Un Anglais à New York

I was pleasantly surprised to find that How to Lose Friends and Alienate People was nowhere near as 'gross-out' a comedy as the trailer had led me to expect. I rapidly became absorbed in the unfolding of the narrative and remained engrossed throughout. Pacing of the more visual humorous content was, I thought, spot on. (I mean I got the impression I was witnessing Pegg's attempts at restoring lost control very much 'in real time', so to speak.) At other moments there was time allowed to share the main protagonists' (i.e. Pegg's and Dunst's) reflection on how events were affecting them and what had led them to where they now found themselves. All the characters were well cast, to some extent interesting in and of themselves, and generally quite likable. (Any apparent ruthless ambition displayed tended to be tempered by a corresponding good natured resilience.) An entertaining, intelligently scripted, brilliantly directed and superbly acted film that I would thoroughly recommend.

Pegg has had a few hits in the past few years, starting with "Shaun Of The Dead" in 2004, movie on to "Hot Fuzz 2007", early 2008 he came out with "Run Fat Boy Run" and now comes this, "How To Lose Friends And Alienate People" which is in many ways one of my favourite comedy's of the year.

The film is about Sidney Yound, a man who writes a failing magazine who makes fun of celebrity's mostly because he is not one of them. Anyway, one of the most successful magazine owners (Played By Jeff Bridges) invites him (Out of nostalgia) to work at his magazine. Sidney is of course excited and moves to America, there he meets a girl currently writing a book, and hilarity ensues.

This film is great and I hope more come out like it in the near future. Pegg has once again given people everywhere another good film and I cant wait to the see the third part of the blood and ice cream trilogy "Paul". I Rate this film 81%.

How To Lose Friends And Alienate People looked like it might be different to the average rom-com we get these days, it looked like it was going to be a smart and satirical look at mainstream Hollywood. It isn't and it wasn't. It's in exactly the same vein as Run Fat Boy Run. I'm not saying that it's a bad film because it isn't and neither is Run Fat Boy Run, but I just felt like I'd seen it all before.

The start was rushed and lacked that flowing feeling. The middle was the best part, with a couple of laugh out loud moments. The end was a walking cliché which came straight from the school of Cameron Crowe (once again not always a bad thing).

Simon Pegg stuck to his normal schtick when he's without Mr. Wright and Mr.Frost, playing the lovable but overall clumsy fish out of water Brit. Jeff Bridges was and still is The Dude so he can do no wrong. Kirsten Dunst stuck to her guns and Megan Fox was thrown in as the so hot at the moment crumpet.

An entertaining film. Not bad. Not great either.

Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) is a boorish, unlikeable, annoying, inappropriate, douche idiot A-hole. He crashes parties and ridicules famous celebrities in his London magazine. He gets noticed by Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges) and hired onto the glitzy "Sharps" magazine as the cultural editor. He tries to befriend co-worker Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst) and win over starlet fame-whore Sophie Maes (Megan Fox).

Simon Pegg doesn't fit this character that well. Even in 'Spaced', he had a streak of likability. He's an adorable guy. It's a little better when he shows some vulnerabilities later in the movie. For a guy trying to show how shallow everybody is, he's the most shallow of them all. I wish they wade through some of his depths earlier in the movie. The other problem is that he has no chemistry with Kirsten Dunst. She's almost as hopelessly uncompelling as a character. The movie really struggles to find its way in this rom-com formula.

This movie at its heart is basically a romantic comedy, but it made me laugh out loud several times and typical rom coms rarely make me do that. Simon Pegg is definitely usually the funny guy in the movie, but Megan Fox steals a ton of the funny lines and even Kirsten Dunst has some moments that are legitimately funny as well. This movie won't win any awards and the idea (even if it is loosely based on a true story) isn't original, but if you want a good laugh I'd say watch it.