Friends With Kids

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Friends With Kids - 26/6/2012 1:29:26 PM

Empire Admin

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Chris O'Dowd - 26/6/2012 1:29:26 PM

loafroaster

Posts: 117
Joined: 10/5/2006

Fast becoming typecast as the quirky secondary character Simon Pegg said no to. It's a living, I suppose.

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Post #: 2

Annoying Friends who will give you a headache - 26/6/2012 2:48:42 PM

andee90

Posts: 4
Joined: 2/10/2006

Maybe we were expecting something like Bridesmaids with the cast being similar, but this is something totally different. Different in a bad way, not funny or charming at all, with very annoying and unbelievable main characters (the big names that are pictured in the review barely feature).

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Post #: 3

Light on the funny, heavy on the predictable. - 30/6/2012 2:17:08 PM

thebackseatdirector

Posts: 9
Joined: 9/3/2012
From: London, UK

Better than Friends With Benefits, but that ain’t saying much.

I was drawn to this movie like a firefly to a star-filled strip-light. Mad Men just doesn’t give me enough Jon Hamm, and so it’s always a treat to get to see him in a modern day movie (and with very anti-Don stubble). That it was created by his longterm girlfriend, was also a big draw. Throw in some Bridesmaids cast reuniting, what’s not to love?

Well. Quite a bit. It’s, eek, a little dull. It’s adorable, and both writer, director and lead Jennifer Westfeldt and her baby-father Adam Scott, are wonderfully cute rom-com characters, but it becomes rather predictable – two friends decide to have a baby together, despite not being remotely romantically involved… and then… guess what…?

All the comparisons to Bridesmaids in the promotion of Friends with Kids have damaged it, in my opinion, on account of it just not having the barrel full of humour that I was expecting – it’s basically a classier version of Friends with Benefits meets The Mix-Up… so classic rom-com territory, and whilst it tries to cling on to some indie vibe, it just doesn’t quite make it.

But then. Maybe I’m not the audience. Parents of young children, I reckon, will see so much familiar, they might well love it and hate it at the same time. It certainly celebrates parenthood, in spite of all its nappy-filled toughness, as really, what everyone wants (well, apart from the young perfectly-formed baby-hating Megan Fox – but as any female in the audience will reason – her figure won’t last and she’ll be baby-hungry by the time she’s in her thirties too).

I won’t diss on it too much. Especially after watching it back-to-back with Killer Joe; some people like light and fluffy. Don’t get me wrong, I do too, but I’m not sure this is the right kind of light and fluffy?

Read my full review: http://w

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Post #: 4

RE: Friends With Kids - 30/6/2012 6:34:57 PM

captainrentboy

Posts: 678
Joined: 16/3/2008
From: South Wales

It was watcahble, I s'pose.... That's pretty much the most complimentary thing I can say about it.

Like some of the guys/gals above, I was mentally tricked into watching this thanks to that great cast. Seeing those funny/talented buggers plastered all over the posters worked like a charm dammit. It's just a shame that that great cast got lumbered with one fantastically dull script.
First, if you're thinking of seeing this for the laughs, then don't, as there aren't any. I mean that quite literally too, I think I might have smirked once, and that was just at Jon Hamm's adorable face.
Secondly, and I don't mean to be cruel, but Westfeldt (it's the first time I've seen her in anything) didn't really do it for me. In my opinion she should just stick to writing and staying behind the camera, as there was just something a little 'off' with her performance, especially when compared to that of the other's. That, and she has a really annoying mouth and about 1000x more make up applied than any other cast member, both of those things distracted me greatly.
Thirdly, it's really reaaalllly predictable. Half way through I thought it was going to go against the standard Rom-Com grain, and go somewhere not so generic in its story,.... Naaaaa, it went there.
2/5

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Post #: 5

Bridesmaids with the laughs - 1/7/2012 6:16:04 PM

tysmuse

Posts: 256
Joined: 24/9/2007

The review touches upon the very good point that these people's lives are pretty decent. Huge apartments and screwing Megan Fox. Jeez, what a nightmare.

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Post #: 6

Lost interest - 21/3/2013 3:02:16 PM

jenniea

Posts: 1
Joined: 11/10/2005

I'm in the middle of watching Friends with Kids right now. This is not a good sign. Clearly this film is not engaging enough to hold my interest. I might not even bother watching it to the end, which is unusual for me. Other than Chris O'Dowd, the characters are annoying, or vile, or both. The kid that the leads so desperately wanted barely even figures and Jennifer Westfeldt is desperate to come off as kooky but ends up irritating. I think I smiled once and properly laughed once, both of which were because of the lovely Mr O'Dowd. SO disappointed.

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Post #: 7