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Amazon.co.uk Review
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People may just be the first true British film--and a splendid one at that--to be set on American soil. The fearless actor Simon Pegg plays Sidney Young, a Fleet Street hatchet writer tapped to come to the States to join the literati, and glitterati, at a big, fat, glossy magazine--every resemblance of which to Vanity Fair is strictly intentional. Sidney is possibly the most annoying man in the Western world, tilting at nonexistent windmills. His character calls to mind many of the hapless charmers played by Hugh Grant--but Pegg, without Grant's raffish good looks, comes across as simply hapless. Which is perfect casting, since Sidney is supposed to be enormously aggravating, especially when he first lands in New York. In his first few days in the city, Sidney puts off the first magazine colleague he met (Kirsten Dunst, in a top-flight comic turn), wears a wildly inappropriate T-shirt on his first day of work, spritzes fast food onto the designer white suit of a relative of the publisher, and picks up a tranny hooker. And things go downhill from there. On his first magazine assignment, Sidney, checking captions for a photo page, calls a powerful publicist. "Is he the fat one?" Sidney asks the publicist about one of her clients. Silence. "Well, is he the one with the wonky eye, then?" Pegg is a scream as Sidney, playing quite a different role than his starring one in Shaun of the Dead. Dunst is delicate but steely, and her comedic timing, under the deft direction of Robert B. Weide (Curb Your Enthusiasm), is spot on. Great supporting work, too, by editor Jeff Bridges, whose enthrallment to the power elite, and silver mane, channel Graydon Carter; by Gillian Anderson, as a take-no-prisoners publicist; and by Megan Fox, a starlet cast as a bosom-heaving Mother Teresa. Sidney, and the film, will win you over, with a lot of laughter along the way.--A.T. Hurley
Synopsis
Names may have been changed to protect the innocent--and the not-so innocent--but this comedy adapts Toby Young's biting memoir about his struggles as a Vanity Fair employee. Brilliant Brit Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz) stars as Young's alter ego, while Jeff Bridges is a Graydon Carter-esque magazine editor.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
OK but not side splitting,
By
This review is from: How To Lose Friends And Alienate People [DVD] [2008] (DVD)
I love Simon Pegg but he seemed a bit out of his depth in this, unlike Run, Fat Boy, Run which saw him at his best. This film is amusing but not laugh-out-loud. However the supporting actors, especially Danny Huston, are excellent. All in all worth a watch.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
How to waste time and alienate audiences.,
By ant (London, London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How To Lose Friends And Alienate People [DVD] [2008] (DVD)
I deliberately avoided reading reviews before watching this film,to avoid any preconceptions, but I now see that a lot of others share my views. I'm not a particular fan of Simon Pegg, partly because I think he's capable of being much funnier than he is, given the right material and direction. That certainly doesn't happen here, and for the first hour or so nothing much happens at all in this transatlantic brit-flick. With such a poor script, and no visible storyline, the responsibility for attempts at humour lie with the many attempts at slapstick comedy, most of which ironically fall flat on their collective faces.
It's only in the last half hour that the pace picks up, things start to happen and some laughs finally ensue, but it's too late by then. Even Kirsten Dunst looks peeved for most of the film.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly Charming (Rom)Com. Hilarious!,
By
This review is from: How To Lose Friends And Alienate People [DVD] [2008] (DVD)
Amazon's review namechecks Hugh Grant but there really is no comparison because Simon Pegg's character is mercifully shorn of Grant's foppish traits and bumbling apologies. Sidney Young, mistakenly headhunted as a gadfly amongst New York's glitterati and their sycophants, is far too robust a character to be emasculated by any of those soppy scenes Grant used to be forced to do. This is the old fish-out-of-water tale and I really enjoyed the uninhibited English normality, the initial refusal to conform, that Young thrusts into the rather starchy world of the glossy NY magazine. At one time, it would have been a glamorous American shaking things up in the buttoned-up world of the British. Here, the reverse.
Pegg is excellent in the role, really making Young's potentially insufferable twit, well, sufferable. Kirtsen Dunst is charming as the only employee who can tolerate the disaster prone newcomer, and Jeff Bridges, Gillian Anderson and the other cast members all make strong contributions. I know, it looks dicey, but it's genuinely funny and if you've seen Pegg's earlier work - e.g. Spaced; you have seen Spaced, right? If not, what's wrong with you? - you'll know how entertaining he can be. Well worth a look. 02/2011 update: just watched it again and I'm moving it up to 5-stars. It's great. Very very funny and charming. Not every great film has to be a hit at the box office.
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