Get Your Stuff (2000) User Reviews

We liked it.

[rjhlg · 7/10 · 1 November 2004]

I read the reviews posted here before buying this movie and actually tried to return it based on what I read. Unfortunately I couldn't send it back as it had already shipped out to me. My friend and I sat down and watched it and both really enjoyed the film.

I read more than one of the scathing reviews posted on here and I just don't see where they're coming from. Comedy films can be a big hit or miss due to the fact that everyone's sense of humor is different. Personally I don't feel it was 'knee-slapper', but it wasn't bad. A big budget film its not, but based on the circumstances, they did a good job.

Being a gay male myself I did see several cliché stereotypes here and there, but I didn't care. The main 2 characters are supposed to fit a certain mold to accommodate the story.

Don't let your judgment be swayed by the bad reviews. Check it out yourself!

great idea, poor execution (SPOILER)

[tyler-j-west · 5/10 · 31 January 2007]

This movie seemed like an experiment in movie-making. The randomization of clips and comments sometimes was interesting but usually was irritating and confusing to follow. Some scenes are like 2 seconds. And some of the lines are just horrible, like "I'm the alpha male, hes the beta." / "I'm gamma, this is delta." I don't know how the actors delivered the lines with a straight face.

The acting was not the best either. The worst was probably when Eric takes the phone away from his mother. His "No, no, no"s and his "I'm hanging up the phone now" were really bad. The principal and the social worker did a really good job and I would have liked to see even more of them in this movie. The two dads were okay at the acting but I think they might have been cast because of their looks and bodies rather than because of their acting. The children actors were great.

The story isn't all bad, it does take some very real turns such as the couple breaking up briefly. The mom overcomes her addictions remarkably easily, though, which is pretty unconvincing. However, overall it was pretty unrealistic. When the one kid says that Eric hates him and he hates Eric toward the end, you really don't see it coming because he never acted like he hated Eric before. Also these people are surrounded by gay-friendly people, it would be interesting to see this happen with much more opposition at play since it is a gay couple making the adoption. After all that's the biggest issue in this story.

Getting Your Stuff Can Be Fun!!

[yaaah_69 · 7/10 · 14 November 2007]

Get Your Stuff. Two homosexual guys who want to adopt a baby are asked to take care of two pre-teens for their social worker for one night, buttttt!

I found this movie to be very refreshing. The two lead guys were masculine , looked like regular guys and made an believable pair. They were always cuddling and had sex (almost) 2-3 times. Ha Ha. The foster kids did a great job as the two ( almost Mobster Kids ) who bring the story of adoption to a new height . You hate them at first , but grow to like them later. The mother who is an mainliner, and drunk , was portrayed by Elaine Hendrix , Kimberly Scott the probation officer, both did a smash-up job. There were parts for sheer laughter and parts for some tears . But all in all it was a great little flik , that has some serious social problems to work out. Cameron Watson (Phil) and Anthony Paul Meindl (Erik) Are the adopting couple and thru all the confusion have to come to terms with their love and what it entails. Phil is also an love councilor for the gay community , Erik is an lawyer . Hop aboard its' fun , will make you feel good. Sure there are some things that just don' seem right , but heh what movie is perfect...,I give this movie 7/10 ciao yaaah69

Very cute premise, cute actors but terrible script!

[meyer-8 · 24 April 2004]

This movie starts out fine and has a very enticing premise: two gay guys who want to be foster parents (aren't they all waiting for an infant to adopt?) get 2 unruly pre-teen boys, but end up loving them. The trouble is that the story bogs down in the middle and goes through some strange wormholes. There are incidents, scenes and action that have no connection. It was impossible to follow a plot at all. What a shame! The scriptwriter must have had a stroke at that point and just wrote gibberish afterwards. It ruined what was otherwise a very cute movie. PS The reference to AA is quite fascinating, and could be seen as being very socially enlightening.

It was okay, but it had potential to be better

[aryaflowernyturner · 6/10 · 22 July 2023]

Based on the other reviews, I expected it to be worse than it was. However, I feel like there was a lot of potential in this movie, which was never fully reached, and sometimes thrown on the ground and stomped on.

Phil and Eric in the beginning were quite sympathetic, but as the movie progressed, Phil really started to annoy me. I feel like his choices were oftentimes selfish and irresponsible. I am not saying that Eric was perfect, and the whole cheating thing was not his best moment, but he repeatedly expressed his feelings about the situation which Phil just completely disregarded.

Speaking of Phil, he had good intentions, but the naïveté of some of his actions felt extremely weird. As an ex-addict who got sober, I would have expected him to deal with certain situations better. For example, when they had Cat - an alcoholic - staying with them, as well as TJ - a 12 year old with a drinking problem, it might have been a good idea to get rid of the booze? I would say that it is generally a good idea to keep alcohol out of reach of children, and especially children with the background that TJ and Brian had. It felt as if Cat and TJ were set up to mess up again and again. Fortunately for them, attending an AA meeting fixed everything. Cat quit cold turkey and became a respectable mother, yay.

The ease and with which she quit, and the time frame made the situation almost funny. The movie made it seem like she attempted to have the kids back before that, and while I am not familiar with the US system for stripping parents of their right, I would assume that it is a last ditch effort, and that she would have had been sent to rehab or AA before that. I might be wrong, but the fact that a caring sober gay was all she needed to get better feels a bit silly, especially since she didn't seem like she particularly wanted to get sober. Take what I am saying with a grain of salt, since I have not faced similar issues myself, but I felt like it could have been done better.

The part that I did like was how we saw Eric's attitude towards the kids, especially TJ, change over time. The scenes where they were working on the car together, and reading the magazines with Eric helping TJ read the more complex words were genuinely sweet and I wish we got more of those. Had they focused more on that, just showing us how the relationships developed, and chosen a different approach to tackle some of the more complex issues, I think it would have been a better movie.

Kudos to the cast

[petshop · 1/10 · 15 July 2000]

of this horrific disaster for wading through what is probably the worst script I've heard this year. The expository writing and heavy-handed directing refuse to allow you to think. The acting is so horrendously stilted (largely due to the truly awful writing)that your skin will crawl... it's not even campy bad. It's just boring bad.

The story throws every passe cliche it can dig up, gay and straight, at your face... and more than once. Let's hope this film is not the harbinger of the death of gay cinema.

I notice a couple of raving user comments... they're phoney. Those users haven't commented on anything else. This user is an avid movie-goer, and not an insider or buddy of the filmmaker. It's just an honest opinion.

Dreadful "Feel-Good"Movie

[baker-9 · 1/10 · 27 June 2003]

This direct-to-video clunker about a wealthy, buff, Beverly Hills gay couple suddenly saddled with two abandoned kids to test their mettle as foster parents is so badly acted and written that it's painful to watch. The only actor who doesn't come off as amateurish or awkward/under-rehearsed is Kimberly Scott as the Child Services rep, but the way she just drops these kids into the couple's life is absurd and unbelievable. In fact, I didn't make it all the way through. I'm all for films that show different aspects of how gay men live, though this film still trots out the usual drag queens, etc., and the couple does live a rarified existence. Someday we'll get a good film about gay adoption, but this one isn't it.

Not Bad

[yeti8080 · 8/10 · 28 May 2006]

Read the reviews here before I saw the flick, so I almost didn't watch it. It didn't turn out half as bad. In fact I rather enjoyed it. Acting and script weren't mind-blowing, but it was decent if a little wooden in parts. Worth a watch if you like something feel-good. I think it was a wrong move to market the movie as a slap-knee comedy, as they suggest on the cover, because that it isn't. Most times I was actually more holding my breath about the future of the various relationships. I think it was more of a comedy-drama. Plot-wise, the story dragged a little, but the ending is rather nice.

Oh, and the gay couple who are the main characters are really hot.

It's okay to pass this film up!

[the44102guy · 3/10 · 16 July 2005]

Was totally disappointed to see this film. Great concept, not the greatest execution. The acting was over the top. The most genuine performance was by the youngest actor in the movie.

In this day and age stereotypes are so OVER. Haven't we passed that day and age with gay cinema?? And lastly, I have to say that the writer/director should have taken a more realistic approach to the outcome of "Eric" leaving. The character of "Phil" never would taken Eric back after he was being cheated on like that. Come on! This could have been a great, edgy, real film. It turned into big gay fluff where cheating is okay. You don't need to see this movie.

Mix And Match

[soanim8ed · 8/10 · 2 June 2003]

What do you get when you mix a successful gay couple with two foster kids from the streets? Well, you could get Get Your Stuff, a cute film about the good times and bad times that might happen if you mix the two mismatched ingredients above. Farce? No, it never reaches that state, but it is frequently funny.

The story is about Phil (Cameron Watson), a couples counselor and Eric (Anthony Meindl), a lawyer. The two want to adopt a baby (mostly it seems from the prodding of Eric's mom), and are just approved to be foster parents in the meantime. Through some coaxing and borderline blackmailing, they agree to take in T.J. and Brian for one night. That becomes one more night and one more and, well, you get the picture.

The kids are actually decent actors and, at times, out-act the adults. T.J. (Grady Hutt) is the optimistic one and tries to get his brother to straighten up so they can have a home. Brian (Blayn Barbosa), on the other hand, is not as accepting and wants nothing to do with Phil and Eric until their case worker, Gloria, talks them into working the couple to make themselves more appealing.

The film deals with all these problems with a light touch -- never wanting to truly offend anyone. So they are played up for laughs; however, the message still gets through. In fact, it takes its toll on Eric who wanted nothing more than a baby and not an entire family of problems and promptly leaves in the film's worst scene that includes Phil screaming and pulling a gun out on his clients and doing the same to Eric as he drives off.

But that type of scene is, thankfully, not the norm. Most of the picture is feel-good and enjoyable. More so when Kimberly Scott is on the screen. She plays Gloria with sass, determination and heart. The movie is made better by her tough love portrayal -- especially the scenes with the kids. There is one at the beginning of the film where the kids arrive at the house while Phil and Eric are having an anniversary party. Brian goes for the wine and argues that kids in Europe drink it. Gloria responds with, "They can also speak three languages. When you can speak three languages, then we can talk."

Get Your Stuff doesn't set the film world on fire, but it is a fun jaunt. It's something to pass the time in world that touches on reality, but doesn't actually ground itself there.

Painfully over-acted

[isbrucker · 2/10 · 14 March 2004]

Like a wine that turns to vinegar, Get Your Stuff has not aged well. Somehow the antics of two wealthy gay men in Beverly Hills was amusing at the time; now it's over-dramatic and condescending. Did they add more footage to the DVD? You'll be sitting on the fast-forward button as the one-dimensional characters develop into... saccharin-sweet one-dimensional characters.

In an early scene, the couple decides to sleep in separate bedrooms, so as not to offend the children. Since when are successful millionaire gay men closeted?

The unbelievable plot and under-developed characters will forever live on as a reminder of how NOT to make a gay film.

Unimpressive would be too kind

[Franco-LA · 1/10 · 17 March 2012]

It's hard to imagine that anyone other than a financial backer of this film or the mother of the director or script writer would consider this the best film they had ever seen (perhaps it is the ONLY gay movie they have ever seen?) or that it was a cross-over hit (just as "Gigli" was that monster rom-com/action thriller that Hollywood was always hoping for to finally overthrown "Titanic" at the top of the box office).

The plot is highly contrived and even for the time it was produced, full of very clichéd roles (such as the drag queen in the pool party scenes at the start of the film) or the trite situations throughout the film, such as the "break up," "cheating," "flats of strawberry reconciliation," etc. As other reviewers have noted, there are just way too many scenes that would never ring true, even in a bad sitcom or Lifestyle movie of the week, such as the mother's rapid conversion to soberhood.

I was caring for a friend's dog and otherwise house sitting while they were out of the country and came down with a cold. They have Netflix streaming is this was one of a very few handful of gay films on Netflix I had not seen (and many of the films that fall in this category was actually even worse dogs then this -- we're talking NEGATIVE vote numbers like -10 if IMDb allowed those scores) or I would likely have also stopped watching this after the first few minutes, but it reminded me so much of the essentially plot of "Patrik 1.5" that I wonder if that script writer was aware of this dross. They do have Netflix in Sweden after all....

This is the best Gay movie I have ever seen!

[tbaros · 29 June 2000]

I laughed and I cried when I saw this movie. What a great cast, they all blended in perfectly well together. I have seen many, many gay films, but this is the best one that I have ever seen. Kudos to the Director, Max Mitchell, and to the excellent cast.

Thanks for making a remarkable and unforgettable movie.

Good movie but very bad in some parts

[Irishchatter · 4/10 · 28 September 2014]

So we see two troubled kids stealing cookies from a store and a luxurious gay couple having a good time with their friends. The boys then were introduced by the gay couple and thats when I found the storyline hard to pick up because suddenly the mother comes in then everything goes wrong for the couple. It was all over the place and I felt very confused by the way this storyline was set out. Like Eric horribly cheated on Phil but Phil had that 'I don't care' attitude or trying to get the mother a job whereas she was really unfit to get down and work. It was crazy. Anyways the only positives about this movie was that Elaine Hendrix (from the parent trap) starred in this and that the boys were finally adopted in the end. I have to say all actors were good in this but the script should've been looked at clearly.

A serious subject done fun!

[papi-9 · 9/10 · 19 July 2000]

The true test of a film is whether or not it still affects you a couple of days after you see it. "Get Your Stuff" is still affecting me. The film was done, obviously, with very little money and the end result was that I felt for and related to these characters more than those I saw in The Perfect Storm. What does that tell you about spending a great deal or very little to make a film? The film never lagged. The acting was tight, well executed and honest in almost every instance. The story was original and thought provoking. The direction was smart because humor was found in almost scene, yet touching moments were never overlooked or brushed over. The only negative about the film is that it could be trimmed just a bit to avoid scenes that are only saying again what we have seen before. But--I cried, I laughed, I thought, and I felt. What else could you ask for when you go to the movies?

Cross over hit!!!

[dantescove · 10/10 · 29 September 2000]

Finally a film about real issues that just happens to involve a gay couple. A family film that appeals to gay and straight people. Wonderfully, poignant performances, highlighted by two young actors who light up the screen. Max Mitchell and his team have assembled a truly important film for the millenium.

Elaine Hendrix is incredible as the alcoholic mother. The lead couple are great and represent a much needed example of a large majority of gay men in America. This film helps to erase the old stereotype that all gay men are effeminate. The media has focused far too long on negative images of gay men and GET YOUR STUFF shows a couple dealing with issues that any couple would have to deal with gay or straight. They're not perfect but neither are any of us. BRAVO!!

A real laugh out loud crowd pleaser with wit and heart!

[jasonjenn3 · 9/10 · 10 July 2000]

"Get Your Stuff" has all the right stuff! Max Mitchell joins the elite ranks of Independent writer/director's who really know how to craft a quality film. Audiences are in for a triumphant treat. The wit, humor and drama accelerates quickly into action and doesn't let up. A gay couple's dream of adopting a baby is put to the test when two teenage foster children and their troubled mother are thrown into their lives. Max Mitchell's script is full of genuine warmth, heart, and serious issues, but it is big bellied laughter that rules the film. Mitchell has a real talent for sharp, clever dialogue and one-liners that Hollywood would kill for. The acting is also superb, and "Get Your Stuff" should help rocket several careers. Good cameos and rocking fresh music are added bonuses. This film entertains! It has appeal to gay and straight audiences, young and old alike. It helps redefine the modern "family." I love it and whole-heartedly recommend to do everything you can to see it!

The "Bad Seed" meets "Birdcage"

[max-850 · 10/10 · 13 June 2009]

I had a ball watching this. The bad see meets birdcage. Two great gay guys want a baby and instead get the foster kids from hell. And then the fun begins. Kimberly Scott and Elaine Hendrix really deliver on the performances. It was fun to see the Bundy kid from Married with Children in the mix too but I wish he had more to do. Same for Jim J. Bullock, so funny. Obviously a low budgeter, it looks good anyway. My favorite is the grandma. A grandma at last. Patience Cleveland. Hilarious. Where did they get that house? Love it. Some day the story of gays adopting kids will seem curious. In the meantime, there are a lot of kids in the foster care system who would be happy to have a home like this.