4/5 You won't be young and handsome forever...
  by N. Peake (BigApple)
I don't know why...not a big Ashton Kutcher fan..in fact I think he is a fluke. Though I have to admit...I've never seem him give a bad performance...and DUDE WHERE'S MY CAR is still one of my favorite films to laugh till I cry over.
SPREAD is another re-telling of the broken dreams of those who move to LA or HOLLYWOOD to make it big and simply end up broke and on the streets...doing what ever they can to survive, another film that stands out with this theme is "WHERE THE DAY TAKES YOU"
Ashton Kutcher plays a penniless Lothario who seduces wealthy women to become a "kept" man. The character he plays is vacuous, egomaniac, and narcissistic,and Ashton knocks it out of the park. SPREAD at its very best is unpredictable. Though the themes and some of the characters may seem familiar the direction they take, and the development of them is refreshingly original. Ann Heitch, another Hollywood insider I don't care for is simply amazing in the role of an exceedingly rich bachelorette who keeps the company of Kutcher's character with no allusions as to the relationship.
SPREAD is a character study of youth, ambition, and empathy, growing old and success or the lack there of....and how these things can grow with you, or you can loose them. Well acted by all of the cast members SPREAD was a pleasant surprise..and I'm glad I took the time to check it out...it's not suited for all audiences as it does have a lot of adult subject matter in it, but none of it gratuitous and all works exceptionally well in this well made well told story of Dreams, and awakenings.

4/5 No Cinderella story, this
  by David C. Read (Glendale, CA USA)
This movie is a sort of Americanized version of last year's French film "Priceless", an Audrey Tautou vehicle. Both films are about young hustlers, a gigolo and a trophy mistress, who fall for each other in the course of helping each other ply their trades.

You'd expect the French version to be more grim, realistic, and explicit than the American film, which you'd expect to be given a hollywood happy ending. You'd be exactly wrong. In reality, it's the French version that's less realistic and more hollywoodized, and the American version that's grim, overly explicit and depressing. But they're both interesting and fun in their own ways. Ashton Kutcher, who obviously has a thing for successful older women, was born to play this role, and he plays it to perfection. Well worth a look.

3/5 Mixed Feelings
  by J. McQueen (Hartford, CT)
This was a good film which could have been a great one if it had just been intellectually deeper. As the narrator and main character, Nikki (Ashton Kutcher) points out, there are thousands of people who arrive in Hollywood every day looking for the elusive "rock star-treatment lifestyle." Nikki choses to pursue his dream by using rich (albeit still attractive) women who will support him in exchange for a willing sexual partner (and perhaps the chance to feel young again).

While the film does a good job of showing how someone like Nikki could snare women who have their own dreams of caring for (and dominating) a young player, nothing explains the restlessness and the irrational decisions that Nikki makes once he has clearly snared the blue-blood attorney played beautifully by Anne Heche. Does he feel trapped in the relationship? Does he resent his benefactor? Is he simply easily bored? Does he miss the "comfort of being sad" as Kurt Cobain so elegantly once put it? The viewer is left to wonder ...with absolutely no clues because of holes in the script.

Thus, the film becomes both a cautionary tale with no discernible message and, for that reason, somewhat unsatisfying film despite being very interesting to watch.

4/5 Shallow, meaningless, but what a Blu
  by Steve Kuehl (Ben Lomond, CA)
Some have written about how meaningful and articulate this film is, but once the credits roll it honestly feels like you just watched a soft core take on a few LA hedonists and nothing else.

Ashton and Heche signed on because of the "story" (making of docu) but considering every scene they have together involves the fun stuff, it makes you wonder. Anyway, we watch all of these shallow people muddle through their cons and bed campaigns as Ashton's character narrates his success strategy at this lifestyle, but in the end I really did not care about any of them. Apparently, (the cover art states) our main character is hoping to find something real, but that never happens as we hop from one party, bed conquest and sleepover to the next. But - they found a way to put 7.1 sound on this film - why of all films does this get the sound some strive to hear all year but only get once or twice?

The sound was outstanding. The opening sequence has a helicopter buzz hitting all seven channels, followed by a one-take night club scene (that was very well done: stairs, railing pans, reusing extras, etc.) where the music and voices travel all around you in eloquent fashion. The Blu clarity is outstanding as is the color; plenty of skin tones and dark contrasts against candlelight and such. The LA basin gets shown in all its glory several times in a decent skyline haze. The supplements are:

* 16:10 minute Living the Dream (making of). Plenty of production material, hows and whys.
* 5:44 minute Behind the Scenes with Ashton. Actually the only Ashton part of this was everyone else talking about how great it is to work with him...yech.
* 3:53 minute World According to Nikki. As if they could find a way to get any shallower, Ashton gives the viewer a detailed training academy on how to score a gal in LA...whatever.
* Commentary with cast and crew. This is actually an intermittent picture-in-picture. It is a smaller box than normal but the information is interesting and it covered a nice background on how they did the one-take shot. It comes up every few minutes and still allows you to hear what is going on in the film.

You read about people claiming this has an amazing ending, a brilliant motif, outstanding neo-realism, blah, blah, blah. Just did not grab me as anything other than a well-filmed depiction of the hedonistic side of LA.

If you are a fan of these pretty actresses doing their first hard R roles, than this would be your film (I remember Maragrita the most from Noise). Watching Ashton walk around in the buff didn't work for me - but I know there is a target audience out there for this one. 2 for the film, 1.5 for the Blu specs and .5 for the supplements. Enjoy.

5/5 Racy, sexy, and bittersweet. An unexpected and edgy film worth every penny
  by Edain Morgan (California, United States)
4.5 out of 5 stars

Sexy, bittersweet and unforgiving, Spread is a racy bedroom tussle through a Hollywood dream. Despite the somewhat mis-leading preview, this edgy indie flick is anything but your standard chick-oriented romantic comedy. With a lot of heart - and a lot of bedroom antics - this is probably one of the best films I've seen in a long, long time.

Nikki (spectacularly portrayed by Ashton Kutcher) is a homeless, jobless, playboy with big dreams, who uses his dubious charms and perfected sex skills to live off of rich beautiful women; sleeping his way into the Hollywood social elite. His most current target is Samantha (great performance from Anne Heche), a rich lawyer who spends most of her day away from her very lavish home. And Heather (beautifully done by Margarita Levieva) is the pretty young waitress that has Nikki all figured out.

At first, Nikki is a figure we all love to hate and hate ourselves in loving. But as the pressure of his own actions builds, and his world begins to unravel, we cannot help but ache for him as a human being. While there are funny and romantic moments within this film, it truly is about the price of being willing to do anything "for the dream of an easy life."

One of the best aspects of this film for me is that it doesn't play it safe. It's going to push buttons and make some people uncomfortable (heck, even I squirmed a bit). I think that's awesome! Not enough movies - and books for that matter - really resist the boundaries of their genres, their ratings, and the fact that this story does is refreshing.

Some have complained that this movie "makes women look bad." Or that this is a pointless story of people having sex. If you only watch the surface, and refuse to look deeper, maybe that's true. A more thoughtful look may reveal that each character is nuanced with good and bad qualities. And I think some are forgetting that this is a movie about morally flexible people - not just a bad guy with lots of stupid women who fall for him. Not one character, whether seen or unseen, is the epitome of good or bad. They are all perfectly flawed.

NOTE TO PARENTS: Don't take your 7 year olds to go see this! I couldn't believe it when I saw people taking their very young children to this film - it's a hard R (not for violence or swearing - but for sexual content). There is a lot of sex in this film, very graphic sex, so if that bothers you or if you're not going to be able to see past that, take a pass on this one.