Universal Pictures message to teenagers;

Rating: Null/10 (8 December 2008)

"This is how adults in their mid to late 20's behave." Okay, I know this is another Apatow "comedy". Fair enough. But, the target market for this film isn't the adult 20-something crowd. The target market for this movie are adolescent and pre-adolescent males.
Which is amazing, since the film is supposed to be adult in nature, but really dives to the bottom of the cesspool with the sight-gags and some of the other obvious humor.
Having said that, and having thoroughly disapproved of most of this film, I can safely say that I did laugh a few times. I mean, even though this film had the F-bomb being dropped during much of Act I and a good part of Act II (probably rivaling Pacino's use of the word in "Scarface"), the funniest lines seem to come out of the Aldous Snow character. Lines which, I'll add, didn't contain any cussing.
Look. I swear. Most of us do. But there's a time and place for everything, and even though I worked in production where swearing was taken to a whole new height (above and beyond sailor usage... in the classical sense), I have a hard time believing that the film makers think most of the public uses this kind of language on a habitual basis. But, like I say, the film's marketed towards teenagers, not really adults as such, but persons with teenage sensibilities.
I guess what I mean is that this film could've been a real gem. So much more than popular opinion and some professional critical acclaim. Like Jonathan Winters says, dropping your pants for a laugh only gets you so far. And yet this is what really bothers me; using nudity as a shock comic device really isn't funny. Yet by reading the boards and comments on this film, one would think this kind of humor was comic genius.
But it isn't.
In fact, it's really stupid.
Like I say, I did laugh at the more conventional and intelligent humor (what small portions there were), and therefore concede that this film has some funniness in it, but it's also fairly lame brained. It's like a sexually obsessed child writer was given a breakup story, and asked to write a script about it. The result is this film.
Directorially, it's okay. There's a few mildly inspiring shots. The thing looks professional enough, but also misses a lot of potential. In short the shooting style is good and passing, but it's not comical.
Why this film gets praises is not beyond me. But, however, it is disappointing. Had this film been released in the "sexually liberated" 70s, it would've achieved cult-status, but, in my personal opinion, would've been voted out of the theatres via lack of ticket dollars.
Call me a prude, but that's my take.