Friday, March 27, 2009

3/24/09: I Love You, Man (2009)

GRAB BAG
Billed as a "bromantic comedy," I Love You, Man gives us Paul Rudd as a guy who's always been more comfortable with close female friends than with the male variety. (Yes, he is playing a more handsome version of me.) When he gets engaged to lovely Rashida Jones, he is compelled to find a male best friend who can serve as best man. This inevitably leads him to Jason Segel (a ringer for Brendan Fraser), and all of the nervousness and awkwardness that comes from their "courtship." Roughly 80 percent of the laughs derive from the quasi-homophobic nature of this relationship; the other 20 percent is pure toilet humor. It's regrettable that writer/director John Hamburg felt the need to continually film Segel's dog defecating on the street, then showing people stepping in the crap—and how exasperating that the otherwise likable Segel turns out to be the kind of guy who refuses to clean up after his dog in the first place. I Love You, Man is enjoyable and genuinely funny enough not to need the gross-out humor...I wish I could take a print of the film into the editing room for half an hour. Andy Samberg from Saturday Night Live has a small role as Rudd's brother, and Sarah Burns plays a funny single lady who would normally be played by SNL's Kristen Wiig—she must have been unavailable. Fortunately, super-hot Jaime Pressly was not busy. She is the ultimate eye candy. Rating: 3/5.

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