On Point Review: I Love You, Man

I liked the style I used for the Watchmen review I did, so I am going to reprise them with my second ON POINT REVIEW, this time of bromantic comedy, I Love You, Man!


I Love You, Man director John Hamburg

PROS
-I laughed a lot. I judge comedies on two levels, 1 is the basic critical outlook, you know "Is it an original story? Good performances?" etc. etc. and 2 is how much I laughed, because generally I don't laugh out loud even during some really hilarious movies (I only laughed twice during Wedding Crashers). This movie had me chuckling several times, often for the entire run time of a scene. So that's great.
-Paul Rudd and Jason Segel have great chemistry together, while this is no surprise, making them the leads is awesome, as their brief scenes together in both Forgetting Sarah Marshall and their very short exchange in Knocked Up were both hilarious.
-The women are funny too! Rashida Jones, Jamie Pressly and Sarah Burns are really good at weighing this comedy down from being a total testosterone trip. While it's not as relevant as it is in Knocked Up, the girly comedy is a nice touch. No homo.
-There are several supporting performances that make this great, Andy Samberg, John Favreau (he directed Iron Man????), Human Giant's Aziz Ansari and Rob Heubal, J.K. Simmons, Thomas Lennon and the indian guy from Broken Lizard all pop up for a few laughs. Oh and Lou Ferrigno is hilarious too.
-The soundtrack! While it's not over the top, there are always funky tunes playing in the background from the likes of Vampire Weekend and Cake. And not to mention Rush is a big part of the movie, similar to KISS's involvement in Role Models.
-It tones down the raunchiness which is almost necessary at this point. We've all seen the dicks (literally in Walk Hard and Sarah Marshall), and the stoner/gay jokes got pushed a bit too far in the Apatow flicks. Not to say they are bad, it's just good to step away from that. And it's not like it's entirely clean, it's jut not going to get that raunchy label all the other ones get.

CONS
-The plot is entirely cliché. You can almost pinpoint exactly when each tone change is going to happen. While that's not entirely bad since it's a comedy, it kind of takes away from the impact of the events.
-You kind of forget Rashida Jones amidst all of the Jason Segel/Paul Rudd fun times. She is really good and she deserved more screen time as did her friends.
-Some of the run on jokes run on a bit too long. Paul Rudd's awkward silences keep coming back again and again and by the last time they're not all that funny.
-I feel like it tries a bit too hard at some points to be a blueprint Apatow comedy.


Okay that's it. My second TNA rant is on the way, about halfway done.