Back in high school, Chris (Reynolds) was an overweight nerd and in love with his best friend Jamie (Smart), but she only thought of him like a brother. Ten years later, Chris is now a hot L.A. music exec and finds himself himself back in his hometown and in love with Jamie all over again. But can they really be more than Just Friends?
DVD Features:
Alternate endings
Audio Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurette
Gag Reel
Music Video
Theatrical Trailer
Manic energy and an agreeable level of comic insanity turn
Just Friends into the kind of brainless comedy you can enjoy as a modest guilty pleasure. If you liked director Roger Kumble's previous comedy
The Sweetest Thing (and let's face it, that movie had some
really funny moments), chances are you'll get at least a few solid belly-laughs from this not-so-high-concept premise, in which a formerly fat high-schooler named Chris (Ryan Reynolds) is transformed, ten years later, into a womanizing music executive with a high-profile client (Anna Faris) in the Britney Spears/Christina Aguilera mold. As it zips along with some broad-stroked slapstick and snappy one-liners, the screenplay by Adam Tex Davis contrives to reunite Chris with Jamie (Amy Smart), the former cheerleader who was the great, unrequited love of Chris' miserable high-school life. By his narcissistic logic, he'll seduce her by treating her badly (i.e. she'll want what she thinks she can't have), but he gets unexpected competition in the form of a "Mr. Sensitive" type (Chris Klein, from
American Pie), and it's pretty much Hollywood formula from there on, as
Just Friends loses momentum without losing its basic appeal. And while Reynolds invests his character with an unexpected degree of emotional nuance, Faris (
Scary Movie 3) pulls out all the stops, going deliriously over-the-top to maintain her reputation as a rising comedy starlet with a (hopefully) promising future. We're not talking rocket science here, folks... just sit back, take off your thinking cap, and have some fun.
--Jeff Shannon
