Favreau's belief in his own material becomes clear very quickly, when we're introduced to Bobby (Favreau) and Ricky (Vince Vaughn, The Cell). The two are boxing, and it's soon established that although they're friends, but they also can't help beating each other up. Bobby's girlfriend Jessica (Famke Janssen, X-Men) is a stripper, and when Bobby causes a fight because a customer gets too intimate with her, he must answer to his girlfriend's boss, Max (Peter Falk, TV's "Columbo"). To make up for the mishap, Max asks Bobby to do a job in New York City, which he is not to know any details of until he's about to do it. Bobby brings Ricky along, and it turns out they're actually getting involved in the lower echelons of organized crime.

      Favreau establishes Ricky as an irresponsible, feeble-minded friend who always seems to say exactly the wrong things at the exactly the wrong time. This, we know, will cause trouble during the pair's adventure to New York, and indeed it does. Ricky's foolishness gets annoying at times, because it's so obvious to the audience how stupid his actions are, but Vince Vaughn plays the role perfectly and makes the character the liveliest element of the film. He is the film's main source of comedy, and because of his strong character, we respect Bobby's level-headedness that much more. You almost want to slap Ricky (and at times Bobby does it for us), but you can't help laughing at what Ricky has gotten himself into and how he hardly even realizes it.

      The solid characters are what makes Made a success. Favreau has written his own character to counter the stupefying folly of Vaughn's character, and we believe in him and know he'll get the job done. We even respect why he has to do it -- he's doing a favor for Max, but he's also trying to earn money for Jessica and her daughter so they can live comfortably. The mother-daughter combo has limited screen time, but their presence in the story is vital, because they are the foundation for the film's most emotional element.

      Favreau's love for this film and his ability to have fun with it shows not only in the quality of his writing and direction, but even in small scenes obviously added for his and our comedic enjoyment (a humorous but entirely gratuitous reference to Dustin Diamond's role as Screech on TV's "Saved by the Bell" is just one example).

      Simply put, Made works, and it's completely due to how the cast and crew handled the material. They obviously enjoyed making it, and thus the audience enjoys watching it -- knowing how to sell great material is a lesson Jon Favreau could teach any day.

Andy Zientek, 2001