My Best Friend's Girl
2/4
Starring: Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, Jason Biggs, Alec Baldwin, Lizzy Caplan, Riki Lindhome
The version being reviewed is the unrated one. For the record, the theatrical cut was rated R for Strong Language and Sexual Content Throughout, including Graphic Dialogue and Some Nudity
These days, when audiences want a comedy, they want it raunchy and they want it raw. The more disgusting and the more outrageous, the better. But, it's a bonus if they can add a dose of sweetness to it, like in "American Pie" (also starring Jason Biggs) or "There's Something About Mary," which arguably started the trend of sweet but raunchy comedies. "My Best Friend's Girl" tries, with some success, to enter into this arena. Despite the sharing of three of four words in the title, this should not be confused with "My Best Friend's Wedding." It's raunchy, but it's not nearly as funny or romantic.
Dusty (Biggs) is a shy guy who is hopelessly in love with his co-worker, Alexis (Hudson). She, on the other hand, considers him just a friend, and when he confesses how he really feels about her, he blows it. So, he asks his roommate and best friend, Tank (Cook), for help. Tank has an unorthodox way of helping guys like Dusty. When a girl dumps her guy, he stages a "meet cute" and gets the girl's phone number. Then he takes her out on the worst date imaginable. She'll be so shocked by the other fish in the sea that she'll fly back into the arms of her ex. Tank is the best in the business, and Dusty hires him to do his magic on Alexis. Problems occur when Alexis turns out to be looking for some fun and doesn't care is he's an asshole, and he ends up falling for her.
Oddly enough, there's a bit of similarity between this and "There's Something About Mary." Both are romantic comedies with dark sexual humor where the wimp hires the nasty guy to woo a beautiful woman and they both fall for her. But instead of Ted (or Dusty, in this case), the film focuses on Healy (whose function is provided by Tank). Although there are a few hilarious sequences in this film (mostly towards the beginning, although there are a few towards the end), it's not nearly as successful as the Farrelly Brothers' movie. The writing isn't as strong, the direction is lacking, and none of it is as inventive. "There's Something About Mary" had hilarious situations built into the plot, and there's nothing here that comes close to its bawdiest scenes. The raunchiest it gets is euphemisms for a woman's vagina and a woman who mistakenly thinks that a guy wants to suckle on her tit. Kinda raunchy, yes, and still amusing, but compare that to the "frank and beans" or "hair gel" scenes. "Mary" was bolder and more clever.
The performances are okay. Dane Cook does what Dane Cook does: act like an asshole and make him funny. Cook can deliver laughs when he's given good material, but he fails at drama. Kate Hudson blew the world away with her performance in "Almost Famous" (for which she should have won an Oscar), but her later performances have shown that either she was a one-hit wonder, or she's not giving it her all (reportedly, she was great in "Desert Blue," which got her noticed). She's solid here, for the most part, although she has her stiff moments. Even more problematic is that she and Cook don't have a lot of chemistry, which is the most important part of any romantic comedy. Jason Biggs, on the other hand, is miscast. Biggs' appeal has always been his adorable schmuck appeal; he's so lovable that you feel for him while everything explodes in his face...even though you're laughing at him. His scenes in the "American Pie" movies landed so well because he was able to emulate that. Here, Biggs is trying to stretch his range, but it doesn't work. Dusty comes across as creepy. If he was going to do this right, he should have gone dark the whole way through, and played the character with some nastiness. Alec Baldwin and Lizzy Caplan are on hand for supporting performances, but while they're meant to be colorful comic relief, neither one is especially funny. The only supporting character who got my attention was Hilary (Lindhome), the Christian girl who finally gets Tank to realize the error of his ways (since this plot turn is inevitable in essentially every romantic comedy, this isn't a spoiler).
Howard Deutch doesn't have a particularly sterling resume. He was a protege of John Hughes in the 80s, directing some of his most beloved movies, like "Pretty in Pink" and "Some Kind of Wonderful" (his first two movies), but after that he started making sequels to movies that didn't need them (he directed "The Odd Couple II" and "The Whole Ten Yards"). The fizzling of his career doesn't surprise me. There's no style evident and his shot selection is stale and unsophisticated. Some of the jokes don't work because they're poorly handled by him. And the film is also way too long. I realize that I watched the unrated version, but that only adds 10 minutes, and a romantic comedy really only needs 90 minutes, not almost two hours, to tell its story.
This isn't a terrible movie by any means. Like I said before, there are some truly funny sequences, but not nearly enough to save a romantic comedy where the romance is DOA.
Starring: Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, Jason Biggs, Alec Baldwin, Lizzy Caplan, Riki Lindhome
The version being reviewed is the unrated one. For the record, the theatrical cut was rated R for Strong Language and Sexual Content Throughout, including Graphic Dialogue and Some Nudity
These days, when audiences want a comedy, they want it raunchy and they want it raw. The more disgusting and the more outrageous, the better. But, it's a bonus if they can add a dose of sweetness to it, like in "American Pie" (also starring Jason Biggs) or "There's Something About Mary," which arguably started the trend of sweet but raunchy comedies. "My Best Friend's Girl" tries, with some success, to enter into this arena. Despite the sharing of three of four words in the title, this should not be confused with "My Best Friend's Wedding." It's raunchy, but it's not nearly as funny or romantic.
Dusty (Biggs) is a shy guy who is hopelessly in love with his co-worker, Alexis (Hudson). She, on the other hand, considers him just a friend, and when he confesses how he really feels about her, he blows it. So, he asks his roommate and best friend, Tank (Cook), for help. Tank has an unorthodox way of helping guys like Dusty. When a girl dumps her guy, he stages a "meet cute" and gets the girl's phone number. Then he takes her out on the worst date imaginable. She'll be so shocked by the other fish in the sea that she'll fly back into the arms of her ex. Tank is the best in the business, and Dusty hires him to do his magic on Alexis. Problems occur when Alexis turns out to be looking for some fun and doesn't care is he's an asshole, and he ends up falling for her.
Oddly enough, there's a bit of similarity between this and "There's Something About Mary." Both are romantic comedies with dark sexual humor where the wimp hires the nasty guy to woo a beautiful woman and they both fall for her. But instead of Ted (or Dusty, in this case), the film focuses on Healy (whose function is provided by Tank). Although there are a few hilarious sequences in this film (mostly towards the beginning, although there are a few towards the end), it's not nearly as successful as the Farrelly Brothers' movie. The writing isn't as strong, the direction is lacking, and none of it is as inventive. "There's Something About Mary" had hilarious situations built into the plot, and there's nothing here that comes close to its bawdiest scenes. The raunchiest it gets is euphemisms for a woman's vagina and a woman who mistakenly thinks that a guy wants to suckle on her tit. Kinda raunchy, yes, and still amusing, but compare that to the "frank and beans" or "hair gel" scenes. "Mary" was bolder and more clever.
The performances are okay. Dane Cook does what Dane Cook does: act like an asshole and make him funny. Cook can deliver laughs when he's given good material, but he fails at drama. Kate Hudson blew the world away with her performance in "Almost Famous" (for which she should have won an Oscar), but her later performances have shown that either she was a one-hit wonder, or she's not giving it her all (reportedly, she was great in "Desert Blue," which got her noticed). She's solid here, for the most part, although she has her stiff moments. Even more problematic is that she and Cook don't have a lot of chemistry, which is the most important part of any romantic comedy. Jason Biggs, on the other hand, is miscast. Biggs' appeal has always been his adorable schmuck appeal; he's so lovable that you feel for him while everything explodes in his face...even though you're laughing at him. His scenes in the "American Pie" movies landed so well because he was able to emulate that. Here, Biggs is trying to stretch his range, but it doesn't work. Dusty comes across as creepy. If he was going to do this right, he should have gone dark the whole way through, and played the character with some nastiness. Alec Baldwin and Lizzy Caplan are on hand for supporting performances, but while they're meant to be colorful comic relief, neither one is especially funny. The only supporting character who got my attention was Hilary (Lindhome), the Christian girl who finally gets Tank to realize the error of his ways (since this plot turn is inevitable in essentially every romantic comedy, this isn't a spoiler).
Howard Deutch doesn't have a particularly sterling resume. He was a protege of John Hughes in the 80s, directing some of his most beloved movies, like "Pretty in Pink" and "Some Kind of Wonderful" (his first two movies), but after that he started making sequels to movies that didn't need them (he directed "The Odd Couple II" and "The Whole Ten Yards"). The fizzling of his career doesn't surprise me. There's no style evident and his shot selection is stale and unsophisticated. Some of the jokes don't work because they're poorly handled by him. And the film is also way too long. I realize that I watched the unrated version, but that only adds 10 minutes, and a romantic comedy really only needs 90 minutes, not almost two hours, to tell its story.
This isn't a terrible movie by any means. Like I said before, there are some truly funny sequences, but not nearly enough to save a romantic comedy where the romance is DOA.
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