2012 comedy
Rating: 12/20
Plot: A struggling young married couple leaves the big city and an expensive studio apartment after experiencing financial difficulty. They decide to try living in a hippie commune for a while, but the lack of inhibitions threatens to divide the two further.
It only occurred to me today that this isn't the first time Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston have appeared on screen together. I'm now seeing that they were in another movie together, but I'd forgotten that Rudd was Phoebe's boyfriend on Friends. Aniston and Justin Theroux have also worked together, of course. In the sack!
This movie is the first of four in a row that were recommended/lent to me by my pal Josh. He thinks the movie is funnier than I do, and I wonder if it's because of our age difference. I am nearly twice his age. This comedy reminds me a lot of a lot of contemporary comedies. There are two obvious stars, but it's really an ensemble cast, and like a lot of modern movies, it seems they're all trying to out-wacky each other. A lot of the scenes seem like they were worked out through improvisation sessions rather than written, and although that works at times to create a handful of mildly amusing moments, nothing here was really laugh-out-loud funny. The story was predictable, really just there as an excuse for the shenanigans, and you could argue that the writer was trying a little too hard to make the relationship between Aniston and Rudd and the various side-plots--a successful prick of a brother, a land deed, people trying to build a casino--just got in the way.
Want to see a lot of that guy (Joe Lo Truglio) naked? There's plenty of that here.
I liked the characters. The problem with this many characters, however, is that although it gives the writers numerous chances for a lot of funny dialogue, you really can't develop them all. So must of just became background, and it sort of made things messy. Still, it's always good to see Alan Alda, and Justin Theroux was very funny. I also really enjoyed looking at Malin Akerman.
Well, now I'm just distracted. Anybody got any math problems you want to argue about?
1. Sorry you didn't dig the comedy like I did. I guess it was just so unexpected (I went into it with low expectations).
ReplyDelete2. I will say, "I'm fixin' to fuck ya" (with a lisp) is about as funny of a line that could be delivered in one of these movies. Paul Rudd is a master at these kinds of films.
3. You are not nearly half my age. You're 63 and I'm 52-going-on-53. That's only a ten year difference. While a decade could be considered a generational difference, let's keep things in perspective.