I Love You, Man (2009)

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Man Hunting
Real estate agent Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) has always had females as friends so with his approaching marriage to Zooey Rice (Rashida Jones) he needs to figure out who to ask to be his best man and groomsmen.

Zooey’s best friends – Hailey (Sarah Burns) and Denise (Jaime Pressly) – are lined up quickly, but Peter really has a major task facing him. All his efforts to make man friends comes across as gay hustling and Peter’s leaving the wrong impression all over LA.

Also appearing are Jane Curtin and J.K. Simmons as Peter’s parents; Andy Samberg as Peter’s gay brother Robbie; Jon Favreau as Barry, Denise’s boyfriend; Rob Huebel as Peter’s sleazy coworker, Tevin Downey; Mather Zickel as Gil and Aziz Ansari as Eugene, guys from Peter’s fencing class; Thomas Lennon as Doug; Jason Segel as the straight Sydney Fife. Lou Ferrigno also appears as himself.

Directed by John Hamburg.

Run time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: C, that’s C for CRUDE, D for DUMB, F for FOUL!

11:14 (2005)

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Intense
Buzzy (Hilary Swank), Mark (Colin Hanks), Cheri (Rachael Leigh Cook), Jack (Henry Thomas), and Eddie (Ben Foster) are connected in most unusual ways. At precisely at 11:14 p.m. their lives intersect in explosive ways.

You could say that they’re just dying to run into each other.

Also appearing are Barbara Hershey, Shawn Hatosy, Clark Gregg, Patrick Swayze, and Jason Segel.

Music by The Ramones, Jesse Jaymes, Dramarama, Endo, The Extreme, Stargunn, Bodie in Motion, Angry Johnny and the Killbillies, and Bree Sharp. Haunting themes by Clint Mansell.

I swear, Henry Thomas must be Dorian Gray’s son.

Written and directed by Greg Marcks – who looks all of teenager himself.

Run time: 1 hour, 28 minutes

Rated R for violence, sexuality, and pervasive language. This one’s pretty gross, folks! And some pretty perverse humor, too.

My personal rating: B+

Knocked Up (2007)

Parenthood

Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) is a successful employee of E! TV who has just been promoted to an on-air personality. While celebrating at a club with her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann), she meets Ben Stone (Seth Rogen).

Ben is the total antithesis of anything and everything Alison could ever imagine as a romantic interest. He's a 23-year-old in a 33-year-old body with the attitude and interests of a 15-year-old. He and his pals, who are also his roommates (Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Martin Starr) are drinkin', dopin' slackers who run a website that discloses the minutes until nudity in popular films.

When Debbie gets called home due to her daughter's possible chicken pox, Alison decides to stay at the club because she's celebrating her promotion. In a weak moment, she has a one night stand with Ben.

Predictably, eight weeks later, she's on the phone to Ben to inform him of her pregnancy. Taken as off-guard as Alison was, Ben decides to make a commitment to Alison and the baby.

Judgemental, controlling sister Debbie doesn't think Alison should get involved with Ben. She feels her sister is worthy of so much more. Meanwhile, her own marriage to Pete (Paul Rudd) is rocky because Pete just doesn't measure up to Debbie's standards.

Can it work? back and forth it goes.

Directed by Judd Apatow. Loudon Wainwright III contributed original music and also appears as Alison's doctor. Additional credits include Joanna Kerns (as Alison’s Mom) and Harold Ramis (as Ben's Dad).

I rented this movie because it was on the Top 10 list of several respected critics, but once into it. I didn't like it. I didn't like it. I didn't like it. But, to be honest, by the end, I liked it, however the 2+ hour movie could have/should have used a judicious editing down to about 100 minutes or less. There was just too, too much demonstration of what lumps Ben and his friends were. Most of it quite unnecessary.

Katherine Heigl really is a beautiful woman in that Charlize Theron way. In fact, I kept thinking how good the two of them would be cast as sisters in a film someday.

Rated R for sexual content, drug use and language.