None of the characters in this movie are likable.I'm reasonably sure that one brother was supposed to be the screw up with no direction or motivation and the other brother was supposed to have had his life more or less 'together' (and then of course we all learn a clichéd lesson), but I found both of the characters equally unlikeable and deplorable.I pretty much wanted to see both main characters die in a horrific accident so the movie would end and I wouldn't have to watch any more. I actually stopped watching the movie and went and did some housework because it was more entertaining. I have a policy of watching till the end for 'redeeming features', but I was disappointed....I'm giving it some points because the filming, editing, sound were all fine...

I saw this at the Alamo and thought it was the funniest movie of the whole festival, and maybe one of the funniest I've seen in the past few years. The big laughs come from the physical comedy, but there's a lot of subtle humor in the dialog and the characters too that I only started to pick up on towards the middle of the movie. Kind of made me feel like I'd catch more the 2nd time around, but this was the last screening of it at SXSW, so I guess I'll wait 'til it gets released. There were some lulls in the middle and the story arc goes from 0-60 a little too quick at the end, but these are minor complaints that only keep it from being a perfect movie. And most movies are not perfect, especially comedies, and ESPECIALLY extremely funny ones. Like Tommy Boy and Billy Madison aside, there are no perfect comedies in the last 20 years. And this movie felt like Tommy Boy got into a car accident with Sideways. And in a good way. I loved it.

Sometimes a story played out on film serves as a motivator or is inspiring or just plain entertaining, however in the case of the independent film Awful Nice, I am still attempting to categorize it. The story begins with Jim (James Pumphrey) retrieving his younger brother Dave (Alex Rennie) to return home and attend the memorial services for their recently deceased father. The condition and location in which Jim finds Dave was the first indication that somebody has issues. This film did something that has never happened to me before, I laughed uproariously at some very funny sequences, but once the film was over I was left feeling unfulfilled. Usually if it is a good comedy, the emotion elicited is upbeat and cheery but not with this film. The characters Dave and Jim both reminded me of how competitive brothers can be having grown up in a household with three brothers myself, but the incessant arguing and fighting was just too much. I continuously asked myself if Jim is the smart one why does he keep following advice from Dave. And then you realize that after a while some of the lunacy starts to make some sense. I do wonder what inspired writer Alex Rennie to create this outlandish road trip, brothers bonding story, and whether the character Dave was based in part on Alex's own life. The reason that I ask this question is because Mr. Rennie was so convincing with his particular kind of crazy as Dave. He was quick witted, rationalized everything from a spoiled brat point of view and took no responsibility for anything in his life all while guilting Jim into mindless submission. Mr. Rennie is either a really good actor or he really is Dave. I've never been to Branson, but there was a huge inference that it is overrun with Russian Mafia and prostitution, which is the world that Jim and Dave's father's business partner seemed to be very much a part of. Since I watch a lot of Law and Order reruns it was easy to spot Christopher Meloni (Jon Charbineau) in spite of the mustache, the horrible accent, and the worse wig ever. He did a great job of portraying a sleazy businessman not that he did anything that was sleazy, he just really looked the part. I still do not know what the title related to, I suppose they used Awful Nice because My Idiot Brother was already taken.

I don't know what the heck Todd Sklar was thinking when he wrote this film. I guess the best way that I can describe it is as a crazy dramatic comedy. While I was watching this film I kept thinking to myself, whose crazy family is this film based on? Hopefully no ones, because there were times that I thought these two brothers were going to kill each other. Dave (Alex Rennie) is the carefree younger brother who is homeless and is used to eating out of trash cans and seems to like his life just the way it is. He is really disgusting and does some outlandish crap (use expletive here). His older brother Jim (James Pumphrey) hunts Dave down because their father has died and they discover that they have inherited a cabin in Branson Missouri. A road trip ensues and the two of them hit the road. It turns out that the cabin is a total wreck and Dave decides that this would be a great brother bonding experience if they fixed up the cabin together instead of hiring someone else to do it. I was thinking that at this point in the film that Jim was the sane one since he has a family and a child; but that is not the case. For some reason (I think that it is guilt), Jim keeps doing whatever the heck his crazy brother Dave wants him to do. I just kept shaking my head. I don't care how much I may have ignored a sibling in the past there is no way that I would do some of the stupid stuff that these two do. At one point Dave swallows a handful of dog pills and I just knew that he would be dead in the next scene, but nope. The deceased father's business partner, Jon (Christopher Meloni) was responsible for handling the legalities for these two idiots. At first I thought that he might be nuts too, but it turns out that he was the smartest one on the screen. I almost didn't recognize Christopher because the wig and disguise he was wearing was so terrible. I guess the budget was not that big in the costume department. Anyway, although I laughed a whole lot in this film after it was over, I was just left blank. Like Emma, I am not sure what the title Awful Nice meant; but it is what it is.