A Guy Thing (2003) starring Jason Lee, Julia Stiles, Selma Blair, James Brolin, Shawn Hatosy, Lochlyn Munro, Diana Scarwid, David Koechner directed by Chris Koch Movie Review

A Guy Thing (2003)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Jason Lee and Julia Stiles in A Guy Thing (2003)

Jason & Julia's Poor Intentions

The most shocking things about "A Guy Thing" is that it took four writers to turn Greg Glienna's story into a screenplay which basically feels empty of originality, romance or anything which is genuinely funny. Actually that's not the only shocking thing about "A Guy Thing" because it also stars Jason Lee, Julia Stiles and Selma Blair all actors and actresses far more capable off greater things than this simplistic romantic comedy.

Having tried to escape from the male debauchery his friends lined up for him at his bachelor party Paul (Jason Lee) is surprised to wake up next to Becky (Julia Stiles - The Bourne Identity) one of the Tikki dancers. Deciding to hide his drunken indiscretion from his fiancee Karen (Selma Blair - The Sweetest Thing) his lies keep getting bigger and bigger especially when he discovers that Becky is Karen's cousin and she has a psychotic ex boyfriend who won't leave her alone.

Selma Blair in A Guy Thing (2003)

The storyline to "A Guy Thing" manages to combine many elements which have appeared in other movies starting with the day after the bachelor party and Paul the husband to be waking up next to a strange girl. What follows is almost routine as we watch Paul squirm his way out of tight situations where he tries to hide his one night stand from his wife to be especially when it turns out the woman he slept with is his girl friends cousin. Add to this various romantic twists which are predictable and the cousin's psychotic ex boyfriend who stalks her. Frankly there is not a single element to the storyline which ventures away from what other movies have done and even combining these elements into one story doesn't make it feel any different, which makes me wonder why it needed four screenplay writers.

What this means is that "A Guy Thing" is all about the comedy, all about the tight situations and escalating lies as Paul tries to hide his indiscretions from Karen. Well they certainly are outrageous and frankly quite stupid such as when Paul asks the assistant at the pharmacy for some Crab lotion, cue embarrassment as the assistant shouts out for Crab lotion. Most of the gags are completely obvious and although amusing, such as the drug laced gravy at a family meal, they all seem to have been pulled out of other movies and so leave you with that feeling of having been here before.

As for the romantic side of things well as you may have guessed by the fact that "A Guy Thing" seems to concentrate on being funny, it is for the most over looked. Which in a way isn't a bad thing because the outcome of this one night stand with Becky is pretty predictable and the way it all comes about is quite weak as well as if the script writers didn't dare stray from the norm with anything but a happy ever after ending.

All of this doesn't bode well and the performances fail to add much more either with Jason Lee feeling and sometimes looking like a Ryan Reynolds imitation. There is nothing particularly brilliant about his performance and his character comes across as being both weak and 2 dimensional. The same can be said about all the characters either major or minor with Selma Blair going for the stiff fiancee and Julia Stiles going for the fun loving stereotype so that we get the two obvious opposites in Paul's life causing the equally obvious romantic confusion.

What this all boils down to is that "A Guy Thing" is as unoriginal as it sounds and frankly ends up like a series of set piece scenes trying to be funny. It can't have been helped having four writers all trying to cram their ideas into the movie and it shows by the increasingly stupid situations which Paul finds himself in. Even the performances can't redeem the unoriginal writing or 2 dimensional characters and as such "A Guy Thing" is amusing in an average sort of way but pretty much forgettable.


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