Surprisingly Good

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2007)

I'm not generally into overly silly comedies but for some reason I loved this movie. I laughed pretty much all the way through in spite of the fact that if you deconstructed it has many components of a bad movie.
It has a predictable plot, clichéd characters, low brow humour. However it somehow balances out these faults, though it is hard to say how.
If I were to attempt to say why it wasn't bad I'd say: It is well paced. It doesn't try to be anything than what it is - a lot of comedies these days suddenly try to be serious like they are embarrassed to be "just" a comedy. At the points at which it is in danger of turning soppy it maintains the comedy unlike the Wedding Crashers (which I enjoyed none-the-less but it did slow it down). It doesn't have any annoying "forth wall" breaking that brings you out of the movie. There is also comedy going on in the background that you might miss (for example some of the stuff the commentators say).
It manages to make the main characters sympathetic although they definitely don't start out that way. Movie clichés are tweaked just enough to make them fresh and funny.
Some have made the comment that they think the movie is homophobic. Personally I think that says more about them and society's stereotypes than the movie makers. It is NOT making fun of homosexuals at all but rather people's reaction to homoerotisism. If you are a offended by it is probably a sign that you are homophobic yourself. There is a difference between camp and gay, if you don't get that you won't get why it isn't homophobic.
All that being said I wouldn't recommend analyzing this movie into oblivion while you are sitting there. Just sit back and relax.