Just Friends

Just Friends is the latest comedy from Ryan Reynolds, whose restaurant comedy Waiting... came out just 2 months ago, and got a very good review from me. This time around Reynolds is under the helm of Roger Kumble, who brought us the first two Cruel Intentions (first one great, second one has a lesbian scene, which means is also great), and they will team up again next year for the action comedy Ride Along (btw, Reynolds has 6 movies coming out next year). To complete the naming, the movie is written by Adam 'Tex' Davis is his feature debut and the cast is rounded by Reynolds’ Waiting... costar Anna Faris, American Pie's Chris Klein and Road Trip's Amy Smart (she's naked there, not here).

The story is simple: Reynolds plays Chris, a fat guy in high school who’s been Jamie's (Smart) best friend since forever. They spend all their time together, sleep in the same bed at times (as friends), talk about everything, etc. But Jamie is super hot, and she dates all these jocks, so when they graduate and are ready to go on with their lives, Chris sees it as the chance to confess his love for her. Problem is, he's doing it at the graduation party at Jamie's house, and with a letter, but someone else ends up reading the letter, showing it to everybody and Chris is even more embarrassed than he was before. Jamie reads the letter too, but kills him with an "I love too, as a friend right?" that makes him leave and swears to never come back to his home town in New Jersey. Reynolds’ fat suit is amazing, and you barely notice the face fat chin and cheeks. And he's really funny too, especially when lip-syncing a song he wrote Jamie called "I Swear".
We jump ten years and Chris is a successful young man in Los Angeles. He's working in the music industry, he plays hockey, dates girls hotter than Jamie and best of all, he's thin. But a problem arise when his boss (a cameo appearance by Stephen Root) orders him to accompany Hollywood's It girl Samantha Jones (Faris) to France to sign a record deal with their agency, but when they are on the air, problems with the plane make them land in New Jersey, where Chris is forced to stay for a few days with Samantha, so they end up going to his house. Samantha Jones is meant to be Paris Hilton of course (or Ashley Simpson, though both Ashley and Jessica are mentioned during the movie so I'm sticking with Paris), and Faris must've had some fun with the character. She played it like a total psycho. What's funnier is that Samantha Jones has only one awesome hit single called "Forgiveness" that is loved by every little girl in the world, but she thinks she's also got a seriousness to her that will appeal to adults too and so she wants Chris to take her to play at a local blues club, which doesn't end up very well. Here is also Chris Marquette (The Girl Next Door's Eli) who plays Chris' little brother. He's obsessed with Samantha Jones (he masturbates multiple times a day thinking about her, he tells her), and so Chris is always ditching Samantha and putting her in the car with his brother, so he can instead go and work on Jamie. Jamie is still living there, and still hot, working as a bartender in the local bar, she's also a substitute teacher. We also meet Chris Klein's Dusty again here. We'd seen him before 10 years ago when he was a nerdy and full of acne weirdo also in love with Jamie just like Chris. Now Dusty is a firefighter, helps at the local hospital, and is pretty much a town hero. And he's still in love with Jamie, so is natural that they will compete for her.
And here's where the movie could've been excellent instead of just good, as Dusty at one point says "The two former geeks are now going to make everyone pay" or something like that, and I think they should've gone with that idea and make it work throughout the entire movie. Instead, they only fight over Jamie, and we see how Chris thinks he's what Jamie always wanted now, a thin jock guy with money, but all she wants is her best friend back, who she may really love now.

The movie then gets very formulaic and predictable, but it's funny anyway. The movie would've benefited by going with the two former geeks getting revenge idea, which would've made Chris Klein's role bigger too, but is ok with what it ended up being. Just like Waiting..., Just Friends is not ground breaking and is not going to be a classic, but is a funny movie, easy to watch, with beautiful people, those two amazingly funny songs, and a crazy Anna Faris whose performance alone makes the movie worth watching.