Some Waldman's Blog – Finding Balance in the Flood of Information

Movie Review: How to Lose Friends & Alienate People December 19, 2009

Netflix Synopsis: After his bent for muckraking nets him a job at a glossy Big Apple magazine, boorish British tabloid writer Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) tries to curry favor with his imperious boss (Jeff Bridges) and the synthetic glitterati Sidney covers — with disastrous results. A co-worker (Kirsten Dunst), a ditsy starlet (Megan Fox) and a dragon-lady publicist (Gillian Anderson) are among those he alienates in this caustic comedy based on Toby Young’s memoir.

Simon Pegg starred in another funny movie called “Run, Fat Boy, Run.” He is a good comedic actor. But Megan Fox is certainly more of a reason to watch this one. Pegg’s character was nearly identical to the prior movie. The only difference was that the sweet Kirstin Dunst made him seem like a normal guy. There was a surprising turning point about halfway through the movie, but no matter, it didn’t make any sense how he could get the girl and the same went for the “arch-nemesis” character, though.

One of the best lines of the movie was “When I do it, it is flirting. When you do it, it is harassment.” Since I have a foreign “guy” in my department who goes by this philosophy, it hit home. I have to say it was a funny movie, but not really what I expected.