I Love You, Man

A bromantic comedy, literally. A little bit nicer than funny, but still damn funny.

You can’t blame them for taking the ‘nicer’ route over the ‘cruder but funnier’ route, but it does narrow I Love You, Man to a smaller demographic… it’s perfect for man-dates. Not a huge secret, but if two guys go to the movies together they look enough like life partners that they don’t need to go see a date movie. They’re probably going to go see shit get blown up and pass on even asking for tickets to this movie. I know these are broad strokes of me generalizing, but still, I don’t see the general populous buying into it.

Perfectly cast… except maybe Paul Rudd

That’s not to say Paul Rudd didn’t do a fantastic job, because he did. I don’t think anybody else could fumble over catchphrases and tacked on nicknames and make it look so deliciously awkward as Rudd does throughout the first two thirds of the movie. I just think he works best when he’s truly being his own sarcastic to the point of narcissistic self, as was better seen recently in Role Models (yet not as good of a flick as I Love You, Man).

Jason Segel was wonderful as an extrapolation of his Freaks & Geeks character. He played the free & liberated humanist musician, which is the new slacker stereotype. Ironically, I think the movie would have worked better with Josh Radnor in Paul Rudd’s place, as Segel plays the almost same dynamic with him every week on How I Met Your Mother, but I suppose that’s obvious to any who has seen both.

The supporting cast was remarkable, and really helped fill out the film. Rashida Jones is a fresh new face, and not only looked beautiful, but really helped subtly sell the ‘cool and understanding’ girlfriend, which allowed the two male leads to make the movie. Jon Favreau and Jaime Pressly were wonderfully vile in each scene they were in, and J.K. Simmons and Jane Curtin were unfortunately underused but did a fantastic job regardless.

Segel and Rudd carry the film well

Segel and Rudd carry the film well

Bottom Line

It’s funny. It potentially could have been funnier, but it would have cheapened it and removed all the charm and amicability the movie ends up pulling off. It takes the high road of comedy which will hurt its box office take, but will help its longevity for home video and leaves us begging for outtakes and extras.

Another Take

30second movie review from Rook:

Hilarious! I Love You, Man made me laugh my ass off. Rudd and Segel were perfect together and the supporting cast was perfectly assembled. Jon Favreau is a scene stealer. It avoided all the usual familiar plot lines and came off as just a wonderful little story about the bro-mances that make up a man’s life. Definitely worth my money!

As you can tell, I really dug it.

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