A GUY THING

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 2 out of 5

Because of: crude humor

Rated:

The film is far from perfect, but kind of enjoyable on a purely shallow level. It's a fun experience seeing two popular actresses interact, while the humor is actually funny -- a rarity in comedies these days. A Guy Thing is more sarcasm than anything else, but while remaining predictable, manages to pack in a few decent moments along the way.

It's only a week until the wedding, and life around mild-mannered Paul (Jason Lee) is hectic. His future in-laws are wealthy and snobbish. His own parents are humiliating and funny. His fiancée Karen (Selma Blair) is just about too good to be true. And then something happens that sends his world spinning out of orbit. He wakes up one morning with a Tiki dancer in his bed. One too many drinks at his bachelor party has brought Becky (Julia Stiles) into his life. Believing he has cheated on Karen with her, he desperately attempts to conceal this major blunder from the curiosity of family and friends, hoping he'll never run into the fun loving blonde again. But she just keeps appearing in his life ... taking tickets at a local parking lot, stocking shelves at the nearby store ...

And then comes the major whammy, the discovery that she is Karen's cousin. Believing this won't completely get out of hand, Paul is certain he can handle it -- and then come the photographs. They're in the hands of Becky's psychotic ex-boyfriend, who is happiest when beating "not-so-innocent" bystanders into a pulp. Becky is like no one he has ever met, willing to face life with high expectations and squeeze every last drop of excitement out of it. She's everything that Karen isn't, a fact that slowly begins to seep into him as the wedding days draw ever-nearer. Mostly predictable in the sense that we can see the conclusion a mile away, A Guy Thing does suffer from being a little crude, but there was something likable about it.

Becky and Karen are as different as they can possibly be, but each are so eccentric and likable that you cannot help being torn between wanting to see Becky wind up with Paul, and hoping that Karen doesn't get hurt along the way. There are some instances of innuendo. Paul enjoys dancing with his male instructor, a fact that gets on Karen's nerves. Becky is undressed (implied) when she wakes up in his bed, but in actuality the two didn't have sex (he passed out before it went that far). To her credit, Becky did not realize he was the groom, and freaks out when she finds out. Unable to find her underwear, she is forced to leave it behind, creating further problems when Paul attempts to hide it. Naturally, Karen finds it later, leading to a series of lies in an attempt to cover the incident up. An old woman, determined to have alcohol at a family dinner, forces the cook to oblige by squeezing his privates. Paul contracts a mild sexual ailment from a dirty toilet seat, leading him to discreetly scratch his privates at a business meeting. He is later humiliated when sales clerks yell back and forth about the medication he wishes to buy for it.

The "pictures" are never shown, and presumably not that risqué, but a minister opposes the fact that his son found them in a dumpster. Guests are unknowingly fed marijuana-laced gravy at a dinner party, leading to general chaos. Paul also fakes diarrhea to get out of coming downstairs, squeezing shampoo into the toilet to make a decent sound effect. The s-word is used a number of times, along with a couple unfortunate abuses of Jesus' name. On the positive side, no one is very hurt by the endless escapades, a dirty cop is put away, an emphasis on ultimately being honest is made after endless deceptions, and the minister urges Paul to be honest about his feelings at the wedding.

It's not a movie that is going to make it onto my must-buy list, but it was funnier than expected and had more than a few good moments. Sexual and crude humor somewhat waylay its intent, but it's not as bad as most of the "teen comedies" out there.