I Love You, Man

Starring: Paul Rudd, Rashida Jones, Jason Segel, Sarah Burns, Jaime Pressly, Jon Favreau, Jane Curtin, J.K. Simmons, Andy Samberg

Directed by: John Hamburg

Dreamworks Pictures

The Official Site of I Love You, Man

Discuss I Love You, Man on the boards!

Terms like “Bromance� and “Man Date� are not things we need. They’re the kind of pop culture buzz words like “Preggers� or “Seacrest� that will make historians from the future think we were either mentality handicapped or too lazy to pronounce two words at once. I Love You Man, the new film starring Paul Rudd as a man who has always had trouble finding guy friends and is now searching for a potential Best Man for his wedding party, doesn’t actively promote these low points of pop slang but it has certainly inspired the Internet and E! Channel to put them into heavy rotation.

Even in its perpetuation of grammatical nonsense, ILYM has a few nice things going for it. Primarily that its cast is irresistible. Rudd, as Peter the adorably awkward groom-to-be, is hilarious and genuine in his search for a bro-mate (See? I can make up cool-sounding words that mean nothing too.) After years of being the go-to comedy wingman in films like Anchorman, The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, Rudd has proven with ILYM and last fall’s hit Role Models, that he can be a loveable goof worth rooting for, even through a montage of uncomfortable man dates that includes him throwing up at a poker party and accidentally open-mouth kissing some guy his mom introduced him to. This introduced the theme of awkwardness that I wasn’t sure the movie could overcome. I’m also not sure how you ACCIDENTALLY open mouth kiss anything.

I don’t always do so well will films like this where awkwardness is embraced and played for laughs. I understand why it’s funny but have trouble getting past laughing at someone else’s expense, even if that someone else is a fictional character. On TV in something like The Office or Curb Your Enthusiasm it’s easier to laugh along with the awkwardness because you’ve accepted this as the characters plight in life. They are destine to do stupid things and to be made to look foolish and because we’ve had four to five seasons to get used to that concept, it takes a little of the sting out of the situation and allows us to laugh along. This is a far harder thing to achieve in 90 minutes on the big screen.

There’s a hope that the awkwardness would end after Peter finds his Best Man Sydney (Jason Segel). But their bizarre bond over 70s rock and an uninhibited lifestyle creates a new sense of awkwardness when it causes a rift between Peter and his future bride, Zooey (Rashida Jones). Jones isn’t given much to do but it’s fantastic to see her up on the big screen. It's only matter of time before America falls in love with her freckled nose, casts her in every girlfriend role Hollywood offers, sends the paparazzi after her, rejects her when she branches out and tries something different, acts poorly when she marries some writer or camera man that we've never heard of before, realizes that "she does things too!" in the pages of US Weekly, makes fun of her ugly babies, roots for her comeback and celebrates here all over again. … It’s just a matter of time.

While awkwardness abounds ILYM remains consistently funny, crude, and clever. Segel and Rudd are like buddy cops without the guns or enthusiasm. Watching them fall in manlove with each other should stir up all kinds of jealousy in the audience as the guys long for this kinds of snappy man-banter and the women watch their dates man-crush on a couple of mimbos. (Okay - I’m done with the man-slang.) The real chemistry on screen helps the laughs feed off the awkwardness and by the time the Incredible Hulk shows up (it’s less crazy than it sounds) you’re on board for whatever uncomfortable situation this movie is ready to throw your way.

Rating: 7 out of 10 - I Love You, Man will live in the shadows of better comedies but even with all its struggles it is still good fun. Definitely worth checking out while it’s still in theaters.

I could live without this on DVD though I am curious how well it will play in repeat viewings and what kind of extra features they’ll jam on there. Both things that can be accomplished with a rental.

I wasn’t so sure about this joke at first. Maybe I was just a little afraid that my mind went there so fast or that as soon as I came up with the phrase, “I would bang Morgan Freeman so hard that…� that I knew I had something. I knew from there that the joke would write itself. Still… kind of a creepy joke. No more or less creepy than an Alien face-stabbing (is that hyphenated?) the Grimace or Me screaming “Adorable� at a pack of kittens I suppose.

The joke did pretty much write itself after that. In fact I wish I had about 6 more panels to include more instances of how hard Morgan Freeman would get banged. I even went to the members section of the DPO boards where I previewed the comic earlier this afternoon and invited the members to coin their own version. Please feel free to add your own. I would pick a favorite but they seem to get progressively more and more disturbing as the page goes down and this page already has enough “disturbing� on its own.

Sketches for the JLCM book are going well. Trying my hardest to update the comics regularly and churn these bad boys out. You guys are crazy though. So may really cool ideas. Here are a few from the pack I did today:

So the thing about the sketches is this: I’ll draw whatever you want. I’m at a point where I’m so grateful to anyone that buys the book that I’m willing to put forward the extra effort. The only thing I ask of you is a little patience with some of the more complicated ones. For instance, If I’m sitting at my computer late at night and I decide to do one last one before heading off to bed, chances are I’m going to do the one of Picard giving the thumbs up over the one requesting the Fellowship of the Ring. If you’ve requested something complicated – hang in there. They’ll get done with 100% of my love and effort but you may get them a day or two later than expected just because of this initial rush and the time it takes to do them. That’s it for now but thanks again for the continued support!