In Rated X, two real-life brothers play another set of real-life brothers.

Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen play, respectively, brothers Jim and Artie Mitchell.  Two pot-smoking entrepreneurs who found fame and fortune during the so-called Golden Age of Pornography (Behind the Green Door was their most famous film), Jim and Artie owned the O’Farrell Theater in San Francisco and became famous for their numerous legal troubles and their advocacy for freedom of speech.  While Jim became a semi-respectable figure who hobnobbed with the city’s elite, Artie became known for his consumption of cocaine.  In 1991, Jim drove over to Artie’s house and shot him twice.  Jim, who claimed Artie had threatened to kill him, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison.  Jim was released after serving three years.  (He died in 2007, long after this film aired on Showtime.)

Rated X tells the story of the Mitchell Brothers in a flat and perfunctory manner.  Emilio Estevez not only plays Jim but he also directs.  He doesn’t bring much visual style or storytelling style to the film, despite a few scenes that appear to have been cribbed from Boogie Nights.  Estevez doesn’t seem to be sure what he wants to say about the Mitchell Brothers and they come across as being the most boring pornographers in history.  What’s really strange is that Estevez and Sheen are not believable as brothers, despite both wearing matching bald caps.  There’s nothing about their performances that would lead you to believe that they grew up with each other.  Casting Sheen as an out-of-control drug addict seems like a no-brainer but he’s not even believable when he’s snorting coke and handing out cheerleader uniforms.  In fact, the film probably would have worked better if Sheen and Estevez had switched roles.  Estevez was always better at showing emotion than Charlie.  In Rated X, Jim is always intense while Artie always has the wide-eyed stare that Oliver Stone made such good use of in Platoon.

I can understand the casting, though.  Jim and Artie were brothers so it makes sense to cast brothers to play them.  Because Charlie has always been best-known for his flamboyant life off-screen, it probably seemed to the obvious decision to cast him as the wild brother while Estevez, who has always come across as being a stable guy offscreen, seemed right for Jim.  But onscreen, Estevez is always better as an unpredictable outlaw and Charlie is always better as someone who tries to keep his real emotions bottled up.  This film was cast based on Estevez and Sheen’s off-camera personas and they’re both miscast as a result.

There’s an interesting movie to be made about the Mitchells.  Their rise and fall mirrored the rise and fall of the 6os counterculture.  (A year before he killed his brother, Jim even tried to launch a Ramparts-style magazine for the 90s.)  Unfortunately, the Showtime-produced Rated X is not it.