Monday, November 2, 2015

Man Up (2015)

Director: Ben Palmer
Writer:    Tess Morris
Cast:       Simon Pegg, Lake Bell, Olivia Williams


A single woman who's mistaken for for a stranger's blind date, leads to her finding the perfect boyfriend. Sounds really cringy, doesn't it?

Ben Palmer had previously directed 'The Inbetweeners Movie', which I didn't like very much and I hadn't seen the TV series TBF. Man Up is a good one-time watch romantic comedy. The basic premise is of course very contrived, especially the stalker from the past part, but there are enough laughs in it to sustain you till the end. I haven't yet seen Simon Pegg in a bad role (He was alright in MI:3 even). Man Up was co-produced by BBC films and Amazon Prime along with others and the market that Simon Pegg commands and the success of 'The Inbetweeners Movie' should have been reasons enough for them to produce it. I hadn't seen Lake Bell prior to this and she was really good as well. She seems to have directed and starred in 'In a World', which looks interesting (obtaining it as we speak). 

To sum up, it is a nice movie to watch in a relaxed mood with sufficient amount of laughs in it. If you are enjoying it then you'll find the ending charming as well, despite its predictability. I didn't really care much for the supposedly deep things they are saying but it is not done in a manner where you're supposed to take it very philosophically, as they are drunk while having those conversations. Romantic comedies are really hard to do very well and it is a good effort indeed. The title of the film is ironically more significant for the lady lead in it. It was also good to see nighttime London in a different color tone, compared to the usual way it is filmed. That said, the color tone used is indeed the stereotypical one for rom-coms.

Rating: 3/5
                                                                                

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