I Love You, Man

"I Love You, Man" follows the same stereotypical romantic comedy routine where two people meet, enter a relationship, reach some form of conflict and reconcile by the third act. The catch is that this story doesn't follow a relationship between a man and a woman, but two heterosexual guys in what's been dubbed a "bromance".

Paul Rudd finally gets to play the lead role in a film and one could say he deserves it after being co-starred in so many film such as "Clueless," "Wet Hot American Summer," "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Role Models."

Peter Klaven (Rudd's character) is a really boring guy and has no friends. He also is really awkward in his attempts to say words where he just starts to make up his own sayings. They are funny at first, but become extreme overkill through out the movie. People in the theater started shaking their heads at later points in the film when Peter said something strange. In fact, Peter himself would shake his head too, feeding the audience's angst against the continued and repetitive use of a joke which loses its flavor after the 17 time it is used.



After only dating Zooey (played by Rashida Jones fro "The Office") for eight months they decide to get married. Despite being perfect marriage material, Zooey's friends, Hailey (played by Sarah Burns) and Denise (played by Jaime Pressly from "My Name is Earl"), believe that since he has no friends he may become clingy.

Thus the beginning of man-dates and the search for some friends. These are some of the truly funny parts of this movie. Now keep in mind this entire movie has some really funny parts that are great, but when the jokes fall flat they really suck. You win some you lose some and this film really deals with a large gap in the funny factor for some of the jokes. I would say the main problem is that many jokes are recycled through the movie.



Things start to look up for Peter (and the audience) when he meets Sydney Fife (Jason Segel from "How I Met Your Mother")at an open house, a fun loving guy who readily admits he's not in the market for a home and only attends open houses for the free food and to pick up divorcees. The two become friends quite quickly. They bond over their love of the rock band Rush and just being honest with each other.

This feels a lot like "Role Models" where Rudd played the more straight-laced character while Sean William Scott was the crazy guy. Now Segel plays the crazy guy and the relationship between the two characters doesn't feel as real as it did between Rudd and Scott in "Role Models." This might be because they are just becoming friends in "I Love You, Man."

With Sydney's encouragement, Pete starts to come out of his shell and grow more comfortable with himself. Zooey finds his transformation delightful, but grows more than a little concerned when her fiancee begins to spend a little too much time with his new buddy and raise questions like "just why am I getting married?" The film the follows the blueprint of a romantic comedy just switching with two men instead of a couple.



As I said earlier, the film does have some extremely funny moments (I think of vomit, blow-jobs and billboards in my top three laughs), but everything else falls a little flat. Is it a bad movie? No! Is it an okay movie? Yes! Is it a movie you will remember all the time and want to watch it over and over again? Probably not. But it is worth a watch just to see the laughs and hilarity of two men trying to make their friendship work.

6.2/10

Hey, did you know that Barry, the always angry husband of Denise, is the director of "Iron Man?" Yeah, you better believe he acts as well as directs!


Did I also mention Lou Ferrgino is in the movie? He's from "The Incredible Hulk."