"How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" (2008) (How To Lose Friends And Alienate People (DVD))

Member Name: jbsabbath

Product:	How To Lose Friends And Alienate People (DVD)
Date:	30/08/09 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simon Pegg, a dose of Brit humour in the Big Apple

Disadvantages: Megan Fox as herself

Based on Toby Young's memoirs about moving to America to join the staff of a large corporate celebrity magazine, Simon Pegg plays Sidney Young, a writer who employs every trick in the book to get into the premieres and big parties and interview the celebrities for his small-time but ballsy mag.

After donning a disguise and accidentely setting a pig loose at one of these parties, he is contacted by the big cheese of the business Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges), the chief editor of Sharps magazine in New York, who wants Sidney to join his team to inject a dose of risk into Sharps' celebrity ass-kissing ways.

However, Clayton gets more than he bargained for with the young Brit, as Sidney bungles his way through the high-rise tower, upsetting the codes of the workplace (including hiring a stripper on take-your-children-to-work day) and confusing all of his workmates with his strange sense of humour.

While there, he tries to befriend Alison (Kirsten Dunst), even though they both initially dislike each other, and slowly they fall for one another - but love is never so easy.

Not when the dangerous publicist Eleanor Johnson (Gillian Anderson) and fame-hungry Sophie Maes (Megan Fox) are about, upsetting the balance.

It's really good to see Simon Pegg succeeding with the American audience, and there's not really anyone that deserves it more with his writing and acting talent, what with the fantastic TV series "Spaced" and movies "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz".

Those that he has not been involved in writing have either left him in minor supporting roles ("Mission Impossible 3" and "Star Trek") or have been fairly mediocre to poor ("Run, Fatboy, Run" and "Big Nothing"), so although I enjoy watching Simon Pegg a lot I was not expecting much from "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People".

So I ended up being happily surprised, as the movie does contain a good number of solid laughs and comes across as fairly believable as well - it makes fun of both a Brit in the big city and shallow corporate Americans at the same time.

Pegg is very good here, utilising a combination of both physical comedy and witty one-liners, his style of comedy 'confusing' the New Yorkers no end which makes it all the more amusing.

Kirsten Dunst is also very good, someone I've never really seen as a stand-out performer, but against Pegg she works very well, coming across as both strong and fragile at the same time.

Someone who I thought would just melt into the background and disappear was Jeff Bridges as the corporate big-cheese who secretly admires the young Sidney Young's actions as they remind him of his livelier youth.

Bridges comes across as thoroughly dominating, bored of his 'safe' life and only chastising Pegg out of a need to live up to the job rather than disagreeing with his actions.

His long graying hair suits him too.

Then there's sex-on-legs Megan 'foxy' Fox playing a character I can't imagine is too far from the real thing, flaunting herself for the press and manipulating the men around her to get what she wants.

Rather than admiring her performance of herself, she's far too buttered up and I pretty much ended up despising her - Kirsten Dunst is the eye-candy here, looking a lot less pampered and better off for it.

Although "How to Lose Friends..." does have its funny bits, sadly it didn't really have enough of them to make it as a straight comedy - really this is a dramedy and comes across as fairly realistic.

The banter between the characters is always very good, and it's a suitably heart-warming rom-com that can be enjoyed by all.

The DVD is a fairly safe purchase as a birthday gift, so give it a try!

[The DVD can be purchased from play.com for £5.99 (at time of writing), including postage and packing]

Summary: A solid comedy about a Brit among a wolfpack of American corporate types