How To Lose Friends And Alienate People
Cast: Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Megan Fox, Danny Huston
Dir: Robert B. Weide
Rating: 2/5
With a top cast, which includes British funnyman as well as Jeff Bridges and Kirsten Dunst it's fair to say that I was expecting quite a lot from this movie.
But How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is very much a movie where all the best parts were put in the trailer.
Based upon the memoir by British writer Toby Young Pegg takes on the role of Sidney Young, a cocky journalist who is hired by editor Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges) to work for Sharps magazine.
Sidney arrives in New York with grand plans to expose the ridiculousness of modern celebrity culture, but Harding forces him to work on puff pieces with fellow writer Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst).
Sidney refuses to adapt to the glitzy magazine world, and is ostracized for his offensive, sloppy behaviour. He and Alison, a frustrated novelist at heart, trade barbs and bond over their terrible jobs, slowly developing a quirky camaraderie.
Things take a turn when Sidney meets Sophie Maes (Megan Fox), an ambitious starlet. He becomes determined to get Sophie into bed, no matter the cost, and after several madcap incidences involving crushed Chihuahuas and transsexuals, he finds himself suddenly sucked into the flashy world of Sharps.
In danger of losing himself completely, he tries to figure out what it is he really wants, and what he is willing to sacrifice to get it.
With Pegg in the central role How to Lose Friends and Alienate People should have been a razor sharp and witty movie but unfortunately we get none of this as it aims instead for cheap gags.
For Pegg this is definitely a backwards step and he should stay well clear of these Hollywood 'comedies' that are doing nothing for his career, he should stay in the UK!
And that's not to mention the blatant disregard for Jeff Bridges, why hire such a talented actor and then virtually ignore him for the duration for the movie? Unfortunately Bridges is drastically underused and this is such a shame.
The lack of character development leaves you not really caring about what happens to them as well a dragging plot sadly leaves what could have been a rip roaring comedy is a major let down.
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is out now on DVD
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw