‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People’ Offers Too Little, Too Late
-----‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People’ looked like more of Simon Pegg getting paid to do anything to make the audience laugh. That was a good thing, so I was excited for his movie. Add the attractive Megan Fox and Kirsten Dunst and you’ve got yourself a comedy about a loser with two good looking women in it. Unfortunately, that’s about all it is.
-----The movie is based off of the real life exploits of one Sidney Young. An independent journalist who is known only for hammering celebrities, he is shocked when offered a job at the prestigious Sharps magazine. Holding onto a subconscious hate for celebrities, while also wishing he could be one, Sidney is your classic party crasher. As he works his way through the ranks in New York, he’ll have to decide where his priorities lie, and why.
-----The often energetic and comedic Simon Pegg is in his safety zone in the role of Sidney Young. While not overstretching bounds we’ve seen him reach before, he unfortunately digresses into one of his more simple roles. While still charming, he struggles to carry a weak script and remain loveable through his many personality annoyances. Megan Fox also seems quite at home, though in a role agreeably much older and harsher than her turn in ‘Transformers.’ She effectively maintains her naïve beauty as an actress taking the world by surprise, using Sidney as a device for her success. Kirsten Dunst plays a role we’ve seen her in before, as a somewhat angry, somewhat soft spoken, somewhat commanding straight character. She and Pegg try as hard as they can to redeem the film, but unfortunately it’s a too little/too late scenario.
-----The film has the occasional laugh but tries too hard in a number of areas. Much of the over the top (or in this case, out the window) humor falls flat, with some parts being downright disgusting in execution and unnecessary in all forms of relevancy to the plot. You’ll find the film has a hard time discerning between sweet and raunchy and can’t effectively mesh the two for a quality movie. At times you’ll be bombarded with gross-out gags, and at others the film will get just plain annoying and boring. It isn’t until late in the third act that the film offers any decency or redemption for our protagonist, and this small dose of warm-heartedness isn’t near enough to save the movie.
-----All in all I was more stressed and disgusted for and at our protagonist throughout the course of the film. Constantly trying too hard, the film offers large doses of mediocrity, with only minimal doses of quality entertainment. Pegg die-hards may find something they like, but the casual viewer will wish they had skipped this one all together. So naturally, I will have to recommend that the casual viewer of such material (as was I) should stay far, far away from ‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.'
