Eating Out (2004)

16% of critics liked it
(25 reviews)
59% of users liked it
(6,714 ratings)

Gay man falls for straight man who is pretending to be gay man to win the heart of straight girl in this raunchy and offbeat romantic comedy. Attractive but bitchy college student Gwen (Emily Stiles) shares an apartment with her friend Marc (Ryan Carnes), a gay man with a hyperactive social life.… More Gay man falls for straight man who is pretending to be gay man to win the heart of straight girl in this raunchy and offbeat romantic comedy. Attractive but bitchy college student Gwen (Emily Stiles) shares an apartment with her friend Marc (Ryan Carnes), a gay man with a hyperactive social life. Keeping track of Marc's lovers has given Gwen a taste for gay men, or at the very least men who look and act gay. Kyle (Jim Verraros), who is also gay, learns about Gwen's unique preference at a party also attended by his straight and newly single pal Caleb (Scott Lunsford), who wants to hook up with her. Kyle gets the bright idea that Caleb should pretend to be gay in order to attract Gwen's attention, but this plan seriously backfires when Marc develops a major crush on Caleb -- and Gwen decides they make a perfect couple. Eating Out marked the screen acting debut of Jim Verraros, who was a finalist on the 2002 season of American Idol. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 30 min.
Directed By: Q. Allan Brocka
Genres: Gay & Lesbian, Comedy

In Theaters: Feb 14, 2004 Wide
On DVD: Jul 26, 2005
Studio: Ariztical Entertainment

Critic Reviews

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
A sweet and funny take on the crossed-wire romantic couplings of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Rarely more than sophomoric.
John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press
It's cute enough but fails to deliver.
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
A less-than-satisfying cinematic meal.
Charles Ealy, Dallas Morning News
Eating Out is a sometimes-enjoyable trifle. But make no mistake. It's a trifle.
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
May be predictable and silly, but it's never dull.
Don Willmott, Filmcritic.com
You almost want a sequel just to see how hot and heavy it gets when all the characters are finally matched up with their appropriate partners.
Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
It's too formulaic, much too obvious and features some of the most unpleasant characters in recent film history.
Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune
Like a Will & Grace episode gone horribly wrong.
Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
It's just too bad it's not still stuck in a plain brown wrapper.
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
The way these characters are written tells us nothing about them and everything about the guy who wrote and directed this movie, whose name is Q. Allen Brocka and who may be the only person who will actually find it amusing.
Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
... a feature-length sitcom with gay double entendres.
Andrew Wright, The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
While the filmmaker's ambition to give queer cinema a dopey sex comedy of its own is laudable, the results, unfortunately, fail on a base level. It just isn't very funny.

Read all 13 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

Thomas J

For a gay interest film.... it is really good, for being a great work of art - no. Some extreme situations but nicely done. Sexy Ryan Carnes gives a really good performance.
Daniel P

Spoilers are plentiful, not that it matters. Caleb, unhappy with his sex life, is convinced by his gay flatmate Kyle that the best way for him to find a woman is to pretend to be gay. Apparently, since coming out, Kyle has been hounded by hundreds of eligible woman all… More
Spoilers are plentiful, not that it matters. Caleb, unhappy with his sex life, is convinced by his gay flatmate Kyle that the best way for him to find a woman is to pretend to be gay. Apparently, since coming out, Kyle has been hounded by hundreds of eligible woman all desperate to 'turn' him and get inside his pants, and so thinks this is the obvious solution for Caleb. Please, credit me with some fucking intelligence. Not only do I find the notion of being able to 'turn' someone, gay or straight, completely vacuous, but it's also offensive that the film shows such little respect for women. It's this kind of simplistic, clichéd thinking that gives GLBT cinema a bad name. [Swiftly steps off the soapbox]. Anyway, so Caleb meets the woman of his dreams, Gwen, but, surprise, surprise, she believes him gay and so sets him up with her GBF (gay best friend) Marc. Caleb agrees to go out with him in order to try and get closer to Gwen. In one of the most successful scenes (everything before and after hinges on it), Gwen has phone sex with Caleb whilst Marc goes down on him. This moment in the film is surprisingly well performed, is reasonably witty and successfully edited, but it is also (forgive the pun) very hard to swallow. Sorry, couldn't help myself there. This moment apart, there's very little to distinguish the film from any of the other 'straight guy pretending to be gay' films of which there are now so many they're practically a sub-genre. In addition, Eating Out is amateurishly filmed, badly acted in the majority and completely predictable. The ending where the four leads confess their true feelings for one another is not only ridiculous, it is, in the case of Marc and Kyle, completely out of character. Are we really expected to believe that Marc has been harbouring feelings for 'plain' Kyle (who is of course very good looking, just less of a muscle freak show than Caleb and Marc) all along? Hampered by poor dialogue, the only other saving grace is the one-liners from Caleb's little sister, but these are unfortunately delivered by an actress who clearly has infinitesimal talent.
Sylvester K

I love the clever script!!!! But acting wise it wasn't as good, but still wickedly funny
Lauren D

I watched this as 1) It was in a list of 50 best 'gay' movies and 2) I love gay movies. The acting was extremely bad, and the females in it were extremely ugly and annoying and were pointless really. The main dude, I forget his name, was the only one who fit the part and… More
I watched this as 1) It was in a list of 50 best 'gay' movies and 2) I love gay movies. The acting was extremely bad, and the females in it were extremely ugly and annoying and were pointless really. The main dude, I forget his name, was the only one who fit the part and wasn't that bad of an actor. I'm not sure if it was meant to be, but his scenes with the gay dude were really awkward, so if they were supposed to be, well, good job and if not.. not so much.
Ina S

Normally this would be 3 stars probably, but I just add one for the sheer fun of it. Very very silly. Very very funny. Very very sexy. Why do gay guys get the fun films and we get the depressed, murderous dykes? ;-) Well, this is faulty, low budget (which shows) but so deliciously… More
Normally this would be 3 stars probably, but I just add one for the sheer fun of it. Very very silly. Very very funny. Very very sexy. Why do gay guys get the fun films and we get the depressed, murderous dykes? ;-) Well, this is faulty, low budget (which shows) but so deliciously entertaining.