I Love You Too, Dude.

Jason Segal and Paul Rudd hit it off in I Love You, Man

Romantic comedies are probably the most predictable genre in film.  The plots are straight forward:  boy gets (or has) girl, boy loses girl, boy learns lesson about life and/or love and gets girl back.  Everyone is happy, we all had a few laughs, and hey, that popcorn was pretty yummy as well.

Rom-coms are as polarized a genre as we have in the cinema.  Its films range from the great (When Harry Met Sally, Annie Hall, Bull Durham) to the pitiful (anything Ashton Kutcher, Ryan Reynolds, or Dane Cook has ever done.)  Between February and June, we are constantly hit over the head with a wide selection of rom-coms.  So what’s the big idea you ask?

Hollywood’s logic is sound.  The weather typically stinks (which means you aren’t going to the beach that weekend) and it’s in-between time for other studios to release their big blockbuster money-making films.  The assumption then that the average couple wants to see a schmaltzy predictable film that provides a few laughs is a wise one.  Romantic comedies that are released during this time do remarkably well at the box office and they typically have low to moderate budgets.  Cha-ching is right.

I Love You, Man is a by the book romantic comedy however, it offers up some pleasant surprises.  It suffers from the same problems most romantic comedies have: plot predictability, unnecessary gross out humor, and character development issues.  But be that as it may, I Love You, Man still has many redeemable qualities, particularly in its acting and premise.