APSimon Pegg and Megan Fox star in the comedy ‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.’The newest film from Simon Pegg marks a career turn for the British funny-man. “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People” displays Pegg as a middle-aged entertainment journalist who runs a magazine out of his London apartment. The character, Sidney Young, is notorious in London for trying to get into star-filled events and getting thrown out before he can get the scoop for his failing magazine. Unexpectedly, Young receives a call from a highly regarded New York-based magazine run by a pretentious boss who started off in the same situation as Young. Pegg’s character moves to the city and becomes the new fish in the pond, mocked because of his persona and fashion sense, or lack thereof. He struggles to get anything published at his new job, but is too distracted by an effort to have sex with actress Sophie Mays (Megan Foxx) to notice. In his many attempts, Young fails miserably, ending up alone or with a transvestite.
Pegg gives romance a second shot when he goes after Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst), but again fails miserably. They start off on opposite ends of the same situation and constantly run into each other in and outside the office. The audience sees a relationship coming together but stupid factors (an affair and the constant pursuit of sex) get in the couple’s way.
Along with an odd character for Pegg, Dunst’s performance contrasted from her typical roles. Unfortunately, she had to play down to this poorly-written film and her acting suffers because of it.
Danny Huston was the best-cast character for this film. He plays Lawrence Maddox, an editor for the prestigious New York magazine. Huston is able to deliver the “watch me kiss their Prada shoes and be a pompous ass to anyone below me” character to perfection. Along with Huston, Jeff Bridges does an acceptable performance as Clayton Harding, the arrogant boss who was once a lowly writer. Bridges entertains the audience with a hypocritical character who deep down wants to stay true to his roots but loves high society too much to give it up. Sadly, Bridge will be overlooked because of the horrid looking hair-style that he sports throughout the film; only ancient pot-smoking musicians named Willie can pull off long gray hair.
The rest of the cast is mediocre at best. Even Megan Foxx, who portrayed the ditsy actress role easily, didn’t deliver an intriguing performance. “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is nothing above average and is disappointing for a Simon Pegg comedy. With the lack of unique jokes it depends on its awkward moments for support. The most amusing parts of the film are the mockeries of the Hollywood and New York lifestyle. Even though the portrayal of Megan Foxx as Mother Teresa is a humorous perspective, it is not enough to lean on.
Jay Homan can be reached at [email protected].
