Review – How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
I saw this movie at the Cinebarre Theater, which was interesting. The Cinebarre experience is similar to going to the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX. What they’ve done is combined dinner and a movie into one venue. They’ve taken out every other row of seating and replaced it with a long table. As you arrive at your seat, a member of the waitstaff takes your food order, and BAM, you’re eating dinner while watching a movie. Brilliant. I sat back with a pint of Guinness and a “Fight Club” sandwich. Heaven.
Something else they do that I particularly like is that they don’t show you commercials. I hate that about going to the movies. I pay $9.75 to watch a metric buttload of commercials. What they show instead is some really random, quirky stuff. When I arrived they were showing a ’50s era PSA involving a high school kid who though he had witnessed someone stealing a wallet. They went on for 20 minutes about the proper way to handle the situation. Other videos included: a music video for a local band, a clip from a show featuring break dancers, and a cartoon game show where the contestants included “You”, “A Rock” and “Nobody”. A friend I was with made a comment about these videos to our waitress and she said that people actually complain about them. People are stupid.
The ticket price is $10. I will gladly pay $.25 extra to watch something interesting instead of a commercial for the Marines. I wonder if the Marines actually get people to sign up from their movie theater commercials. To me it seems like that’s the last place they should try. Think about it, should they be recruiting from a room full of people sitting on their ass, stuffing their face with empty calories? They should be showing commercials at the gym.
Anyway, on to the movie.
This movie is about a British journalist who has made a name for himself by refusing to bow to pop culture, suddenly gets a job at America’s top pop culture magazine. He then has to decide whether he will sell out and be the brown nosing, lap dog journalist, or stick to his guns and be the hard nosed writer that he wants to be.
I thought this movie was entertaining…up until act III. Acts I and II were funny and enjoyable, then it seemed that the writers didn’t know where to take it. The plot took a nosedive and became cheesy and predictable. The only saving grace was that Simon Pegg was the leading man. He turned a mediocre movie into a slightly above average movie. Oh yeah, they also had a few references to The Big Lebowski. Movie references never hurt, in my opinion.
I say wait to rent this one.
Overall Score: 3/5 stars.
