Rx (Simple Lies)

2005
5.4| 1h29m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 21 April 2005 Released
Producted By: Inscription Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

What is meant to be a weekend party across the border soon becomes a heartbreaking journey that tests the boundaries of companionship, romantic love and personal ethics.

Watch Online

Rx (Simple Lies) (2005) is now streaming with subscription on Prime Video

Director

Ariel Vromen

Production Companies

Inscription Films

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 30-day free trial
Watch Now
Rx (Simple Lies) Videos and Images

Rx (Simple Lies) Audience Reviews

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded
Evengyny Thanks for the memories!
Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.
RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
MBunge This is a very nice looking film where a couple of supporting characters are far more interesting than the stars of the show and the filmmakers apparently didn't realize who was the real villain of their story. It's got a quintet of winning performances, a worthwhile moral and creates engaging relationships that draw you into the movie. A little too sparse on details, too dependent on mood and with an ending that falls fairly flat, Rx is nonetheless swift and direct enough to grab your interest and hold onto it.Andrew (Eric Balfour) is a poor college student in Southern California with a hipster chin beard and a job as a valet. With Melissa (Lauren German), his high school girlfriend from an upper middle class family, and their drug dealing, third wheel buddy Johnny (Colin Hanks), Eric sets out for Mexico. They tell Melissa it's for a party but Andrew and Johnny are also going to do a drug deal. It's a run-of-the-mill trip for Johnny until Andrew pulls out a wad of bills and asks for a lot more pills than Johnny expected. Andrew needs the drugs to sell in order to save his mom and dad from financial ruin. But things go wrong as they try and smuggle the pills back across the boarder and Andrew makes one horribly bad decision after another until there's no way all three friends are getting out of Mexico alive.It's usually not a good sign when the best things about a film are a couple of supporting characters and that's somewhat true of Rx. Alan Tudyk and Ori Pfeffer play Pepe and Raul, a couple of gay, expatriate, Eurotrash drug dealers pushing prescription pills and holding costume parties in a Mexican village so small it's not even listed on the maps. I don't know if it's the script or the performers, but there's so much more energy and depth and nuance to Pepe and Raul than there is to Andrew, Melissa and Johnny. This drug dealing duo feel like real people unique to this story, while the main characters feel like they could have been cut and pasted out of a dozen other films. Eric Balfour, Lauren German and Colin Hanks do an admirable job and building up the friendship and love between their characters, but this film tells you next to nothing about them characters nor gives you a reason to want to know more. On the other hand, I bet anyone who watches this comes away wishing they could have seen more of Pepe and Raul.I also don't think that co-writer/director Ariel Vromen appreciated that Andrew eventually reveals himself as the movie's true villain. Not only are almost all of the terrible things that happen Rx the fault of Andrew, but there's a moment when he engages in deliberate betrayal for his own ends. At that point, I realized that Andrew was a bad guy who deserved to have bad things happen to him. This film never quite figured that out, which results in an ending where Andrew is supposed to play the hero not making any moral, ethical or dramatic sense. When the audience doesn't care if the character under threat lives or dies, it's impossible to generate any tension or suspense.But while the ending of Rx doesn't work out, the beginning is a minor joy to behold. This isn't a horror movie but anyone looking to make one would do well to study the first half of this film. It does an excellent job of establishing a bright surface with a just barely perceptible tone of impending doom underneath. You get the sense something bad is going to happen, yet you're not sure and that lends an edge of excitement to everything on screen.Additionally, Rx is very well shot, directed and even edited. It's not necessarily all that flashy or eye catching, but the way the images are framed and the way the story is goosed along at just the right moment with humor or drama or violence is very skillful.If its main characters had been at all intriguing and there'd been a lot more meat on the bones of this plot, Rx would have been an exceptional low budget flick. As it is, it's a passable diversion but not much more than that.
sarahliz1624 Although headlined by a talented cast and set in the backdrop of the beautiful Mexican countryside, this film falls short of its goal. Although the director obviously holds high hopes of his film becoming a dark, gritty, drug-smuggling drama, he is too quick to protect a reputation he does not yet have, and instead "Rx" becomes a mediocre, unfeeling, eye-rolling soap opera. From the opening frames of our main characters dancing and laughing together on a ridge overlooking a sunrise to the rolling titles, this film is filled with one let down after another. Just when you think things are getting interesting, you are forced to sigh, roll your eyes, and check the timer on your DVD player to see when this agony will be over. The only redeemable quality within this film is the performance that comes from Mr.Eric Balfour, whose portrayal of Andrew, the kid who's smuggling drugs from Mexico to try an help out his parents, is emotional, believable, and quite frankly, the only thing that keeps this film afloat, at least until its disappointing and abrupt ending. All in all, "Rx" is made up of an unprovocative script fulfilled with unimaginative directing and unoriginal acting. Not a complete waste of time, I enjoyed it. But not an Oscar contender by any means.
boyinflares I'm not sure what "Rx" stands for, but in New Zealand, the film is released as "Simple Lies" which is an appropriate title, as lies are plentiful in this slick thriller in which three early-20 year-olds venture to Mexico with various intentions, mainly which involve getting drugs to take back to the States and sell for a profit.Eric Balfour stars as Andrew, who has come into financial issues, and plans to buy drugs in Mexico to take back to the States and sell, which is unknown to his girlfriend, Melissa, played by Lauren German, who goes to Mexico with him, along with their friend Jonny (Colin Hanks) who knows the two drug dealers they are going to meet, while Melissa thinks they are going to Mexico just for a big party.Without giving too much away, something goes horribly wrong on the way back to the States, so before they reach the border, they turn back into Mexico, where they return to the drug dealers, Pepe (Alan Tudyk) and Raul (Ori Pfeffer), which puts strain on the relationship between Andrew and Melissa. Our protagonists are forced to fight for their lives, resulting in a dramatic and tragic ending.I say dramatic and tragic, because even though what Andrew does is morally wrong, he is still a very good person, as he does what he does for what he thinks are the right reasons. Balfour does a great job of conveying Andrew's plight, German and Hanks are both good in their roles, but Balfour is without a doubt the star of the film. The characters of the drug dealers Pepe and Raul are so incredibly annoying that I was practically cheering when they got their cometh-upeth. Overall, a very decent thriller which showcases Balfour's talents well.
ctwemple Nothing is more tiresome than wasting ninety minutes viewing a predictably vacuous hipster road flick. One finds it annoying having to come up with ten lines of text to critique this silly piece of fluff. RX is a low-rent Maria Full of Grace. This unimaginative film seems as though it was computer-programmed to appeal to a demographic weaned on stylish music videos and suburban dreams of transgression. The movie has a predictable look, a predictable sound track, a predictable bunch of characters and a predictable plot-line. Utterly forgettable, this product has a half-life of six months and is destined for the dustbin of the spent diversions of the global youth culture.