I love 'Man,' man
I Love You, Man
Running time: 105 minutes
MPAA rating: R (harsh profanity, adult situations, crude and sexual references)
On the Web
- "I Love You, Man" Web site
We’ve all had our share of romantic-comedies. There’s nothing wrong with the well-worn boy-meets-girl scenario.
It’s just been done and done and done some more.
Here’s some good news for comedy fans. “I Love You, Man,” starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, ushers in something new.
Are you ready for the “bromantic” comedy?
Well, you should be, especially if you like bawdy comedy, big laughs and bottom-feeder material that won’t insult your intelligence.
Rudd (“Role Models”) and Segel (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”), who appeared with Seth Rogen in “Knocked Up,” share the screen with Rashida Jones, a talented TV actress (who has appeared on “The Office”) making a strong impression on the big screen.
“I Love You, Man,” written and directed by John Hamburg (“Along Came Polly”), comes out of the chute looking like a typical romantic-comedy.
Somewhat shy L.A. realtor Peter Klaven (Rudd) asks Zooey (Jones), the girl of his dreams, to marry him. She says yes and babbles the news, as well as intimate details about their relationship, to her gaggle of best gal friends.
It isn’t long before Peter realizes that he’s going to be a few groomsmen shy at the wedding. In fact, he’s so short of male friends that he can’t even come up with a best man.
Enter Sydney Fife (Segel), an outgoing cool guy who lives down at the beach and seems to know everyone. Peter and Sydney become fast friends, even though they’re as different as any “Odd Couple” Hollywood has ever touted on a movie or TV screen.
Zooey, very happy to see her fiancé expand his realm of friends at first, begins to resent the newcomer who has quite an influence on her husband-to-be, maybe.
Even though it’s full of often extremely crude sexual references, “I Love You, Man” earns audience acceptance through clever lines, new situations and excellent acting all around.
Rudd, Segel and Jones are out front, of course, but this is at times an inspired ensemble piece spilling over with excellent support. Jaime Pressly (“My Name Is Earl”) and Jon Favreau (“Swingers,” director of “Iron Man”) are show-stoppers as a bickering married couple. Also, Andy Samberg (“Saturday Night Live”) impresses as Peter’s gay brother, and J.K. Simmons (“Juno’s” dad) has some excellent brief scenes as his father.
I laughed out loud more than once at this raunchy comedy-with-a-twist.
I say bring on more bromantic-comedies if they’re going to be as good as this.
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