My Best Friend's Girl (2008)

Director: Howard Deutch

Cast: Dane Cook as Tank Turner, Kate Hudson as Alexis, Alec Baldwin as Professor Turner, Jason Biggs as Dustin, Diora Baird as Rachel, Lizzy Caplan as Ami, Riki Lindhome as Hilary, Mini Anden as Lizzy, Hilary Pingle as Claire, Nate Torrence as Craig, Malcolm Barrett as Dwalu, Taran Killam as Josh, Faye Grant as Merrilee, Richard Snee as Brian, Amanda Brooks as Carly

I went to this only because I couldn't get into the movie I came to the
theater for. I don't know Dane Cook's stand-up and hated him in the
overrated Dan In Real Life. But, we figured we could pass time for two
hours so we went in.

It started routinely enough. Okay, the guy gets paid to be the date
from heck so the girls goes crying back into her guy's arms. Okay
concept, if executed well. Then we get Jason Biggs trying to clean up
his act to impress Kate Hudson who likes him but is not wowed by him.
Since Jason is Dane's roommate, he hires Dane to do his specialty. By
this point, we're 20+ minutes into the movie and it made me laugh twice
and is otherwise pretty lame. I looked at my watch. Then, Kate's
roommate preps her for the date to sow some wild oats and the real fun
begins.

The humor in My Best Friend's Girl is rude, crude, inappropriate,
socially irredeemable -- and made me laugh out loud - a lot! Cook's
chemistry with Hudson was electric. The twist is she can give as good
as she gets and vice versa. She gets under his skin, but he stays in
denial, leading to his next assignment which to me was the high point
of the movie. The girl is religious and he takes her to a restaurant in
an old church called Jesus Crust - where pizza is a religious
experience. i don't want to spoil the inspired gags in this sequence,
but I was nearly rolling in the aisles. This victim actually winds up
setting the stage for a few plot twists I didn't expect. The movie is
raucous fun from then on until the end.

I thought Alec Baldwin was absurdly funny as the Women's Studies
professor who is Cook's father. His chemistry with Cook is also
terrific. Cook's former client who is about to marry Kate's sister is
also hilarious as is she and the woman playing Kate's mother. Then, the
movie goes a bit soft,conventional, and derivative -- but is still
witty at the end, and the last two scenes play out nicely.

This is not a piece of art, but if you ever went to frat parties and
can remember having fun at them and want to spend some time laughing
out loud, give My Best Friend's Girl a look. I work in Manhattan so I
have to be careful to whom I say I liked this movie -- that's why I
call it a guilty pleasure!