawaii, Ben is gay bashed by Victor and Scott; the attack fails to kill him, and Ben is hospitalized. Suspecting his brother's involvement, Arthur breaks into Victor's apartment and taps his phone. After intercepting a call implicating Victor and Father Rabin, Arthur goes to Victor's church, chloroforms Father Rabin, and then murders him by burning the church down with him still inside.
After Ben has sufficiently recovered, Arthur takes him back home to their apartment. Deciding that the next attempt on the men's lives must be more drastic, Victor and Scott go Ben and Arthur's apartment with guns; at the last minute, Victor tells Scott that he wants to kill them himself and sends him away. Victor rings the apartment's doorbell, and when Ben answers, he fatally shoots him. He then forces Arthur to strip naked at gunpoint and performs an impromptu baptism in the bathtub.
While Victor contemplates what he's done, Arthur slips away and gets the gun that Ben had earlier confiscated from Tammy. Dressed in a bathrobe and briefs, a hysterical Arthur—reenacting one of the final scenes of Scarface—propositions Victor while holding him at gunpoint, accusing him of lashing out to try to combat his own repressed homosexuality. When Arthur fires a warning shot, Victor pulls out his own gun and shoots Arthur in the chest and back several times. In turn, Arthur manages to fire off a single shot which hits Victor in the forehead and instantly kills him, before Arthur dies of his own wounds.

Tags: cruelty, revenge, psychedelic, murder, home movie

Review:
His opening scene, sitting in his immaculate apartment, stroking his kitty cat, was hilarious.I applaud the writer/director/producer/editor/star/caterer/cast dentist/composer (and whatever else he did on this move) for actually getting a movie like this distributed.
If this movie was a mistake, I will personally find a way to change the famous phrase "It's okay to make mistakes" to "It's okay to make mistakes unless that mistake was BEN & ARTHUR." You know how people always say things like, "Good things come out of everything!"?
I had to stop the movie and call a friend to come over just so I had someone to scoff at when I paused the movie out of shock, disbelief and outrage at such sheer stupidity.On top of all the horrible writing and acting and illogical and stupid plot, its just a poorly made film.
In the first 25 seconds of the film, I seriously thought I was watching some high school theater class attempting to make a short movie.
The acting is horrible; the whole movie almost looks like it was shot with a 20 year old VHS video camera.
Ben and Arthur are two gay guys being menaced by one's religious zealot brother, who plots with his priest to murder his brother in order to "free his soul".
This movie is so bad i think Sam Mraovich should be tied to a chair and made to watch this movie (twice).
However, the recent acceptance of gay marriage cannot in any way be attributed to this film--if anything, it set the gay marriage supporters back instead of helping as the movie stinks and never really tries to seriously address the issue.
It's more like a home movie and doesn't even merit a listing on IMDb or even inclusion on IMDb's Bottom 100 list of the worst rated films of all time.
There is nothing positive I can say about this in any way except that it makes the films of Ed Wood seem like Oscar contenders in comparison and I am sure the ghost of Mr. Wood is smiling every time someone watches this mess!
Seriously, this gives new meaning to the word 'bad'!By the way, if the one lady in the film WAS a real lawyer, wouldn't the ability to read be an important prerequisite?!
Ben and Arthur has beaten both.This out of the many countless amount of movies I've seen is the number one worst film on the i ever saw.
Bad Directing ,Bad Characters ,Horrible Acting ,Horrible story There's a reason nobody but Sam ever says anything positive about this film.
An active supporter of gay cinema, I am incensed and angered that this warped, exceedingly untalented man-child be allowed to distribute and package something like this, with a coltish pretty boy on the cover (Jamie Brett Gabel, who, thankfully, has no other acting credits in IMDb) and an interesting synopsis on the back used as bait, and then market it as a "movie" rental.
This movie is just truly awful, the eye-candy that plays Ben just can make up for everything else that is wrong with this movie.The writer/director/producer/lead actor etc probably had a good idea to create a movie dealing with the important issues of gay marriage, family acceptance, religion, homophobia, hate crimes and just about every other issue effecting a gay man of these times, but trying to ram every issue into such a poorly conceived film does little justice to any of these causes.The script is poor, the casting very ordinary, but the dialogue and acting is just woeful.
There are films out there so bad, so hideous, so unintentionally hilarious and so ridiculous that cults form around them to celebrate their awfulness and their discussion boards are the kindest places on the internet due to everyone agreeing unanimously that said film is really that bad.Ladies and Gentlemen, i present to you Ben and Arthur, an 85 minute gay epic that is so utterly bad that it's a lot like a violent car crash, you know it's awful but you can't stop looking at it.
This is a man so blinded by his own ego and so believing of his non existent genius that like someone with an ugly child he fails to recognise just how catastrophic his bastard creation really is.Everything in this film fails on an epic level, the acting is the worst you will ever witness, the plot is the most ridiculous, the editing and cinematography is the most amateur and even the music is like nails on a chalkboard.
Ben and Arthur does not have a good concept to fall back on, even if this film was shot on a budget of 20 million with Hollywoods finest actors it would still suck, the plot is that atrocious, and the characters are even worse.
One of the main characters Arthur who is portrayed by non other than Sam Mraovich is one of the most whiny loathsome little turds ever put in a film.
Apparently Mr Mraovich forgot that we're supposed to root for the hero.I don't want to spoil all the gut busting hilarity you'll experience watching this film (which i urge you not to pay for) so i will give you two tame mild examples of how stupid this film is, tame and mild as in amongst the least offending mistakes in the movie.
Imagine the absolute worst film you've seen in your life and imagine it being even worse and you still won't be on the same level as Ben and Arthur, this film is really that bad.However we should be glad in a way, films like this are a true rarity.
Simply because we'll have a new found sense of confidence due to the fact that we'll know that nothing we produce no matter how amateur could be as much of a suck fest as this.The real worst movie of all time has finally been discovered, and it is called Ben and Arthur..
Mr. Mraovich writes, directs, and stars as blunt object Arthur Sailes battling scorned wives and the Christian forces of evil as he and his partner Ben "dead behind the eyes" Sheets struggle for marital equality.
Hilariously Bad. I don't know what it is about this movie- director Sam Mraovich somehow messed up just about every little aspect in this movie.
One could spend pages going over all of the technical failings, the risible acting, the clearly gay man playing a homophobic Christian, but for me there are moments in Ben & Arthur that become transcendent in their hilarity.
When Arthur, played by the writer/director/producer/editor/grip Sam Mraovich actually says things like "what if I quited?" or "YOU need pray for" I hunch forward in my seat laughing.
The fact that he also stars in Ben & Arthur as the central protagonist (nudity and all), while providing what is hands-down the worst performance by any actor I have ever seen, reinforces what everyone here already knows: That Mraovich has lost much of his grasp of reality and has no idea of how humans function.(Additionally, even Kubrick usually had his name in only a few credits at most or, in the case of "A Clockwork Orange", in just one card.
Mraovich's name is everywhere in Ben & Arthur.)And just what were the actors in this movie thinking of when they signed on to this thing anyway?
(I would imagine SAG would frown upon paying actors in graham crackers.) Maybe they simply pitied the hopelessly delusional Mraovich.In any case, Ben & Arthur was quite the discovery for me.
Isn't So Bad. Ben & Arthur (2002) BOMB (out of 4) Sam Mraovich wrote, produced, directed, shot, scored and did just about everything else in this gay movie, which many consider the alternate of THE ROOM.
In the film Mraovich plays Arthur, a gay man happily in love with his boyfriend Ben (Jamie Brett Gabel) and the two plan on getting married in Hawaii.
And I regret it, while something MIGHT find some novelty value in it, it is really bottom of the barrel stuff.The story is thinner than a needle thread, and is little more than a series of disconnected scenes, and I probably have got "cringetitis" from the countless number of times I cringed at the terrible dialogue here.Ben & Arthur is also rather badly made, the editing is slapdash and if I was paid £10 for each continuity error and goof I spotted I'd probably be one of the richest women in England by now.
The characters are annoying and unlikeable, and the acting is horrendous, of all the acting I've seen in a movie the past month or so only The Room comes close to the atrociousness of the acting here.In conclusion, a terrible film with no redeeming qualities.
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 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?
Come on guys little details like this separate an indi film from totally amateur.The Christian brother is far gayer than Arthur with his bleached hair and tribal band tattoo.
The two should have switched roles.The minor characters are laughable and overact something terrible.Applause to the directors for making a gay film but pay some attention to your locations and casting next time.
The editing is terrible, the sound is terrible, the acting is terrible (the actor that played Ben was okay) the script is terrible, the story is terrible and our "hero" Arthur is just so annoying.However, I would still recommend that you watch this movie, as it is really funny.
After going to Vermont to get married, that's where the fun begins, as the brother 'brews' holy water, threatens people with guns, and hires private investigators/hitmen, all for the good of his Christian, or maybe it was Catholic (or maybe the movie can't keep straight the religion) church.
You have to be ready for a huge "punch" when watching this film Sam Mraovich wrote and directed..
As for the plot, this movie expects you to believe that Victor, the devoutly Christian brother of Arthur, is kicked out of his church when the congregation learns that his BROTHER is gay.
In fact, I'm going to try to get all my friends to see it because it's the kind of movie that needs to be shared.My favorite parts: -- When Arthur auditions to be a go-go boy (his dancing is unbelievable) -- The gratuitous nudity (the director/leading actor just had to get a nude shot in) -- The preacher's office with its cardboard and crayon rendition of Christ -- Of course, the famous wedding scene with the palm trees and the forgotten rings (what narrative function does this play?!?) -- The ex-wife's wrestling match with Ben to get possession of her gun -- The detailed sequence wherein Arthur kills the preacher; he apparently burns him up with this incredibly measly match -- Yes, the gay religious-fanatic brother with his bleached hair and WeHo fashions -- And, my favorite, the use of Joplin's "The Entertainer" as the opening soundtrack and "Pachebel's Canon in D Major" as the closing soundtrack!
Intrigued by the synopsis (every gay video these days has a hunk on the cover; this is not necessarily to be construed as a good sign) I purchased BEN AND ARTHUR without knowing a thing about it.
I do not make this observation lightly  I am a major collector of videos, gay and mainstream, and I can state with some authority and without hesitation that BEN AND ARTHUR is quite simply the worst film I have ever sat through in my life.
That film was pretty bad, but compared to BEN AND ARTHUR, it viewed like GONE WITH THE WIND.
This film almost made me sympathetic to the Christian Right  we are asked to believe not only that a church would expel a member because his brother is gay, but that a priest would actually set up a mob style execution of a gay couple in order to save their souls (like this even makes sense).
Murder and violence seem to be acceptable ends to the gay activist / right wing conflict on both sides, and the acting is so bad that it's difficult to imagine how anybody in this film got hired.
Every year, thousands of gays are forced to resort to murder, arson and incest in order to thwart their hyper-religious homicidal family's members' evil schemes, and Ben & Arthur tackles this issue head-on.The word "genius" doesn't quite do justice to writer/producer/assistant producer/director/actor Sam Mraovich's filmmaking talents.
Ben & Arthur is one of the worst movies ever made.
By contrast, everything, and I do mean everything, in this film is completely unprofessional.The movie is intended to be an attack on the Christian Right's supposed bigotry and hatred toward gays.
Hilariously Bad. Oh man, what was Sam Mraovich thinking?
Mraovich is the head of nearly everything of "Ben and Arthur": Director, writer, producer (also EXECUTIVE producer!), caster, lead star- you name it, he did it.
The film is about two gay lovers, Ben (Jamie Brett Gabel) and Arthur (Mraovich- *groan*).
Ben and Arthur want to get married in a world where everyone basically hates gay people.
To make things worse, Ben's crazy "ex-wife" (they don't exactly divorce), Tammy (Julie Belknap) is steaming mad that Ben's left her for another man and demands Ben that they get back together (saying that she can be gay, too!) and Arthur's Christian devoted, excessively hypocritical, equally batty as Tammy brother, Victor, is hell bent on making Arthur turn straight and then try to kill him after he gets kicked out of his church.The film is absolutely chock a block with so many goofs (ie.
I make sense, that's who makes sense!") and there so much more wrong with the "movie" that I can't write them all down.However, the most laughable yet unbelievable thing about "Ben and Arthur" is that Sam Mraovich thinks that he has created something that is truly fantastic (see his fake reviews for "Ben & Arthur" and obvious comments by him on YouTube.).
Mraovich is narcissistic and his arrogance blinds him from seeing how awful anything with his name on it really is.So, to conclude, forget every bad film that you claim is the worst movie ever- "Ben and Arthur" will knock them right off that title, even Paris Hilton movies look like "The Dark Knight" compared to the monstrosity known as "Ben and Arthur"..
The direct-to-videotape quality is that of a very mediocre high school film project - made by people who have been held back so many times they're in their mid 20's.If you enjoy spotting plot holes, glaring inconsistencies and downright goofs, then this is a movie for you.
They start right at the beginning and don't let up for an hour and a half.The movie opens as our protagonists, Ben and Arthur, are overjoyed to learn that gay marriage has been legalized in Hawaii.
I loaned this movie to my brother and he called me on the phone saying how Arthur's nude scene turned him gay.
This film inspired me to enroll in Sam Mraovich's school of Screen writing, Acting, Directing, Composing, Casting, Producing, Production Design and Real Estate.
First, Hawaii revokes their gay marriage laws, then Ben drops a bombshell that he's still married to a woman (who apparently didn't know he was gay?) then Arthur must turn to his disapproving conservative Christian homophobe brother for a loan.Jamie Brett Gabel does an admirable job as Ben but it is Sam Mraovich who makes this train wreck utterly fascinating to watch.
The music that plays in the actual movie (the few times any plays) is a generic keyboard tune out of a bad 80s action film.The acting is handled woodenly and sloppily, with messed up takes being left in and actors obviously reading from off-screen (or in the case of the lawyer, on-screen) scripts.
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.
Basically, Ben and Arthur is indescribably bad, but unintentionally the most comical thing you'll see for a long time.
you've been alerted.Sam Mraovich stars in the leading role - and also wrote, directed, and produced this movie intending it to be a serious drama about two brothers, one who is gay, the other who is a religious zealot.It's a topic that could have been addressed wonderfully on film, but, WOW, this movie really is as bad as people wrote.
Combine bad acting with bizarre and ridiculous lines, and you end up cracking up.For example, the following is one of many hilarious scenes: Victor hires a private investigator to follow his gay brother, Arthur.
It's a bad movie, the acting is horrendous, the sound quality is actually the worst I've seen (within the same scene there are weird audio changes that has background noise then no background noise which leads one to believe they are in the vacuum of space...
The film Ben and Arthur, directed and written by Sam Mraovich, is an original and surprising love story.
After the scene where Ben is killed, Arthur starts to seduce his brother.