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Hey, I like Ryan Reynolds. The dude is
funny. I’ve seen him on about three interviews on “Conan” and he just
makes him laugh, and he really makes the audience respond. The dude has
comedy chops, there’s no doubting that from me. “Just Friends” managed
to be entertaining enough to invoke enough guffaws and giggles from me
to warrant a likable one timer for me, and I’m just as surprised as you
are.
“Just Friends” is mean spirited,
and completely indicative of the neo-feminism stranglehold on comedy,
but it’s also pretty harmless fun, with good performances by its comedy
cast of assorted characters.
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I mean even nuts Anna Faris is
cute, and Stephen Root is always funny. I
won’t argue the artistic merits of this, nor will I defend
this as the be all and end all of holiday comedies, but for
what it was, it’s a pretty funny time waster that I didn’t
mind giggling through.
Whether it’s the funny hockey
scene where Reynolds screams at a kid, the three way call sequence
demonstrating the comedy talents of Chris Marquette, or Faris falling off a
mall balcony into a crowd of onlookers, I just enjoyed the stupid gags. |
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Maybe it’s because I was sleep deprived
at the time of watching this,
or just getting over a sad spell, but damned if it didn’t
make me giggle on more than three occasions, and completely cheer me
up. “Just Friends” has
pretty good one-line gags that Reynolds and Faris deliver with sharp
accuracy, and then there’s Chris Marquette who is just a memorable
addition to the film as Reynolds’ young obnoxious brother. The two
kick each other in the guts and throw one another around, and they
pull off the physical comedy without fault, and we venture beyond
the fat suit gags, the film picks up as a guilty pleasure with
Reynolds at full throttle. Hey, I
laughed, I can’t help it; sue me.
Now if we could just find the right comedy
for Reynolds to flex his comedic abilities to, we'd be set. “Just Friends” is not the
film that will make Reynolds one of the next wave of comedic actors, and it’s a
shame we can’t see something much more original for him to demonstrate
his prowess in the genre. I mean Reynolds in a
fat suit singing to a crappy love ballad? That’s desperation if I’ve
ever seen it, and I wasn't laughing one bit. One of the worst aspects of “Just Friends” is featuring a
love interest that is neither likable nor sympathetic. In spite of
Smarts ability to come off as a pure sweetheart, she’s such a cock
tease, keeps Reynolds’ character as a play thing and then basically
jerks him around to let him suffer. And then we’re supposed to feel
sorry for her when she has feelings for him and he jerks her
around. She’s never a justifiable protagonist, and his feelings for her
are never as interesting as they should be, so the climax where he
confesses his love for her comes off as flat, and rather forced.
Yes, damn it, I admit it! I enjoyed “Just
Friends”! I thought it was pretty funny, and entertaining, and I don’t
mind admitting it. Sure it was stupid, and the jokes go on way too long,
but I didn’t hate it. Go ahead, hurl rocks at me, but I laughed a
lot, and I’m not proud of that.
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