It sure lost this guy.

Rating: 6/10 (19 June 2003)

The trouble with being a single guy at my age (32) is that typically, all your male friends are either married or living with someone. So if you want to go to the movies with your friends, you typically wind up watching what their wives want to see. This is how I was roped into seeing "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days".
This film has one thing going for it (and only one thing): Kate Hudson is hilarious playing the psycho girlfriend (and I've had a couple). Unfortunately, that might be enough for a 5-minute SNL skit or a guest appearance on a show like "Friends", but it's not enough to carry a 2-hour movie.
Everything else in the film comes from the sitcom "Just Shoot Me": Kate Hudson's character is a serious journalist "trapped" working at a shallow fashion magazine, and the characters played by Bebe Neuwirth & Robert Klein are carbon copies of Wendie Malick & George Segal respectively in the aforementioned TV show.
The "plot"--so to speak--is that Hudson's character is going to pick a guy to clamp on to, then drive him away with all the stuff that women do when they feel more needy than desirable, after which she will write an article called "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days". Meanwhile an ad exec (Matthew McConaughey, who I met a couple of times when we were in college together) bets his co-workers he can get anyone to fall in love with him. They pick each other for their respective projects and the bad chick-flick comedy cliches ensue.
Another big problem I have with the movie is that it has nothing to do with the real world. Since when are the Knicks in the NBA finals each year? That hasn't happened since Jeff Van Gundy left. Also, as a Texan, I have come to accept that my accent is used for all sorts of rural types (Ohio in "Heathers", Alaska in "Northern Exposure", Minnesota in "A Simple Plan"); and I realize that in the movies, everywhere outside of New York City proper is supposed to be the sticks. But surely even the most elitist Manhattanite must realize that people from Staten Island do *not* speak with an exaggerated Southern drawl.
For a single heterosexual male, watching this movie is like waiting for your sister to finish trying on outfits at a department store when you were a kid. You just wanted her to hurry up so you could go home and play video games. After watching this movie, I pulled "Tetris" out of the mothballs (OK it's on a hard drive, but you get the point) and found it immensely more entertaining than this film. I give this movie 6 out of 10 stars, but it would be more like 2 out of 10 if anyone besides Kate Hudson had played the lead.