My Best Friend's Girl (2008) starring Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, Alec Baldwin, Jason Biggs, Diora Baird, Lizzy Caplan, Riki Lindhome directed by Howard Deutch Movie Review

My Best Friend's Girl (2008)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Kate Hudson and Dane Cook in My Best Friend's Girl (2008)

How to Lose a Girl in 1 Date

"My Best Friend's Girl" is not a good movie, in truth it is only ever average, but if you like the unsubtle romantic comedy of "Failure to Launch" and "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" you will probably enjoy it. And that is the thing because "My Best Friend's Girl" is generic, the storyline, comedy, characters it is all generic and throws up no surprises or real romance as it delivers just a little bit of a variation on a familiar storyline. But whilst on one hand a routine romantic comedy is disappointing it works as well as any of the other romantic comedies you will inevitably compare it to.

Tank (Dane Cook - Dan In Real Life) has a special talent, he can be obnoxious, not annoyingly obnoxiously but repulsingly obnoxious and he uses his special talent to make money as recently dumped men pay him to go out with their ex's in order to give them a date from hell and have them running back into their open arms. It is this talent which Tank's room-mate Dustin (Jason Biggs - Wedding Daze) wants him to use on work colleague Alexis (Kate Hudson - Fool's Gold) because Dustin loves her but all she wants is to be friends. The trouble is that the date from hell doesn't go to plan and Tank finds himself torn between his friendship with Dustin and suddenly having real feelings for Alexis.

Jason Biggs and Dane Cook in My Best Friend's Girl (2008)

So "My Best Friend's Girl" may give up this set up of a character who purposefully tries to be the date from hell to help fix relationships but in truth it is just a slight twist on a familiar story. As such it is no surprise when Tank falls for Alexis and finds himself first torn between friendship and relationships, then in trouble when he tries to hide the fact from Dustin that he is seeing Alexis regularly. And of course it is absolutely no surprise when inevitably Alexis learns the truth that Tank initially went out with her as a favour to Dustin. Basically the narrative arc of "My Best Friend's Girl" is as standard as they come and so there are no real surprises.

What this really means is that "My Best Friend's Girl" ends up all about the humour of Tank being an obnoxious date from hell and a bit of a sexual predator. Now on one hand it is as derivative as the rest of the movie watching Tank go out of his way to be obnoxious, from taking Alexis to a strip club to a one of date with a religious woman ending up at a pizza place called "Chesus Crust". But at the same time it is all kind of good fun and there is a real naturalness to Dane Cook as Tank thanks to director Howard Deutch giving him the freedom to adlib various scenes. It's because Cook ends up free flowing with insults it has an energy about it which makes all this routine comedy come to life. And of course Cook can pull of the sexy love rat thing with such ease that it isn't a stretch of the imagination to watch him turn on the charm for a one night stand and then kick her out of bed afterwards.

To be honest "My Best Friend's Girl" is all about Dane Cook and in many ways Kate Hudson has very little to do as Alexis, in fact Jason Biggs has more to do although even then it is routine as Dustin ends up at the end of a few falls and a rather embarrassing incident in a beauticians. In the end Alex Baldwin makes the bigger impact as Tank's father who is as much of a lothario as Tank is and watching Tank act as his own dad's wing man is amusing.

What this all boils down to is that "My Best Friend's Girl" is a routine modern day romantic comedy which delivers a slight variation on a routine story. It is fun but it is not clever and not a movie you would go out of your way to watch again.


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