*Posted March 28, 2009*
The latest from the Apatow gang (though I'm told that Apatow had bupkis to do with this one) follows the same formula from Superbad, 40 Year Old Version, Knocked Up, and other modern day R comedies like Wedding Crashers. It doesn't really matter that Paul Rudd is engaged to Karen from The Office, because the Bromance relationship is the big draw. The great thing about I Love You Man is that the film manages to handle both ranges of comedy, awkward/painful and vulgar/toilet humor. Paul Rudd brings the first kind of funny as a loser with no male friends who suddenly has to go on a bunch of man-dates (not as lame as it sounds) to find a buddy. Jason Segel supplies the disgusting, mostly sex-related jokes as the honest slacker best buddy. There actually is a plot to the movie, but you don't really care about it because it's mostly just fun seeing the characters talk to each other, and that's something you can't really say about other movies. Jon Favreau and Jaime Pressly play a bickering married couple, and Favreau is especially hilarious as a dickhead. J.K. Simmons, Jane Curtin, and the terribly overrated Andy Samberg play Rudd's family, but they only get a few lines each. The main treat is seeing Rudd and Segel's friendship blossom from drunken banter (Segel does an amazing Andre the Giant impression) to jamming together as a Rush cover band. Whereas the Will Ferrell/J.C. Reilly characters play essentially the same guy making a lot of the same jokes, most of the humor from this film comes from Paul Rudd trying to fit in as a regular guy. Other bonus treats are Lou Ferrigno, Jason Segel's dog, and Paul Rudd's limited range of accents. This movie was way better than stinky Watchmen, so go see it.
B+
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