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Review: ‘I Love You, Man’ – We Are Movie Geeks

Comedy

Review: ‘I Love You, Man’

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Jerry:

I was lucky enough to get passes to an advance showing of I Love You, Man a few weeks ago. I did not go as a critic but as a fan who signed up and won free passes to a screening. There was a critic’s section in the theater but I didn’t sit there. While the critic only screening rooms have much better chairs and less sticky floors than most movie theaters, I like attending mixed screenings because the crowd usually has better reactions to the film. With I Love You, Man, I should have held out for a screening with the comfy chairs. The entire audience, critics and moviegoers alike, were laughing hysterically at all the right places.

Most of you probably already know the film’s plot. Peter (Rudd) asks his girlfriend (Rashida Jones) to marry him and she says yes. It comes to Peter’s attention that he doesn’t have any guy friends to be his best man so he goes on a series of man-dates to find the right guy. Then he meets Sidney (Jason Segel) with whom he instantly bonds. However, the more they hang out, the more strain is put on Peter’s relationship with his fiancà ©.

This is yet another film that proves my theory about Paul Rudd. That theory is that Paul Rudd is awesome. I never said it was a complicated theory. As those of you who read the blog about or watched my interview with Rudd back in November know, I am a huge fan of the guy. He is consistently hilarious in the many great comedy projects he has been a part of (his work with Apatow, Wain, Reno 911, etc) and he also gives fantastic dramatic performances in independent films such as 2 Days and Diggers

(Completely off topic, I recently found out about a Chinese film he did in 2000 called Gen-Y Cops where he plays an American Scientist trying to stop a robot from destroying Hong Kong. I am picking up a copy and will review it on here  when I get a chance.  Ã‚  There are some clips on Youtube which makes it look amazingly bad so I am looking forward to checking it out.)

The second half of the bromance of I Love You, Man is Jason Segel. I never watched Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared or How I Met Your Mother so he was a comedy force that came out of nowhere for me when seeing Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Yes, I did see him in Knocked Up but he still surprised me in FSM. I have since watched a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother, which he is also hilarious on. In I Love You, Man, he delivers another very funny performance as the very opinionated and somewhat free-spirited Sydney Fife.

As with most of the great comedies in recent years, the story is simple to allow a lot of room for funny, often improvised, conversations and the occasional sight gag. The film is also filled with a bunch of great bit players like Andy Samburg, Jon Favreau, and J.K. Simmons. One of the best supporting characters in the film had a very funny scene spoiled by all of the TV spots and that is Lou Ferrigno.   Ferrigno played himself, much like he did on King of Queens, and yes there were Hulk jokes. A lot of the film’s humor also comes from how Peter and Sydney’s friendship is treated as if it were a typical relationship in a romantic comedy.

Overall, this is another great R-rated comedy and I look forward to its Blu-Ray release, which will most likely be unrated and filled with hilarious bonus features.

‘I Love You, Man’ [R] opens today in theaters everywhere.

[Rating: 4 out of 5 root beer floats with Pepperidge Farm pirouettes]

Jerry Cavallaro – www.AreYouStuckLikeChuck.com

Melissa:

I love Paul Rudd, but I didn’t totally love it, man.

I have been a Paul Rudd fan since he awkwardly danced his way into our lives as Cher’s ex-step brother in Clueless. And while I will always find him entertaining, I still was left with an Eh… feeling about the movie.

Paul Rudd plays the role of Peter Klaven, a docile real estate agent who enjoys HBO, Chocolat,   and relationships. After eight months with Zooey (Rashida Jones), he has proposed marriage and is preparing for his wedding. The only problem is, he doesn’t have a best man, or groomsmen for that matter, because he has no guy friends. He has always surrounded himself with relationships and women. Heck, his best friend is his mother. Now he has to put himself out there to find some male companionship for the first time, and boy is it awkward!

He ends up meeting Sidney (Jason Segel), a womanizer who hates relationships, loves Rush, and refuses to clean up after his puggle. They hit it off and their special friendship begins. The only problem is that Sidney has no filter, so he says and does WHATEVER he is feeling at the moment.

Jason Segel plays a funny Sidney. Like Rudd, I have been a fan of Segel for some time. Actually since the Freaks and Geeks series. So, if the acting was great and the jokes were entertaining, why do I say that I didn’t love it…

Comedies seem to be in the same rut lately. They are using exactly the same form of humor and mass producing the same movies with the same core group of actors, and just changing the base storyline. I want a change. I want to see something shocking, emotional, or just a bit different from these guys. Rudd was more of an awkward character in this film, but the jokes are still the same. I enjoy my Rudd on both a humorous and physical level. I just wish that this movie had a little more to offer. Sure it’s amusing, but it didn’t blow my mind.

[Rating: 3 out of 5 root beer floats with Pepperidge Farm pirouettes since Jerry decided to drink two of them… yes… I blame you!]