Rabs’ Review: “I Love You, Man”

I went to see I Love You, Man yesterday with my buddy Pat and I had some reasonably high expectations for the film. I mean, the two stars are Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, who over the past three years, have climbed to the top of Hollywood’s comic elite with such side-splitting blockbusters as Knocked Up & Forgetting Sarah Marshall. They (along with Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill & Judd Apatow) have sparked a comedic revolution with their raunchy, outrageous, real and smart R-rated comedies, which have set the bar pretty high for themselves. See them being featured as Comedy’s New Legends in last month’s Vanity Fair. So needless to say, I had very high hopes for I Love You, Man. As I sat down with my medium popcorn and White Cherry Icee (you get all the cherry flavor and no red mouth), after 105 minutes of my cheeks and sides in constant, agonizing pain from laughing, I can tell you that my expectations were met, and then some.

I Love You, Man is about Peter Klaven (Rudd), a real-estate agent in Los Angeles who gets engaged to his girlfriend Zooey (Rashida Jones from The Office). Zooey is so ecstatic about her good news that she calls all her friends to revel in her new happiness. She then hands the phone to Peter and tells him to call his friends…Peter stares at her blankly and realizes that he has no real guy friends to call. The film then takes us on the hilarious ride of Peter trying to find a new best guy friend who can potentially, hopefully, be the best man at his wedding. So he enlists the help of his gay-fitness-trainer younger brother Robbie (Andy Samberg), to set him up on a series of “man dates” to find a buddy to chill with.

These dates obviously go terribly and hilariously bad and Peter is distraught on the difficulty of finding some legit bro-bonding as a mid-30s-year-old. He then finally meets Sydney Fife (Segel), who is using Peter’s open house showing of Lou Ferrigno/The Incredible Hulk’s Hollywood mansion to pick up “desperate Orange County cougars.” After Sydney explains a “play-by-play” of how one of Peter’s potential buyers needs to fart and is “trying to keep it in because he can’t fart in front of the girl he’s trying to bang,” Peter is blown away by Sydney’s bluntness and observational skills of human nature, so they start hanging out as bros.

This is a classic case of the odd couple, but in a format that hasn’t really been explored before. Peter is extremely uptight, reserved and feminine; while Sydney is blunt, abrasive and machoesque. Now, the contrasting of these qualities between two main characters has been executed, but not in the ways of the “bromance.” I Love You, Man reveals the dirty, raunchy, sloppy and hilarious world of true male bonding. Peter didn’t have this type of bonding in his life, so Sydney teaches him to open up about masturbation (by showing him his “jerk-off station”), sex, relationships and a man’s need to hit up a jam sesh…”slappin’ the bass” occasionally. He provides a bro-sanctuary for Peter to open up about his relationship with Zooey, including Peter’s divulging of his non-existent oral sex reception, that he gives her six times a week (which makes for an extremely awkward and hysterical dinner toast at the engagement party).

The real thing that makes this movie work and what makes it so funny, is Rudd and Segel. Paul Rudd has been a dependable supporting/character actor for almost two decades and its only over the past four years that he’s really been able to flex his comedic muscles. In I Love You, Man he plays the character with lovable, yet pathetic charisma, while throwing in some off-the-wall goofiness, that is hysterical. Then you have Segel who demands the screen everytime he is on with his droll, rationale, womanizing cockiness, which is somewhat of a break from the sweetheart persona he gave us in Freaks and Geeks and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but funny as hell all the same. These two play off of eachother very well and you can tell they probably had a lot of fun doing it.

My only nit-pick with the film is that Rashida Jones is very pretty, nice and sweet, but displays a slightly noticeable lack of chemistry with Paul Rudd, which is not bad, it’s just noticeable. But the movie is so F’n funny that it’s a moot point. There are also some killer cameos that make this a truly epic comedy ensemble including: Jamie Presley, J.K. Simmons, Rob Huebel and Thomas Simmons (Reno 911). Jon Favreau even takes some time off from directing the Iron Man franchise to play a complete asshole, who also happens to be involved in one of the funniest vomiting scenes I’ve ever witnessed.

I won’t give away the ending, but it’s a romantic comedy. If you haven’t figured out by now that all rom-coms end up okay in the end…well you’re an idiot and you shouldn’t be reading this and you shouldn’t be watching movies. Anyway, I Love You, Man is absolutely hilarious and I plan on seeing again at least once more in the theater.

What Should You Do? See it twice!

3.5 out of 4 STARZ