ViewGuide

Created Nov 03, 2008 05:47AM PST • Edited Apr 12, 2020 09:55PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   OK 2.5

   As tedious as it is funny, though it is damn funny on occasion, this “romantic comedy” plumbs new depths in its hunt for laughs, plowing the nether regions of slacker society as it were. That it succeeds often enough to avoid complete disaster is a credit to kitsch auteur Kevin Smith, though this is far from his best work. Thankfully for him.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   Seth Rogen reaches his Peter Principle Point as a leading-man, wearing out his welcome well before the third act. That he ends up with girl-next-doorgeous Elizabeth Banks marks this as one of the new breed of male fantasy pictures where the lead shlub scores a quantum or two above his hotness orbit. And why not? The movie business been very, very good to highly verbal stud muffins.

   Jason Mewes – Jay to Kevin Smith’s Silent Bob in earlier films – delivers another belly laugh funny supporting turn. Though he enters the picture late and saves his best bit for the very end, the movie’s tedious-to-funny ratio would be way higher were he not in it.

   The rest of the the Kevin Smith Company Players are also present and accounted for: Jennifer Schwalbach Smith – the better half of Mr. & Mrs. Kevin Smith – ably plays ten years her junior as a MILFy reunion committee functionary, while Jeff Anderson further typecasts himself as an ace wise-ass.

5. Male Stars Good 3.0

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    Barely OK 2.0

    Romantic comedies have come to this: A guy and a girl each spend more in a given month on sex toys than rent, yet live happily-ever-after screwing for the camera. The movie feels like a particularly funny John Waters freak show, where the venal aspire to be adorable, but end up being just yucky (to use a self-consciously old-fashioned adjective). If you like that sort of thing, so be it, but it gets old fast for me.

11. Direction Barely OK 2.0

12. Play Pretty Bad 1.5

13. Music Barely OK 2.0

14. Visuals OK 2.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.5

    Remember the faux sex scenes in Wayne’s World? They’re like that here too, albeit amped up and with a pair of bionic titties thrown in. Thus, I’m giving it a 2.5 for Sex, stopping at the upper end of Titillating without going all the way to Erotic.

    Rudeness, OTOH? That sucker’s cranked up to a full four oh, N-a-s-t-y, with a capital N.

17. Sex Titillating 2.5

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Nasty 4.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.5

    Could Zack and Miri hide their mutual attraction through years of binge drinking, masturbation and apartment sharing? I’m just saying.

    And then, um, perform in front of other people? On camera? I suppose. Just seems a bit glib to me, so I’m giving it a 1.3x BioReality score.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.4

23. Biological Glib 1.3

24. Physical Natural 1.0