CaZSuede

This series will make sense to those who have played the game, but for "virgins" like me, it is not the most understanding plot line. The plot takes place 4000 year after the Earth is wiped out (it is not clear in the series what wiped out the Earth), and humanity is spread over the galaxy. There are several classes of people, from soldiers fighting for the Federation, workers for Vector Industries, Realiens who are designed humans, Androids, Cyborgs, a dimensional race called Gnosis, People working for U-Tic (bad guys), The Kukai foundation (good or bad?). They are looking for the Zohan (not Adam Sandler) and they only have zohan avatars (I don't know who made them or what they actually do, but they have Jewish characters on them).

It's a confusing mess and the way the plot unwinds doesn't help. It makes assumptions that you know what is going on, when new characters suddenly appear, or when a flashback happens. The problem is that the series (which is only 10-25 min episodes should be 2~3 seasons long (30~50 episodes) where the complex plot can be explained and flashbacks unveiled. It has the possibility to become an excellent show, but it seems that the producers wanted to finish with the series and move to their next project.

The saying "Nice Guys finish last" has a lot of meaning in this movie. Chris, a real nice guy who has crush on his HS best friend is stuck in the Friend Zone. A netherworld where a woman sees the ideal guy.....but just not as a boyfriend.

He leaves HS and goes off and becomes an executive and due to some twist of fate, ends up back in his hometown in NJ and coming face to face with Jamie.

Of course, he is a buff, but arrogant man and his dating tricks don't seem to work, since she still sees him as the sensitive, nice guy that she was friends with.

The movie is funny, in sort of a mix between light comedy and Van Wilder and there are some LOL scenes in the movie that I didn't expect to see. Amy Smart is just about perfect in this role, as the "real" GF that character Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) pines over and doesn't know how to act around. Brander only know how to deal with superficial girls that have no meaning to him.

Ryan Reynolds does a good, but not great job as Brander. He is witty and funny and is fearless when it comes to self-deprecation. His problem is that he is just not really that sympathetic and his character comes across as bland in many scenes.

I had real issues with a lot of the script. I can tell this script was touched by studio hands and that execs were screaming "We need wacky characters! We need contrived scenes involving kids and Christmas ornaments!" The story had a strong core, which involved the longing of Chris for Jamie, but is muddled by the introduction of Cartoon character Samantha (Anna Faris) and typical jerk Dusty (Chris Klein).

If this was an independent movie, I feel it would have been a lot better. If I were the writer, I would have made Dusty more true to being a competitor to Jamie's heart. I would have made Anna be more bitchy, but not cartoon-y with Chris' job in her hand, and I would lose the typical crazy mom, the dorky hockey scene, the idiotic Christmas eve scene and added more things that Chris and Jamie did in the past that made their friendship special to both of them