Monday, January 26, 2015

Movie review - "They Both Came" (2014) ***

Genuinely funny take off of romantic comedies - most specifically You've Got Mail but also a whole swath of them. It's a sign of the changing Hollywood that instead of being done for a decent budget with a big marketing push it was made for a relatively low price and seems to have found only a small audience online.

The cast are full of names, even if at times it feels like the same old gang: Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler in the leads, Bill Hader and Ellie Kemper as their friends (either could have played the lead as well), Colbie Smulders as the bitchy fake love interest for him, Ed Helms as the boring fake love interest for her, Jason Mantzoukas and Max Greenfield as Rudd's posse. They're all brilliantly talented performers and do a fine job.

There's lots of funny moments and jokes. I do feel for a feature length satire to work you have to ultimately care about the lead characters - like I did in Flying High. I didn't quite get there here, and occasionally if felt like a sketch that had been stretched out, but it was highly enjoyable.

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