Jamais entre amis

Jason was very funny and charming, and he plays a guy most dudes can relate to.

Jason tells the story from a guy's point of view which is something that is not done in chick clicks, but I guess when you're as charming as Sudeikis, you can pull that off.

Plus Alison Brie was the perfect Straight man for Sudeikis's comedy. It's not as laugh out loud as I hoped it would be but it had a few giggles and how the story was laid out made for a very entertaining film.

I enjoined it.

Greetings again from the darkness. In 1989, Rob Reiner's WHEN HARRY MET SALLY hit theatres, and many described it as an updated/contemporary version of Woody Allen's 1977 classic ANNIE HALL. It's been 26 years since Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan debated whether guys and girls could be "just" friends, and now writer/director Leslye Headland shows us that same debate continues to this day.

Jason Sudekis ("Saturday Night Live", Horrible Bosses) stars as Jake, and Alison Brie ("Mad Men", "Community") stars as Lainey. These two characters meet in college and promptly lose their virginity to each other. (It takes a little imagination to accept these two thirty-somethings as college kids) Twelve years later, they meet again by happenstance at a meeting for sex addicts. It turns out, Jake's biggest phobia is related to commitment, and he's a womanizer who has mastered the break-up (yep, he slept with your sister). Lainey's issue is commitment as well, only it's her misplaced commitment to a married doctor (Adam Scott) instead of her boyfriend (Adam Brody) that causes problems.

Jake and Lainey quickly pick up their legendary (in their own mind) repartee, and it becomes a friendship comprised of rapid-fire one-liners. Yes, I used the F word to describe their relationship. To protect their platonic bond, they go to the extreme of creating a safe word as an admission/warning if one is feeling overly amorous towards the other … it's like a fire hose to extinguish any thoughts not related to being a good buddy.

While Sudekis and Brie are both talented and likable, it's the outdated pop culture references that create such an out-of-place feeling for the viewer. How many thirty-somethings these days reference Bobby Fischer, Anne Sullivan and Madame Butterfly during conversation? And the "Pontiac Aztec" line may be the best line in the movie, but how likely is it to resonate with most audience members? There is certainly no shortage of dialogue committed to laughs, but so much of it seems out of step with the young adults it's clearly targeting.

The obvious comparisons/tributes to WHEN HARRY MET SALLY come in the form of the split screen during a text conversation (in contrast to Harry and Sally's phone chats), and the uncomfortable scene featuring a glass tea bottle is the answer to Sally's infamous diner scene. What's lacking is the intellect and heart so prevalent in the 1989 film. It may be contemporary, but it's missing any subtlety or nuance. Perhaps that's the influence of Producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, both who specialize in laughs over nuance.

Additional support work is provided by Amanda Peet, as Jake's boss and love interest; and Jason Mantzoukas and Andrea Savage, the married couple trying hard to help while delivering the film's best and funniest scenes (the closing credits – wow!). Also contributing are Natasha Lyonne, Margarita Levieva, and Katherine Waterston (as the doctor's wife).

Though they deliver some easy laughs (a good thing), if this movie and Amy Schumer's recent TRAINWRECK are accurate social observations of the times, it's difficult to have much hope for modern day relationships (not really a funny thing).

'Sleeping With Other People' is a romantic/sex comedy starring Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie. It focuses on their relationship and the events and circumstances that force the way they interact to change. I went into this film expecting to get an unoriginal, formulaic rom-com with mildly entertaining humour at the most, and unlikeable characters. But i was pleasantly surprised by this film, now it is no game- changing rom-com but i actually enjoyed watching this almost the whole way through. This movie had the comedy in some capacity, it had the romance, the sex, and a basic plot, but it was the likable characters that tied the whole thing together.

Rom-Com's nowadays seem to recycle the same overused jokes and comedic moments and it just makes for a dreadful movie because you know the punchline before it hits. But here we had multiple pretty funny moments spread throughout the film that got me to laugh quite a few times. There was no moment that got me crying of laughter but a lot of these moments are worth a good laugh because i didn't see them coming. Is it void of bad ineffective jokes? No. It has its misses here and there and it has a few comedic sequences that last for around a minute too long, but i laughed on more occasions than not. One thing i would say is that to me it didn't feel consistently funny, like, there weren't long 20 minute sections where it focused on the humour alone, it switched between romantic and comedic moments constantly, occasionally bringing them together. The romance i did like in this film, i was interested seeing how the scenes with Sudeikis and Brie together played out and also how the scenes played out when they were separated. It was handled well, was balanced well with comedic moments and the big driver for my interest in the romance was the characters.

Jake (Jason Sudeikis) and Lainey (Alison Brie) were quite interesting characters and also very likable. They both seemed like fun, lively people and even though they get a little silly here and there, they seem pretty grounded and it helped to keep me interested in the film. Even though the plot was fairly basic, because these characters were interesting and not made dumb just to get some cheap jokes it made the plot seem more unique and different and i really liked that. I would have liked this movie more and given it a higher score if it wasn't for the last 10 minutes or so where i felt the film lost that uniqueness and went all unoriginal. I thought it was finishing off on a strong note until it went for a cliché predictable ending that really annoyed me and did have an affect on my overall enjoyment.

In the end, this was a fairly good romantic comedy. It had a few issues with the comedy but overall it got me to laugh quite a few times throughout, the romantic story was interesting enough and the characters were very likable. Some pacing issues and a crappy ending bring it down but overall it was enjoyable. - 6.1

Let me start by saying, the title is misleading.

You might think that this is about a married couple (or couples) who have a "free" relationship and it is allowed to sleep with other people, have one night stands and so on.

Far from it and far from original, this is the story of 2 students (a "boy" and a "girl") who had a fling back in the days and meet again after 15 years but they are reluctant to begin a relationship between them. They try to stay friends and keep their relationship platonic while they keep denying the physical attraction they have to one another.

So, it is basically a "When Harry met Sally" rip off which tries to implement a more raw "sexual" and comedic style.

Despite the fact that this is rated "R" there is no nudity or vulgarity which makes it a bad decision to rated like that. If nothing else they lose tickets without a cause.

The 2 leads are somehow likable but I wouldn't say that they have a strong chemistry together. The rest of the cast is mostly unsympathetic especially Adam Scott who plays the man-trophy in this.

It is not funny per se. Near the end the things might even be considered dramatic with a scene that seems pointless and out of the blue, just before the obvious (from the start), forced conclusion.

There are some technical problems too. The direction and especially the editing are amateurish especially at the beginning of the movie.

Overall: I understand that there is some hype about this movie and some people are excited to see it (maybe they misunderstood the premise too). But this is overall a sub-par movie, trying to wear the shoes of a rom-com classic.

After paying to watch it I at first regretted not watching the preview as the beginning suggested it just might be too sophomoric and unfunny. But the film actually turned out to be fairly witty and definitely engaging. Yes, it was predictable but the dialogue and scenes were lively enough to make it not matter. To me there was only one major flaw in the movie and that centered on Adam Scott's character of Matthew. First off, he was so unappealing and unattractive, at least to me, that I couldn't understand the attachment of Lainie to him. Why him, and why for so long? Also, to somehow equate Lainie's attachment to Matthew with Jake's philandering really didn't make much sense. But overlooking these discrepancies I was still able to enjoy watching this romantic comedy, just as being able to predict the ending didn't stop me from smiling at it.