I Love You, Man

I Love You, Man - John Hamburg (2009)

Of  the many comedies we encounter these years, many are just stupid and  some like Judd Apatow's are refreshing. Other movies like Forgetting  Sarah Marshall or (500) Days of Summer have more qualities  than just giving you a fat laugh. I would put John Hamburg's movie, I  Love You, Man in this category; near Apatow and the last two movies  cited.

Especially when the main character makes me think of me, I  like the movie even more. Like Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of  Summer, Paul Rudd's Peter is a character I easily identify myself  with. Well, it's been more than 8 years I'm with my girlfriend - btw,  since last september fiancée - and I have some friends but none very  close... My major problem is like Peter in the film: I don't take the  time to call the "guys" to hang around and maintain my friendships. WHy  I'm telling you that, because it resumes the starting point of the film.  Peter will get married but he doesn't have a best man/best friend. We  follow is quest to find the perfect guy friend. The chase could remind  some catchy romantic comedies where the girl desperately tries to find  the right guy for her life. It gives place to funny moments that never  fell into easy gay gags or bad taste humor.

The friendship he  develops is very cool and I can say I hardly been close to a friend like  Peter and Sidney got. They complete each other very well and they make a  great "friend" couple. It reminded of a friend that I lost track that  probably recognize himself here; D.B. and J.N. call me if you read these  lines... Friendship is something we don't see that often in movies  because they prefer to show love or hate relationships.


I  know I Love You, Man is not the greatest film of all-time or a  movie life changing experience but I consider it like a efficient feel  good movie with sincere laughs, light hearted and I just have to add one  last thing: Rush rocks!

Recommendations: Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie, Duel

I Love You, Man - Bullet Review

Had some very funny moments and had me laughing out load quite a lot, which is always good. Paul Rudd is so funny in this along with his co-star Jason Segel. I think both of them together on screen(ala 40 Year Old Virgin) is winning combination and cant do a lot wrong. The Office's (US)Rashida Jones who plays Rudd's fiance is also brilliant

Still has it's predictable moments but it does it without really bothering you. On a whole it's a light-hearted (not exactly a rom-com), more of a mans comedy which I fully enjoyed and would certainly watch again.

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http://robinollysays.blogspot.com

I Love You, Man

I Love You, Man
Directed by John Hamburg
Starring Paul Rudd, Rashida Jones, and Jason Segel
Rated  R
105 Minutes

Plot:  Peter Klaven (Rudd) must find a best man for his wedding. What he does find is Sydney, a down to earth, eye opening fellow who jeopardizes his engagement.

"In your face! In your fa-" goes Paul Rudd in one of the funniest scenes of the year. It literally made me laugh for several minutes straight without stopping. By no means is this reaction alone. Conversations about poops, Rush, and...other man things populate I Love You, Man's hilarious scenes. Two stellar comedy performances take the lead; Paul Rudd as the man-friendless Peter and Jason Segel as Sydney the wild man-friend. Paul Rudd played his role perfectly- submissive, sometimes ashamed, and a little bit proper.  Jason Segel unleashed his wild side by being honest, harsh, and pretty darn funny. I Love You, Man made the best of it's bromantic setup in what could be the year's best comedy.

Last updated: 2010-04-11 19:51:56 by user01

I Love You, Man - Or: Psychoanalysis of the State of California # 572

Hetero Plight in an Increasingly Gay World


This is the kind of movie that makes you cringe with pain and embarrassment throughout 98% of its running time over the inability of the supposedly most sophisticated lot of humans on the planet to communicate honestly and resist the clichés that have been drilled (by them and their local dream factories) into the minds of the whole world...

Luckily, as in all of these fairy-tales, some enlightenment does eventually take place, even though (less fortunately) only toward that final 2% of the movie, prompting the viewer to heave a sigh of relief, "Thank God, there's still hope for humanity!" - At least in the movies, that is.

As good as the relief may feel to hear two heterosexual men utter the title phrase of the film to each other toward its end, the way it took for them to get there is really only worth it if you're either a total movie junkie or a fan of the 80s rock band "Rush."
On the other hand, we only get to enlightenment and progress via the hard way of first learning where it's not at, which is one of those real life paradoxes refelcted in this type of film with the 2% enjoyment factor...

Conclusion: if you still have faith and hopes in mankind and you think we're really not doing so bad, you might enjoy this.
If however you've experienced enough to know how dreadfully realistic the portrayed immature attitudes in the movie are, it will probably leave you with an uneasy feeling of mental torture in the stomach area only to be replaced by that "feels so good when it stops" kind of experience toward the end, the kind you might achieve likewise by banging your head against the wall...

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Recommendations: The Matrix , Fratello sole, sorella luna , The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John

There IS no spoon!

Last updated: 2010-04-03 12:11:11 by McDozer

I Love You Man

Comedy, 2009 (Rated R)
Starring: Jason Segel, Paul Rudd, Rashida Jones

• A man gets engaged and becomes very aware that he has no friends and of the fact that he never really has. The search is on to fill up his wedding party roster.
• Laugh out loud funny.
• Rudd's character is so amazingly awkward and goofy that it's almost embarrassing to watch him interact with others at some points. But it is hilarious.
• He is basically, a female in a straight man's body. I like men to have a sensitive side but I think he would be a little much for me.

5 STARS

Just Me

Last updated: 2010-03-14 00:09:51 by user05

I Love You, Man

I give the movie: 4.0/5

As far as good comedies go, there's actually a new sub-genre for this category, and it's called a bro-mance flick. This movie twicks one of Hollywood's most bankable romantic formulas and I'm glad to say, it absolutely worked.

Peter (the fantastic Paul Rudd) has just proposed to his girlfriend. And during wedding preparations, his fiancee discovers that Peter doesn't have a good man-buddy to accompany him at the aisle. You see, Peter is more of a 'girlfriends' kinda guy - he is perfectly straight - but has failed to secure strong male friendships in the past. After a series of disastrous man-dates (awkward but stupendously hilarious), in comes Sydney (Jason Segel is a hoot), the complete character-opposite of Peter, who shows potential of becoming Peter's best-bud for his wedding task.

I Love You, Man works well with this weird but amusing setting of the anxiety of trying to find a male-buddy even though Peter is decidedly approaching middle-aged. And witnessing the bonding of the awkward and confused Peter with the brash and loud attitude of Sydney through rock jamming sessions is so endearingly funny, these two characters' electrifying chemistry alone carry the show.

Of course, kudos to a bevy of funny supporting casts. Do check-out on Youtube one of the funniest scenes from the movie, where Peter is trying to get his fiancee to be interested in a rock song he digs. Peter mutters the already-classic line of "Slappin' da bass, man!" with absolute hilarity.


FINAL SAY:
Filled with laugh-out-loud situations and side-splitting one-liners, this is where Hollywood comedies should be heading to. Seeing that I watched it with a female friend and she totally enjoyed it, this movie is evidently for both genders.

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Wilson Ng - http://wilsoniscurious.blogspot.com/

Last updated: 2010-03-14 04:27:30 by wilsoniscurious

I Love You, Man

I Love You, Man

Starring:

Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Andy Samberg, Rashida Jones, Jaime Pressly

Genre: Comedy / Bromance

Rated: R

Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) has just recently proposed to his girlfriend Zooey (Rashida Jones). During an awkward family dinner Peter realizes he is a “girl friend guy” who has never had a best friend and quickly tries to find a best friend before his nuptials. After a few misses Peter bumps into Sydney Fife (Jason Segal) at his open house for Lou Ferrigno. They quickly spark a friendship and learn about their character flaws from each other while Peter gets ready to head to the Alter.

Along the way Peter gets friendship advice from his Gay brother Robbie (Andy Samberg) has a failed attempt to become friends with Zooey’s best friends husband Barry (John Favreau) and deals with Tevin (Rob Huebel) an overly stereotypical LA real estate agent  Colleague.

Paul Rudd puts in a solid performance as Peter, being able to balance being both awkward and uncomfortable with the excitement of having his first male best friend. You can see Peter’s Joy as he is able to hang out with Sydney and do guy stuff for the first time in his life.   Jason Segal is a standout as Sydney with his ability to read people and share brutal honesty, he helps Peter learn a lot about himself and his character; the film really picks up once Sydney enters the story. Rasheda Jones is a talent who clearly has a bright future ahead of her, she was great in “The Office” and she continues that trend.

I Love You, Man has been marketed as strictly a guys film, however the wedding aspects of the film makes it a movie that women will like as well; it is a highly enjoyable Bromantic Comedy that is above all else funny.

Outstanding Cast and Screenplay Made Me Fall in Love with 'I Love You, Man'

It’s been a while since we’ve had a movie from John Hamburg. His last creation was the hit Along Came Polly, which, thanks to Ben Stiller, pretty much launched his career as a writer/director/producer. So 5 years after the release of Polly, we have I Love You, Man, a movie about a guy who’s getting married and goes on a series of “man-dates” to find a best man for his wedding. Before I saw this, I researched a lot about it. First I noticed it was co-written/directed/produced by John Hamburg, as I mentioned earlier in the review. This shocked me a bit, since similar Forgetting Sarah Marshall was directed by Nicholas Stoller. It also starred Jason Segel, so I was expecting him to write the screenplay. But instead, Hamburg and Larry Levin (who also co-wrote Dr. Dolittle and wrote Dr. Dolittle 2) took on the challenge together. Disappointing since I loved Sarah Marshall so much.

But I’m not counting out Hamburg just yet. He did nail the feel that he and Levin intended the movie to have, that “bromantic” parody which had me cracking up at scenes that I wasn’t even supposed to be laughing at. The jokes could’ve been hit-and-miss, but Hamburg made sure that they were spaced out and spoke awesomely.

Paul Rudd plays realtor Peter, a friendless but lovable geek who needs to find a best man for his wedding with Zooey (played by a gorgeous and side-splitting Rashida Jones). At an open house for Lou Ferrigno (who’s a surprising gem), he stumbles upon Sydney (Jason Segel), a careless, go-with-the-flow kind of guy who refuses to grow up. The two hit it off and soon Sydney’s RSVP’d for Peter’s wedding.

Rudd and Segel have both had their fair share of hits, both sleeper and those that have topped the charts. Segel’s had Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, both of which Rudd starred in, and let’s also not forget his recurring role as Marshall on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Rudd has had classics thanks to Judd Apatow like The 40-Year Old Virgin and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story as well as loners like Role Models and The Ten. Together, the duo is unstoppable. Rudd’s quiet awkwardness and Segel’s loudmouth obnoxiousness blend together to make a pitch-perfect comedy of epic proportions.

I Love You, Man is a feel-good, happy movie that desperately doesn’t want to be. Whenever there’s a moment where that statement can be expressed, the “F” word is dropped and kills the mood entirely. There’s not as much cursing as in Observe and Report, and it’s not quite as vulgar as Forgetting Sarah Marshall (although there was a pretty gross sight gag) were, yet Love You, Man still holds the ‘R’ rating. It had to be, though, in the tradition of comedies such as this one. With only a ‘PG-13’ rating, John Hamburg might not have achieved his goal.

We’ll remember I Love You, Man as one of the best comedies of our time. It’s full of zingy one-liners like “I will see you there, or I will see you at another time!” “…Okay, that was confusing, will you be there or not?”. Other roles besides those of Rudd, Segel and Jones are filled brilliantly by Jamie Pressly, Jon Favreau and Andy Samberg. And there’s this one hilarious part with Thomas Lennon where…you know what? Go see it for yourself. I love this movie, man. 

4/5 popcorn buckets.

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-Nick

I Love You, Man

Paul Rudd and Jason Segel are funny people- legitimately funny people. So why wasn’t “I Love You, Man” funnier? I think it’s because they knew they were being funny and it showed. In every single scene you could tell that the actors were having fun. And they should have had fun. It was a fun script. But sometimes the audience doesn’t want to see the actors having a good time – the audience wants to have a good time. Even with that one big shortcoming, I still sort of liked “I Love You, Man.” It’s a fairly simple story with some fairly big laughs dotted throughout. Paul Rudd is Peter Klaven – a seemingly perfect fiance that, during the course of the wedding planning, he and his future bride-to-be, Zooey (Rashida Jones), realize he has no friends. Thus begins his search for a best friend. We see him attend numerous man-dates, some of which are set up by his mother (Jane Curtin) and the rest by his gay brother (played by Andy Samberg in a role that seemed completely unnecessary and was used primarily as an excuse for homophobic jokes). You can only imagine what happens on each of these dates. Eventually Peter gives up hope and goes about his daily business selling real estate. His most recent client happens to be Lou Ferrigno (I love it when Ferrigno plays himself. I’m glad he’s open to self-parody.) and at an open house of the Ferrigno estate, he meets Sydney Fife (Jason Segel). Sydney is every man’s idea of a best friend – single, carefree, offensive, and single.
Peter and Sydney seem to be complete opposites but what matters is that they complete each other. They appear to have nothing in common except for an unusally obsessive love of Rush, but they hit it off and spend most of every waking moment together. The moments with Peter and Sydney are the bright spots of the movie. They have converstions that every group of man-friends is familar with (probably too R-rated for me to mention here), have jam sessions together, and ride a Vespa throughout the city with reckless abandon. The movie takes a wrong turn, however, when Zooey is brought back into the plot. She feels that Syndey is taking up all of Peter’s time and she admits that she doesn’t think that Sydney likes her. So Peter tells Sydney about the conversation which Sydney turns back onto Peter as a conversation about why he’s even getting married. Naturally, Peter brings this up to Zooey who then storms out of the house leaving Peter left with no other choice but to break up with Sydney.
I understand movies and stories need conflict to remain somewhat interesting, but this plot just seems so cliche and recycled and it really serves no purpose except to set up the (inevitable and cliche) ending of the movie. As a matter of fact, the movie could have done without the scenes of Zooey and her friends completely. It all felt too gimmicky and came across as a glaringly obvious plot device. Yes, they had some funny moments and some funny lines (especially Zooey’s friends Barry and Denise played by Jon Favreau and Jamie Pressly) but we really could have done without. It reminded me of “Julie and Julia.” One storyline was certainly more interesting than the other and one could have been done away with altogether. The same is true for “I Love You, Man.” By the end, I didn’t even care that Peter and Zooey were getting married. I just wanted to see Peter and Sydney “slap some bass” and shred some axe and hang out in the man cave.
The bromance has certainly emerged as a genre of choice for many of the movie-going population. Some have been great (“Superbad” and “The Hangover” to name two), but the majority of them seem to be simply good. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but after awhile you can’t help but want more. And with “I Love You, Man” I wanted more of Jason Segel and Paul Rudd and what I was given was a heaping helping of mediocrity. But I guess a mediocre steak is still better than a good salad any day of the week, so go ahead and rent this or put it in your Netflix cue when you’re missing your man friends and hope that at least one of them is as cool as Sydney Fife.
 
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 105 minutes
Starring: Paul Rudd (Peter Klaven); Jason Segel (Sydney Fife); Rashida Jones (Zooey Rice); Andy Samberg (Robbie Klaven); J.K Simmons (Oswald Klaven); Jane Curtin (Joyce Klaven); Jamie Pressly (Denise); Jon Favreau (Barry); Sarah Burns (Hailey)
Directed by: John Hamburg; written by Hamburg and Larry Levin; produced by Hamburg and Donald De Line. A Paramount Pictures release.

I Love You, Man

"I Love You, Man" takes its title from a thirty second Bud Light ad that aired in 1995. The movie fails to live up to its source.

For starters, the core concept is hard to believe. Paul Rudd plays a handsome, well-adjusted thirty-something who has just gotten engaged to a beautiful, well-adjusted woman. The core concept is: this man has no friends. None.

This makes no sense and also represents a squandered opportunity. A complete lack of friends could indicate a larger psychological issue that would give depth, and hopefully humor, to Paul Rudd's character. Instead the situation is written off as a result of the fact that "he's always had a girlfriend," which is so unsatisfying it's almost a non sequitur.

This lack of friends becomes a plot issue -- sorrrrrrt of... -- when Paul Rudd overhears his fiancee's girlfriends talking about how needy and clingy a husband without friends can be.

Personally I have never once heard, or heard of, this complaint. Does any woman want her husband to spend more nights out with the boys?

But whatever. Paul Rudd now has a goal in life. Make a friend. At any cost.

What follows is (sarcastic voice on) a string of wacky encounters with unlikely friend prospects, including one who must be ninety years old (!) and one who thinks he wants a gay romance! (sarcastic voice off) Once this interminable sequence, mandatory as a school lunch, concludes, Paul Rudd meets ordinary guy Jason Segel and the two almost immediately become friends.

Movie over, right?

Nope, it's only the half-hour mark. The next forty-five minutes, free of any need to advance a story that ended at the half-hour mark, proceeds with scenes of Rudd and Segel hanging out in ways that are clearly intended to be funny.

This violates the cardinal rule of humor, which is to never appear to be trying too hard. "I Love You, Man" strains for our approval like a teacher's pet. Every role is filled with a well-known comedic actor which only underscores how funny the action isn't. Just having Jane Curtin, Andy Samberg and BK Simmons on screen doesn't make a scene funny. The most egregious waste here is Jon Favreau, who is dying for a single decent line.

Here's a signature joke: Jason Segel's character has a dog. Guess what the dog's name is? Go ahead. Guess.

Anwar Sadat. The former Egyptian president. This joke has been brought to you by "I Love You, Man."

The writer/director is John Hamburg, who scored the break of a lifetime a few years back by coming late onto a script called "Meet the Parents." That story had everything this one doesn't. It was so good that John Hamburg will continue to be allowed to make limp, feeble comedy impersonations for several more years.


SCORE:

How Accomplished: 19/100

How Much I Enjoyed It: 19/100

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I Love You, Man

Writer and Director: John Hamburg
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jason Siegel, Rashida Jones, Lou Ferrigno

This is just plainly a very funny and well written movie that Judd Apatow would be proud of. It also has one of the best and funniest vomit scenes of all time. The great Paul Rudd and Jason Siegel are very funny here, the perfect straight man and the comic clown. The movie is just great goofy fun with a lot of laugh out loud moments.

Vincent Snavely

Special Movie Review - I Love You, Man

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Last updated: 2010-01-17 09:04:01 by user01

Special Movie Review - I Love You, Man

Last updated: 2010-01-17 09:00:59 by user01