March 27, 2009 -- “I Love You, Man” is a Judd Apatow-type of comedy, only without Judd being involved in it. I checked, the only famous person I found involved in the whole production is Ivan Reitman (“Ghostbusters” and “Animal House”). Reitman is one of the film's producers. This is a typical vulgar comedy featuring adults who act like teenagers, a theme which runs through all Apatow comedies. It is about growing up late in life. Unlike many non-Apatow vulgar comedies, this one works pretty well and it has a lot of laughs in it.

Paul Rudd of “Role Models” stars as Peter Klaven, who is about to be wed to Zooey (played by the over-tanned Rashida Jones of “The Office” TV show). During a party, Peter overhears Zooey and her girlfriends talking about how strange it is that he has no male friends. This, and another incident later on convinces Peter that he needs to find a male friend to balance out his life. He goes online and the usual sorts of misadventures happen, including a homosexual encounter. Finally Peter, a Realtor, has a chance meeting with a man at an open house and the two hit it off. Peter's newfound friend, Sydney Fife (Jason Segel of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) is a slacker with no visible means of support. He is intelligent, perceptive and honest, but emotionally immature. When Peter is with Sydney, he has loads of fun drinking, hanging out, trying new restaurants and jamming. Sydney plays lead guitar and Peter plays bass, as they joyfully belt out tunes by their favorite band, Rush.

Peter and Sydney's friendship turns out to be too much of a good thing. Zooey begins to feel left out as Peter spends more and more time with Sydney. In addition, Sydney has a bad case of foot in mouth disease and says the wrong thing at a social gathering. Although the film does not show explicit sex, there is a lot of explicit talk about sex, particularly oral sex. Peter, Sydney and Zooey and her friends all talk openly about their most intimate sexual encounters. Drug use is also part of the film. It is all this frank talk that gets the film its “R” rating.

The acting is very good by the main cast of characters, including J.K. Simmons of the “Spider-Man” movies as Peter's father, Jane Curtin as his mother and Andy Samberg as his gay brother. The main characters are developed pretty well and a good deal of the humor stems from the interaction of these characters. Unfortunately, there is also gross-out humor and gay-bashing humor too. Overall, however, it is pretty funny. This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2009 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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