I Love You, Man starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel

Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) is under the impression that his life is perfect. After all, he enjoys his job as a real estate agent and his girlfriend Zooey (Rahida Jones) said yes to his proposal. But as her friends and his family find about their marriage plans, it becomes painfully obvious that Peter doesn’t have any male friends who can be his best man. Zooey’s friend Denise (Jaime Pressly) tries to get him into the group of her grumpy husband Barry (Jon Favreau)’s poker buddies while his gay brother Robbie (Andy Samberg) and his mother (Jane Curtin) fix him up with man-dates. However all these efforts end in disaster as the men either turn up to be weird, annoying or simply gay.

But soon after Peter meets Sydney Fife (Jason Segel) and it seems like it is a male friendship made in heaven. Sydney is fun, upfront, straight, has a good job, a garage full of guitars, loves the band Rush and he really does enjoy hanging out with Peter. While this newly found friendship makes Zooey at first, it slowly puts a strain on the relationship. After all Sydney is too blunt (his wedding toast suggest Zooey should give Peter “bj”s.), he loves being the ultimate bachelor and questions why Peter is getting married at all and he wants to hang out with him very often. Moreover he seems to have odd ideas on how to make Peter sell more houses- which end up pissing off his boss…

How will Peter manage to balance his problems at work, not losing Zooey and not screwing up his friendship?

A male friend recommended this to me as a very entertaining guy flick and he was right. It is really fun and original. Do not be turned off by the term guy flick because it is a very unisex movie. You may not enjoy watching this with kids or parents, but it is perfect to see alone, with friends or with your date. And you can’t say that for a lot of movies.

I love the whole cast. I always found J. K Simmons (he plays Peter’s father) hilarious, I really crack up every time I see Jane Curtin (a habit from watching the hilarious sitcom 3^rd Rock from the Sun). Jon Favreau (Vince Vaughn’s writing/acting buddy- director of Iron Man films) seems to love characters that are not easy to get along with and talk way too much as he keeps playing them. But it is OK because is made for these roles.  You probably know Andy Samberg from Saturday Night Live. You can watch this hilarious SNL stint where Andy keeps punching everyone. Rashida Jones starred in the mini romcom series NY-LON with True Blood’s Bill (Stephen Moyer) that takes place in both London and New York, hence the name.

Don’t expect a laugh-out-loud comedy. As much as I watched the film with a huge grin on my face, I didn’t really get stomach cramps. For more laughter, I will suggest  watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It also stars Jason Segel and features Paul Rudd in a small but fun role.

That being said, I have no objection to this film’s high rating 7.3 rating. Written by John Hamburg and Larry Levin, directed by John Hamburg. Made in 2009. Click to watch “I love you, man” trailer on youtube.

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