Rating: 7/10

Writers: Sean Anders, John Morris
Director: Jim Field Smith
Cast: Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, Krysten Ritter, T.J. Miller
Studio: Paramount

Judd Apatow came along out of thin air with a little comedy called THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, and ended up redefining the R-rated comedy. He set a precedent for the genre, and inspired a chain of copy cats. Then, along comes a little film called SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE which treads similar waters. But did this film end up being another one of those carbon copies?

The answer is no, SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE does a lot of things really well all while creating it's own style and vision. Of course, one could draw parallels to other similar films in the genre, but there is no reason to do such. The main reason being that the film is flat-out funny, or at least funny enough to where you don't care. I was constantly laughing at the clever writing and banter.

Most of the acting was very good as the supporting cast was killer, and co-star Alice Eve really made her character relatable. The one actor I was most excited to see though was Jay Baruchel in the lead role. I have always really enjoyed whenever he shows up in movies and it was due time he was given a leading role. Unfortunately he didn't impress like he normally does. He was lacking the Jay Baruchel charm that caught me in the first place. He wasn't the strongest comedic role in the film either, but he did the role exactly as it was meant to be played, the too-nice-kind-of-geeky guy.

Regardless of that, the film had me very entertained from start to finish. This was greatly due to the surprisingly good chemistry between Jay Baruchel's character and his friends. His friends consist of Mike Vogel and T.J. Miller, who previously worked together on CLOVERFIELD, and Nate Torrence (GET SMART). To me their scenes together were some of the best of the film, their hangout scenes were so reminiscent of the way my friends and I act around each other. Not to mention that this is where most of the jokes come in. They constantly berate each other to much hilarity.

Also, this movie could have very easily been edited into a PG-13 film, but very wisely they went with a much more appropriate R-rated version. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the mature humor was the film's saving grace, as a PG-13 version would have been too sweet. They actually make good use of the R rating too, there are plenty of expletives and crude humor to make you wonder if you accidentally stumbled into an Apatow film.

Painfully, even with all the good that this film had, it is awfully generic. They didn't take this film in any sort of creative way that they very possibly could have, and just went the way you would expect the film to go. One of the big selling points of Apatow style films, is that even if the resolution is the obvious happy ending, it usually gets there in a very unorthodox way. SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE couldn't catch that same feeling and it shows. Not to mention that the big conflict of the film was kind of out of left field, the way everyone was acting felt very out of character. It didn't necessarily feel forced, but I completely misread the scene until they actually flat out explained it.

Still, the constantly funny jokes, surprisingly funny gags, and extremely like-able characters make this movie very worthwhile. If you are planning on having a date in the near future and your lady doesn't mind an F-bomb or two, this would be a great movie to check out.

Also, you can check out my interview with stars Alice Eve and Krysten Ritter about the film, HERE.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YPY8StDdAc[/youtube]