Mike [Gerard Butler] is a racy commentator on relationships and the truth about them. He is brought onto a local network television show which is produced by the overly controlling and romantically challenged Abby [Katherine Heigl]. Abby can’t stand Mike’s perception of the men and women and after Mike bets his job on his ability to help Abby land this ‘dreamy’ guy we enter one of the most uneven romantic comedies we’ll probably see for a long time.
I’m a huge fan of the romantic comedy genre, and especially the kind with a lot of dick jokes involved – i.e. any Kevin Smith movie – but this movie fails to even itself out as well as any K. Smith movie would. We start out with a quick introduction to our main characters and how they find themselves on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Mike is a man who feels that women are nothing more than a distraction and it’s all about getting more and more sex, while Abby is all about the dream romance and the perfect guy who is out there somewhere and not wasting her time with anyone but Mr. Perfect.
Abby who is a professional woman who can’t find a man, or at least a man who matches her five-year old girl fantasy of what a man is. She, on a first date, dictates to the man what he likes and doesn’t like because she studies his online profile and runs a background check on him. Unlike most people who would just make a face and an excuse themselves when they person isn’t who they claimed to be and chuck out early. I, like many men out there, became enamored with Katherine Heigl when she starred in the raunchy romcom a couple years back, Knocked Up, but now I have to kind of question my need to see this woman play a ridiculous dumb blonde role. It pains me to see such a charismatic and enjoyable actress be forced into a role where she has to play dumb just to get the guy.
However, the real ugly truth about this movie is that this isn’t a movie which puts the woman on a pedestal, but rather a movie which demeans men. It’s one thing to have a main character who believes and preaches that the only way a woman is going to land a man is if she dresses in sexy dresses and sticks out her breasts but they don’t have to have the next character prove that it’s true by going against all of her principles and do what our male chauvinist says in order to get her perfect guy. Who says that all men are dogs and only want you for sex? I’ve found that there are a lot of men who are just as emotional and sappy as women are stereotypical portrayed as and not all of them want the supermodel looking lady, and I’m not talking about unattractive men.
My biggest problem with the film is that it doesn’t commit. Any good liar will tell you that the most important part of a lie is to commit to it. If you decide you’re going to be the raunchiest most sexist and demeaning person in the world you have to commit to it and never give in no matter what people catch you in. The film handed us these two characters and the main transformation comes from Abby where she becomes disillusioned about what love is and the whole idea of a man, while Mike is really a softy with a rough exterior. As soon as Mike noticed that he was starting to like Abby the film became a little more than stupid and you were just counting down until we get the scene where Mike reveals his feelings and gets crushed. However, I guess there’s not much more I could expect from Robert Luketic – the director of Legally Blonde.
Overall this movie has some pretty out there crass funny moments but overall is nowhere near as good a romantic comedy as the run of the mill stuff. Katherine Hiegl loses some of her charm for me while Butler steals the show for at least the first half of the movie. If you’re okay with taking your lady friend to a movie that speaks about men imagining a woman’s orifices, oral sex jokes and a scene with Hiegl wearing a pair of vibrating panties then sure this may be right up your alley. However, I’m relegating this movie to a rent at best.
IMDB says 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes says 15%
I say 4.5/10