What could happen when you are about to be married to a girl of your dreams but you don't have a single friend who can be the best man?
In the hilarious but also touching film about male bonding I Love You, Man, Paul Rudd (Knocked Up) plays Peter, a real-estate agent in southern California who is very comfortable with women. But now as the wedding plans continue, he must search for a person who will save the situation by being his best man. Otherwise, he may lose Zooey (Rashida Jones; The Office, Boston Public) his girl friend of eight months.
The stiff and organised Peter goes through quite a ritual until he meets Sydney (Jason Segel, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) whose life style baffles him initially. He is too wild for Peter's taste. And yet Peter is intrigued by Sydney's lifestyle and his unapologetic attitude towards it.
It has been a good season for comedies in Hollywood, with The Hangover headed for a $450 million worldwide gross and The Proposal expected to reach $300 million. And now the engaging comedy I Love You, Man which the well-known critic Peter Travers described in Rolling Stone magazine as 'howlingly funny' and which became a solid box-office success is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray, It has become in the last two weeks one of the hottest selling DVDs in America.
Part of the fun watching I Love You, Man consists of Peter's reaction to the seemingly unredeemable slob in Sydney but director and co-writer John Homburg also reveals, with certain amount of delicacy, the unsuspected side of Sydney.
There are several other well-written parts and the actors shine in them. The tension between the husband and wife played by Jaime Pressly and Jon Favreau bring comic tension to the film. Andy Samberg has many scene-stealing moments as Peter's gay brother.
But the film has its share of raunchy jokes. Nobody should be surprised by this but watching it with young children could be a problem. The film received a R-rating in America for 'its pervasive language, including crude and sexual references.'
Though some critics faulted the film for meandering towards the end, by and large they welcomed it for the ensemble performances. 'Thanks to the performances and improvisations of Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, the bromance I Love You, Man, on DVD and Blu-ray, is the funniest film this year (as yet),' wrote Daily News in Los Angeles. 'Not necessarily great for anything but the jokes, which in most cases are enough, the comedy takes a pretty silly premise and runs with it until just before it runs out of steam.'
The additional scenes and gags surely enhance the pleasure and making this as one of the must-see guilty pleasures of the season.
Extras: Commentary by director John Hamburg, and the lead players, Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, a featurette on the making of the comedy, extended and deleted scenes. The three discuss the film tongue-in-cheek for a few minutes, talking about the possible awards it could win.
