Awkward, and not because of the sex and nudity

Rating: 4/10 (27 April 2008)

Freaks and Geeks is probably my favorite TV series of all time, but when I watch movies like this I feel like a freak -- why does everyone think this is so great while I'm cringing and wanting to leave? This thing needed so much rewriting! It felt like a very first draft. I came away thinking that Jason Segel just didn't want to leave his buddies Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd et al, on the cutting room floor. But, alas, he should have.
Because what he ended up with is a movie chock full of awkward scenes and overwrought stereotypes -- the stoned surfer dude, the hen-pecked husband, the religious guy with the horny wife, the massive-but-sensitive Hawaiian guy. (Oddly the one character that could have been the biggest stereotype of all wasn't -- Aldous Snow. He was also the best thing in the movie by far.)
Oh, and one last curmudgeonly rant. The scene in which Rachel gives him the 6k/night room for free. I find this technique so insulting in movies. Either take the time to write a scenario that is likely to happen (6k/night room for free I don't think so) or just have it happen and let us suspend disbelief. Stop trying to preempt the audience's disbelief by writing 10 lines of dialog to explain why it COULD happen.