I Love You Man (2009)

Hollywood Reporter
"The slight Rudd and the gangly Segel strike the right physical contrast for comedy....It's a rare comedy that actually grows funnier on reflection. It benefits enormously from the talents of the two stars." 03/13/2009

USA Today
"The movie works because everything hinges on the camaraderie and undeniable chemistry between Rudd and Segel....I LOVE YOU, MAN's light-hearted exploration of male bonding provides substantial fodder for humor, heightened by the inspired casting of two of the industry's most appealing comic actors." 03/20/2009

Los Angeles Times
"Rudd has long been the nice guy/straight man character in comedies like this and he delivers that again with some added sweetness since this time around his posse is a bunch of gal pals." 03/20/2009

New York Times
"[A] fitfully funny comedy....[The director] sets a nice, easygoing tone for the actors....That suits the talents of Mr. Rudd, a slack screen presence who owns the patent on male adorableness and is charming to watch..." 03/20/2009

Entertainment Weekly
"Paul Rudd gives a startlingly funny and original performance as a nice guy with serious dweebish tendencies, and the delight of what Rudd does here comes down to how exquisitely embarrassing he is to watch....I LOVE YOU, MAN is on the side of all things rude, raunchy, and guyish..." -- Grade: A 03/27/2009

Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "Paul Rudd and Jason Segel are howlingly funny....Their presence and ace comic timing kick the movie up a notch." 04/02/2009

Washington Post
"After delivering scene-stealing turns in THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN and KNOCKED UP, Rudd claims the much-deserved spotlight in I LOVE YOU, MAN, which in its own endearing way tweaks the very same male-bonding pieties that those movies made a fortune celebrating." 03/20/2009

Chicago Sun-Times
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "Jason Segel plays Sydney as a man thoroughly comfortable in his own skin, an unapologetic hedonist who uses his intelligence as a comic weapon....I LOVE YOU, MAN is, above all, just plain funny....You feel good watching the movie." 03/18/2009

ReelViews 7 of 10
It has long been my contention that the male bonding movie, or so-called "buddy movie," is actually a romantic comedy without the sex. I Love You, Man makes this explicit - it's a buddy movie with all of the rom-com elements exaggerated out of proportion. However, despite the clever premise and several laugh-aloud moments, the film as a whole underwhelms. That's partially the result of a storyline that sags a bit from overfamiliarity, but the bigger problem is one that kills its share of standard romantic comedies: sputtering chemistry between the leads. The two main characters, played by Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, don't connect in a way that has us rooting for them to be together in a meaningful capacity at the end, and that makes I Love You, Man seem flat...While the film offers its share of zingers and raunchy punch lines, there's not much in the way of real insight into male bonding, romance, or tolerating friendships within a committed relationship. There's a sense that Hamburg wants to offer these things, but the script never gets around to doing it. The biggest "truths" he comes close to involve masturbation and oral sex. Those topics are good for shock value and getting a few laughs, but they're not subjects that result in thought-provoking dialogue...There's no question that I Love You, Man is a cut above a lot of the movies out there masquerading as comedies, and it offers something many of them fail to provide: material that is genuinely worth laughing about. But, unless a film is balls-to-the-wall, start-to-finish hilarity, it needs more than a witty framing device and sporadic humor to keep it afloat, and that's where I Love You, Man comes up short. This is by no means a bad movie, but it's not something worth searching out. It's mediocre. Unfortunately, these days in the comedy genre, that could almost be considered a recommendation. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
I would like to have a friend like Sydney Fife. I think a lot of guys would. Even though it's funny, charming and light-hearted, that may be the basic appeal of "I Love You, Man." Sydney represents the freedoms most men hesitate to give themselves, maybe through fear of ending up alone, arrested or locked inside behavior that looks fun when you're young but crazy when you're older. The great thing about Sydney is that he lives your fantasies so you don't have to yourself...Peter (Paul Rudd) needs a Sydney (Jason Segel) in his life. He has been told this by Zooey (Rashida Jones), the girl he plans to marry. She would, however, have preferred a less extreme case than this Sydney. Peter is a real-estate agent who is hopelessly, even touchingly, clueless when it comes to seeming the least bit cool. One of those really nice guys, who, when the chips are down, has no idea where to look, what to say, how to move or how to extricate himself gracefully from an impossible situation. He gets along great with women but has no male best friend and actually needs to find one to be best man at his wedding...Because this is a rom-com, various obligatory scenes are necessary; Peter goes shopping for a best friend on some man dates with guys met on the Internet, with predictable results. The movie feels locked into formula until the appearance of Sydney, met while scarfing free food at Peter's open house for the home of Lou Ferrigno. Segel brings sunshine into the movie; we like his character even more quickly than Peter does..."I Love You, Man" is, above all, just plain funny. It's funny with some dumb physical humor, yes, and some gross-out jokes apparently necessary to all buddy movies, but also funny in observations, dialogue, physical behavior and Sydney Fife's observations as a people-watcher. I heard a lot of real laughter from a preview audience, not the perfunctory laughter at manufactured payoffs. You feel good watching the movie. That's what comedies are for, right? - Roger Ebert