BEFORE: Another comedy with slacker guys and hot women - gee, I wonder who this film's target audience is?
Linking from last night, Ben Affleck of "Chasing Amy" was in "He's Just Not That Into You" with Jennifer Aniston, who was in "The Bounty Hunter" with Gerard Butler, who did a voice in "How to Train Your Dragon", with Jay Baruchel (last seen in "Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist")
THE PLOT: An average Joe meets the perfect woman, but his lack of confidence and the influence of his friends and family begin to pick away at the relationship.
AFTER: At first this seemed like an original idea - but then a joke about a certain bodily fluid called to mind "There's Something About Mary", and I realized how much this film has in common with that one. It's easy to see things that got cribbed from the Farrelly Brothers films, and whatever didn't come from them seems to borrow from the Judd Apatow playbook.
The premise is that a woman who's a "10" falls for a guy who's a "5", tops, but comfortable with that. At least, until he feels inadequate from dating the "10". Then friends and family get involved, none of whom think the relationship can work, and then what you have is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The movie posits an exemption to the rule preventing hot women from dating geeks - if the hot woman has had her heart broken by a shallow hot guy, she could be playing it safe and dating down. You won't hear a geek complain about that.
But it's sad when a movie has to portray women as either a nerve-inducing bombshell or a harpy bitch, and those are the main character's only relationship choices. Why not find a geeky girl? They are out there...go hang out in a library, or a comic-con, young geeky guy.
Another sucker-punch ending, which isn't always a terrible thing. But enough jokes about airport security, already - God, that's so 2010. I don't particularly find breaking TSA rules and destroying airline and airport property as funny. Go ahead, crack a joke next time you're going through security and see how far it gets you.
Also starring Alice Eve, T.J. Miller, Mike Vogel, Lindsay Sloane, Krysten Ritter, (nope, I haven't heard of these people before either...), plus Debra Jo Rupp (the mother from "That 70's Show"), Nate Torrance (last seen in "Get Smart"), and a couple other people who look sort of TV-sitcom familiar, but I can't really be sure...
RATING: 5 out of 10 (that's a 7, minus 1 for no real star power, minus 1 for an overly abrupt ending, plus 1 for Jay Baruchel, but minus 1 for ripping off other films)
EDIT: My instincts were spot-on - a day after watching this film, I found that many of the actors are all over the sitcom scene right now - two of them are appearing in the NBC show "Perfect Couples" (the show on NBC's Thursday line-up that I fast-forward through), and another two turned up on the ABC show "Mr. Sunshine", which I also don't watch.
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