Film reviews: I Love You, Man, Good, Not Easily Broken, In the Loop, Crank 2, In Search of Beethoven

Published on Friday 17 April 2009 09:21

I Love You, Man (15) ****

Coined in the mid 1990s and popularised almost a decade later in relation to David Beckham, the term metrosexual is now firmly embedded in popular culture, redefining so-called masculine norms.

It's now acceptable for men to clutter the bathroom with beauty products and spend hundreds of pounds on their clothes and bodies.

Cosmetic surgery is also an acceptable and affordable means to achieve the sculpted and toned physiques touted on the glossy fronts of men's health magazines.

The modern metrosexual looks just as good as the woman on his arm, if not better.

I Love You, Man is a hilarious comedy of social mores, which surveys the emotional fallout when a quintessential, 21st century, 30-something metrosexual is forced to rediscover the primal hunter-gatherer within.

Amusingly, his guide to the unspoken rules of male bonding is a confident, assured gay man with a passion for sports, fishing and video games.

Writer-director John Hamburg's script takes great delight in up-ending convention, milking laughs from unexpected sources as the lead character makes a series of toe-curling faux pas in the process of enlarging his circle of drinking buddies.

Los Angeles estate agent, Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd), is head over heels in love with his long-term girlfriend Zooey (Rachida Jones). He proposes and she excitedly accepts, telling all of her gal pals the good news before they begin to plan the nuptials in minute detail.

For his part, Peter realises he lacks a circle of male friends to call upon as best man and ushers.

To combat this void in his life, he nervously embarks on a series of 'man dates' to find new drinking buddies, with encouragement and guidance from his gay brother, Robbie (Andy Samberg).

Woman-chasing slacker Sydney Fife (Jason Segal), who apparently earns his cash through investments, gets under Peter's skin and the pair become best friends, discovering an affinity for the rock group Rush.

As the friendship blossoms, Zooey begins to feel a little neglected and Peter is forced to re-evaluate his priorities to ensure everything goes smoothly as his fiancee prepares to walk down the aisle.

I Love You, Man bears the hallmarks of one of Judd Apatow's bro-mantic comedies (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Superbad, Step Brothers, Pineapple Express) but this is all Hamburg's creation and a delightful and charming confection at that.

The natural spark between Rudd and Segel is irresistible, peppered with obscenities and ad-libs, building to a genuinely moving scene between the characters at the altar that leaves a lump in the throat.

Supporting performances are equally appealing, including Sarah Burns and Jaime Pressly as Zooey's sassy girlfriends and Jon Favreau as a chauvinistic bully, who is forever under the thumb of his wife.

Obvious gay jibes are largely sidestepped in favour of more sophisticated humour and the occasional bad taste interlude, largely at Peter's expense.

I Love I Love You, Man.

ALSO SHOWING

IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN (Cert TBC)

Director Phil Grabsky follows up In Search Of Mozart with this equally exhaustive documentary of another composer, narrated by Juliet Stevenson and RSC actor David Dawson.

Examining each piece of music in the canon in chronological order alongside Beethoven's biography and letters, the film features excerpts of 55 performances of his works including Claudio Abbado's performance of the opera Fidelio and The Endellion String Quartet's airing of the quartets.

This portrait of creative genius also includes contributions from the likes of Emanuel Ax, Helene Grimaud, Fabio Luisi, Sir Roger Norrington and Vadim Repin.

NOT EASILY BROKEN (PG)

Dave (Morris Chestnut) and Clarice (Taraji P Henson) are happily married though not as blissfully in love as friends and family might believe.

A car accident and temptations of the flesh test their relationship to the breaking point, inflamed by Clarice's insistence that she pursue her dreams as a real estate agent at the expense of starting a family with her husband.

Dave seeks solace with his buddies, ladies' man Brock (Eddie Cibrian) and jocular nice guy Tree (Kevin Hart), who help him to coach little league baseball.

Unsure how to find their way back to one another, Dave and Clarice search for the spark which first kindled their relationship, meeting fierce resistance from her meddlesome and conniving mother, Mary (Jenifer Lewis).

GOOD (15, 95 mins)

Vincente Amorim directs this provocative morality tale, adapted for the screen by John Wrathall from CP Taylor's acclaimed play, set against the backdrop of the Nazi invasion of Europe.

Literature professor John Halder (Viggo Mortensen - pictured) pens a novel dealing with euthanasia which wins the approval of the Fuhrer, forging an alliance between Halder and Nazi officer Bouhler (Mark Strong).

Gradually accepted into the upper echelons of power of the party machine, Halder clashes with his Jewish psychiatrist friend Maurice (Jason Isaacs) and also with his wife Helen (Anastasia Hille), who eventually loses her scholarly husband to a beautiful, Aryan student called Anne (Jodie Whittaker).

As the extermination continues around him, Halder tries to convince himself that he carries no weight of responsibility for events that will scar Europe for eternity.

In the Loop (15) ****

Politics is full of so much spin and hyperbole, you could be forgiven for thinking that there is no substance whatsoever behind all of the handshakes and smiles.

Award-winning satirist, Armando Iannucci, evidently thinks so too, mercilessly poking fun at the political establishment in this spin-off from his scabrous BBC Four series The Thick Of It.

Iannucci reunites with the same writing team for this sardonic and foul-mouthed film, which crams more belly laughs into its first 20 minutes than most comedies manage in two hours.

To say the script is polished to perfection and peppered with dazzling one-liners would be an under-statement.

The only danger is that you'll be guffawing so hard at some of the gags, the next punchline will be lost amidst the delirium.

Some of the protagonists from The Thick Of It are resurrected here, but the film stands alone as a biting indictment of blather and bluster.

Ardent fans of the TV series will be just as helpless with laughter as complete newcomers to this world of sound bites and media manipulation.

In the eye of the storm is tenacious communications chief Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), who is hurriedly called into action to minimize the damage created by British Secretary of State for International Development, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), after the minister claims that a US and British backed war is "unforesee-able".

Foster compounds his blunder by giving a second television interview.

"To walk the road of peace," he blunders, "sometimes we need to be ready to climb the mountain of conflict."

Tucker is aghast: "You sound like a Nazi Julie Andrews!"

At the insistence of the Prime Minister, Foster heads for Washington accompanied by new aide Toby (Chris Addison), while Director of Communications Judy (Gina McKee) papers the cracks back home.

Foster soon finds himself embroiled in a tug of war between the pro - and anti-war factions, the latter spearheaded by US Assistant Secretary for Diplomacy Karen Clarke (Mimi Kennedy) and US General Miller (Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini).

While Tucker tries to prevent his man in a suit saying another word and embarrassing the British government any more, Toby woos Karen Clarke's ambitious intern, Liza (Anna Chlumsky).

In The Loop is hysterical, anchored by a virtuoso turn from Capaldi as the master of spin who will stop at nothing to achieve his party's goals.

"I will marshal all the media forces of darkness to hound you to an assisted suicide," he snarls to one potential casualty.

Hollander is a lovable klutz, getting one of the biggest laughs when his politician casually remarks that he dare not watch an adult movie on the hotel television system in case he has to declare it - an idea that has current resonance in the real world of politics.

The plot unfolds at a lick with hardly any of the 105 minutes wasted as a potty-mouthed Scottish spin-doctor rebuilds reputations from the ashes with his finger on the political pulse.

And don't miss . .

Cranky hero Statham is all heart

Crank 2: high voltage (18)

IN Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor's 2006 action-thriller, Jason Statham played a hit man who combated a deadly and powerful toxin, injected into his system, by maximising the amount of adrenaline already in there.

For the sequel, he reprises his role as bruiser Chev Chelios in a storyline that continues directly after the explosive exploits of the original Crank.

Chev wakes to discover that an enigmatic Chinese mobster has ripped out his heart and replaced the vital organ with a battery-operated ticker that will stop unless he gives himself regular jolts of electricity.

Aided by kindly Doc Miles (Dwight Yoakum) and his girlfriend Eve (Amy Smart), who now knows exactly what he does for a living, Chev intends to retrieve his heart whilst outwitting Mexican crime lord El Huron (Clifton Collins Jr) and Triad elder Poon Dong (David Carradine).

To survive on the mean streets of Los Angeles, Chev must constantly tap into the city's power supply but he must be careful not to zap himself for too long or he runs the risk of blowing up his new heart.

Coming next week

Russell Crowe, (pictured) Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Helen Mirren star in the film version of the acclaimed BBC drama series STATE OF PLAY.

A deranged mall security guard (Seth Rogen) wreaks havoc in the comedy OBSERVE AND REPORT.

And a mentally unstable, young woman (Emily Browning) begins to suspect her stepmother (Elizabeth Banks) might be a murderess in the thriller THE UNINVITED.