A friend showed me this last night and I think I'm mainly writing here as a means of therapy, a way to come to terms with what I saw. We watched it on Youtube and, even alongside all the thousands of videos of teenagers singing karaoke and cats riding around on vacuum cleaners, it must be one of the most dire things I have ever witnessed on that website. The fact that this has been sold on DVD, and that some poor, unfortunate souls have paid money for it, is deeply troubling.The first 10 minutes are taken up with the name Sam Mraovich flashing up repeatedly over what appears to be an image of a sceptic tank - this is in many ways a metaphor for the rest of the film - absolute sewage, made all the worse by the fact that ever element of the production has been controlled by one strange, talentless oaf who even plays the lead character. Paradoxically, despite being possibly the most poorly made film in the history of the universe, Ben and Arthur is somehow extremely entertaining, and it has been a long while since I've laughed so much at anything. The plot is some nonsensical story about two guys who go off to somewhere in the US where gay marriage is legal and get wed - but one of them has a nutty, camp, wannabe Bond-style villain for a brother who happens to be part of some loony Christian sect that hates gays and loves violence. The film degenerates further and further into a great big farcical mess as the Christians kill off the gays and their friends, and the gays kill off the Christians, until it arrives at one of the oddest finales ever - the director/lead character (a vigorously unattractive man) gets naked, gets forcibly baptised and then starts pleading with the psycho-brother to have sex with him. Basically there is no real sense in trying to explain the plot, as it is just far too strange for words.The acting is abysmal. Like, really, really, really bad. You hear "actors" blatantly mess up their lines and see them stare directly into the camera. The film is absolutely full of mistakes, too numerous to mention and the entire thing looks as if it was filmed on someone's mobile phone by a Parkinson's sufferer. I mean, surely it can't be too difficult to find someone capable of at least holding a camera vaguely still, can it? Then there's the music - the opening credits are accompanied by a plinky-plonky version of The Entertainer, whilst the rest of the score was created by a mentally-deficient chimp using a keyboard. There is nothing good about this film, literally NOTHING - well, apart from the fact that a lot of it is unintentionally hilarious. Watching it will fill you with a deep sense of loathing and pity towards anybody who had anything to do with it's production, the fact that there are films ranked lower than this on here astounds me. It truly is the antithesis off all that is good in this world.

What can I say, this is a piece of brilliant film-making that should have won an Oscar. A copy should be kept safe in a secure vault for posterity. It should be required viewing for all high school students across the world. Sam Mraovich is a genius, perhaps the most genius writer/director/producer/chef/babysitter/walmart greeter to ever grace the cinema world with his art.Where do I begin with this one? Every millisecond of Ben and Arthur was so completely breathtaking! And Mraovich as Arthur, wow, he is so attractive I'm surprised he didn't go for Mr. Universe. I couldn't contain myself during the nude scene. I loaned this movie to my brother and he called me on the phone saying how Arthur's nude scene turned him gay. I am totally supportive of course, because of this film and it's beautifully crafted lessons in tolerance. Why just yesterday I burned down a church and I wrote "for Sam and Arthur" in its smoldering ashes.The cinematography was the best thing about this film. When that Fed-Ex plane took to the skies amid the palm trees of Vermont, I wept! Why, I never even knew they had palm trees in Vermont or that people could travel on Fed-Ex planes before this film. It opened my eyes to a new realm of possibilities. This film inspired me to enroll in Sam Mraovich's school of Screen writing, Acting, Directing, Composing, Casting, Producing, Production Design and Real Estate. I just want to say, "Thank you, Mr. Mraovich. Thank you for bringing this creation into the world. We can never re-pay you enough."

When the film began, I was shocked to see it was filmed using a cheap video camera! In fact, the camera shakes and looks worse than the average home movie. Even direct to DVD films should have production values better than this! Heck, a large percentage of the home videos uploaded to YouTube have better production values! All too often, the film seriously appears to be made by sticking the camera on a tripod and turning it on--with no camera person! Closeups and anything resembling camera-work are absent in some scenes where they might have worked and in others there are too many or poorly framed closeups. Yecch! The film is about two gay men who want to become married. As if was made almost a decade ago, their only option was marrying in Vermont--times have definitely changed. 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. According to the film, religious people are one-dimensional idiots who carry Bibles EVERYWHERE and shoot people as well as wives who have gay husbands are narrow-minded when they learn their spouses have been living a lie--go figure. I'm sure glad it gives an honest chance to both sides on the issue! The bottom line--nothing about the film shows any professionalism at all and I even hesitate to call this a film. 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. The acting is horrible, the writing is horrible, the direction (if there even is any) is horrible, the camera-work is horrible and the plot is horrible. It's a home movie!! 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! I don't care if you are gay or straight--this film is not worth your time and I don't know how they managed to create DVDs of it. I assume one of the actors burns them on his home computer during his free time! 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?! I'm just sayin'.Finally, with gay marriage being such a serious and important topic, can't we have a film that's BETTER than THIS that addresses the issue?! This one, sadly, only invites laughter.

Oh, Sam Mraovich, we know you tried so hard. This is your magnum opus, a shining example to the rest of us that you are certainly worth nomination into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (as you state on your 1998-era web site). Alas, it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. With Ben & Arthur, you do just that.Seemingly assembled with a lack of instruction or education, the film's screenplay guides us toward the truly bizarre with each new scene. It's this insane excuse of a story that may also be the film's best ally. Beginning tepidly, the homosexually titular characters Ben and Arthur attempt to marry, going so far as to fly across country to do so, in the shade of Vermont's finest palm trees. But, all of this posturing is merely a lead-in for BLOOD. Then more BLOOD, and MORE AND MORE BLOOD. I mean, there must be at least $20 in fake blood make-up in the final third of this film.The film in its entirety is a technical gaffe. From the sound to the editing to the music, which consists of a single fuzzy bass note being held on a keyboard, it's a wonder that the film even holds together on whatever media you view it on. It's such a shame then that some decent amateur performances are wasted here.No matter, Sam. I'm sure you've made five figures on this flick in rentals or whatever drives poor souls (such as myself) to view this film. Sadly, we're not laughing with you.