“I Love You Man” a bromance for the ages

“I Love You Man” — 4 out of 5 stars for comedy

Ty Hampton
Critic’s Corner

Comedic co-stars Paul Rudd and Jason Segel have never been funnier than in the bromantic comedy “I Love You Man”, that’s got enough heart for the ladies and just enough raunchy humor for the fellas.

I don’t know if this one actually qualifies as a true romantic comedy, but it has a lot of the same ingredients just with a dude twist. If it does qualify, it’s easily the first romantic comedy that I wanted to go back to the theater the next day to see it again. It’s not your next teen/young adult cringe comedy or your sweetie-pie Hugh Grant romantic comedy, but really an atypical comedy that I would recommend to people looking for something a little different.

Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) is a guy who’s always had good girlfriends but never really been one of the “guys.” In fact, when it came to planning and wedding and picking his friends for groomsmen, his momma probably topped the list.

So Peter, with the help of his bro-rific brother (Andy Sandberg), sets out to make some new friends that he can maybe find someone to call his best man while standing at the alter. Through hilarious mishap after mishap, Peter’s attempts to meet a normal guy he can befriend become more and more pathetic in nature. That is until he meets Sydney Fife (Jason Segel of “How I Met Your Mother”) who saves Peter from a lonely life with only the fairer sex, introducing him to the kingdom of dudedom.

Writer/director John Hamburg directed Ben Stiller film “Along Came Polly” and was the screenwriter or mastermind behind other Stiller hits such as “Meet the Parents”, “Zoolander”, and “Meet the Fockers.” He’s even at helm of “Little Fockers”, which is slated for 2011.

If you’ve seen “I Love You Man” this fact probably makes a lot of sense as Rudd plays a much more awkward Stiller-esque character than he has in recent films. Despite the fact that the protagonist in his films is often a photo copy of a previous Hamburg hero, this role really seemed to fit well for Rudd as he played the most honest and relateable character of his career.

Although Rudd really hits a high-note with this one, I don’t think he could’ve done it without wingman Segel by his side. The off-screen buddies have co-starred alongside eachother in a few films over the past few years (Judd Apatow produced films “Knocked Up” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) and are really rising to the top together at the same time. This movie proved that neither of them need to be just minor characters in Apatow movies anymore and can grab major roles that Ben Stiller used to get before his payroll went through the roof.

But not to diss on the small side-characters in comedies, because they can really further the hilarity and did so here as well. The beautiful Rashida Jones (“The Office”), Jaime Pressly (“My Name Is Earl”), Thomas Lennon (“Reno 911”), J.K. Simmons, Andy Sandberg, Joe Truglio, Aziz Ansari, and Rob Heubel all pitched in great punch lines to make this movie even funnier and more than just a two-man show. The entire cast also proved that you don’t need big names to make a big splash in the laugh pool.

Although there’s more bro- than there is -mance, this film is truly a perfect bromance — in other words a romantic comedy that doesn’t send a majority of men running for the hills. Although it’s still very deserving of its R rating with crude sexual humor and language throughout, the vulgarities are toned down more than most R comedies that come out these days while the film still rings true and brutally honest while keeping its heart.

I give this one 4 out of 5 stars for the comedy genre, and recommend it as a good date movie and an even better laugh-out-loud comedy. “I Love You Man” is showing at Ronan’s Entertainer Cinema at 4, 7, and 9:10 p.m. daily.