An American comedy

Rating: 4/10 (18 January 2010)

Being a huge fan of the comedies from 80's I can't help but compare the current gang of Apatow, Phillips, Rogen, Ferrell, Reilly, Black etc to Reitman, Ramis, Landis, Murray, Chase, Candy, Aykroyd, Belushi, Martin etc. Funny enough, always appearing Harold Ramis seems to be the only connection between these two generations.
I didn't know this was an Apatow production before the end credits hit the screen and I have to say I'm quite happy I didn't, because I could now see it without much prejudice, as I haven't really connected with any of the Apatow-era/gang comedies. I did find it somewhat funny. I also found it very American, very formulaic and very this millennium. Everything that the mainstream comedies from recent years are.
The movie made me laugh mostly just because of the explicity of the jokes. Yes, it was funny when a mans private parts appeared on screen (should I put a spoiler tag?), but only because it's a major Hollywood production, not done this explicitly before? And you can easily see it's there "just because". Nor can I remember when they so openly and straight forwardly praised dope, even tho it's done in almost every comedy that is produced lately. These two always re-appearing and boundary stretching subjects are what I can't connect to, and at times it seems this is what the movies are all about.
Being a European I don't find nude men funny, per se. Being kind of traditional, I don't find drugs very funny either. Then there's John C. Reilly - who I actually find an enjoyable actor, is doing the lead and trying to run a comedy. He just hasn't got the comedic charisma of Ferrell, Black or let's say Murray or Chase. He's sort of the Dan Aykroyd of the first decade, a good actor, but more of a wing man rather than a leading man.
I was left with mixed emotions. The movie made me laugh quite a few times and it did have fairly good production values, but when the running joke is your path from mild drugs to stronger drugs, I can't say I liked it, even if it made me laugh.