I had the displeasure of watching this via Netflix with my girlfriend the other night.  Boy was I surprised how it all played out.

I was considering starting a thread entitled, "WTF?", and having it based on what is going on in Big Hollywood's minds in green lighting and filming such garbage...and I still may, but for now, I'll give a few comments on this "romantic comedy".

It's slickly produced and put together, has an all star cast, and is actually funny at times.  It also ends exactly as everyone knows it will, which caters to the audience it was obviously made for.  But other than that, it's such a huge misfire, it's literally shocking.

As far as I can tell, it had a budget north of $150 Million, which is a monstrous problem from the get go.  It made about $55 Million here in NA, and another $50 Million or so overseas, meaning it was a huge financial bomb.  How could a romantic comedy with Mathew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Michael Douglas, and a bunch of recognizable, beautiful people bomb like this?

Simple...the script.  It's terrible. It's shockingly offensive to everyone.  It doesn't cater to its target audience at all.  And, it seems as if it started out as an R rated script that got changed into a PG 13 movie, that still comes off as a mild R movie.

I'm actually very surprised it got away with a PG 13 rating.  There's so much sex, sexual situations, sexual slang, and such a downright mean spirit in it, that I bet most women who saw it, expecting a light hearted romp, left pissed off, or downright offended.

The acting was actually pretty good.  The set pieces were well done.  The special effects were good and the make up was also top notch.  It's the story, the tone, and the delivery that was just God awful.

I actually laughed a number of times at the absurdity of several scenes...even some of the jokes.  My girlfriend was pretty quiet and I kept asking her if she liked it or thought it was funny...she didn't, and she's the intended audience.  Unreal.

So, my questions are...WTF is wrong with the Hollywood brass who allowed this thing into the world?  What were all the stars possibly thinking when they signed on for this?  What were the producers thinking when they opened up their wallets?  Who in their right mind thought this was actually going to turn a profit?  WTF?????

Unreal...simply unreal.

It was written by the same duo that wrote The Hangover.  I'm actually surprised they wrote such a well received (critically as well as by mainstream audiences) script as The Hangover but then also wrote such critically panned films as Four Christmases & Rebound w/ Martin Lawrence.

Quoted from dresseme It was written by the same duo that wrote The Hangover.  I'm actually surprised they wrote such a well received (critically as well as by mainstream audiences) script as The Hangover but then also wrote such critically panned films as Four Christmases & Rebound w/ Martin Lawrence.

Director Todd Phillips rewrote most of the script with a friend of his, including adding the baby, police car and Mike Tyson's tiger. They didn't receive credit based on WGA rules. A lot of the actors improvised and contributed jokes as well, including Zach Galifinakis who seems to be the film's star. Honestly, I don't think the writers had much to do with the film's success.

What!? You're telling me y'all aren't swooned by Matthew McConaughey trillion dollar smile and casual one note delivery!? But he's sooo hot!

I actually think McConaughey is a good actor and has great star presence.  It was his character in this movie that was just downright ridiculous.

Based on Dressel's comments, I'm lead to believe that it was a case of the old power of a name in Hollywood.  Thye seem to think that just because someone has had success in the past, anything they churn out will be gold.

It's most likely why Hollywood is the way it is...once you're in, you're in, but how you get in, is beyond me.

BULLSHIT!!!!

I'd be extremely wary of making any comedy for such a lot of money...seems to miss the point of what makes comedy successful to my way of thinking.

From what you've said it's taken over $100M at the BO. That's a decent amount in of itself. If they'd made it for a more reasonable 30-50M (even that seems a lot to me for a comedy) then the situation wouldn't be so bad.