I was worried about seeing this movie but I am glad I did. It was kind of like a live action episode of Family Guy (one of the really good episodes, not one of “road to…” ones). It started off fast and funny.

There was a joke early on that I thought was a miss. Seth’s character is wasted and about to get on his horse. The line was, “Don’t drink and horse.” Obviously, this was a play on ‘drink and drive’. It didn’t land with me for one reason. In my mind it should have been “Don’t drink and ride.” Drive and ride are both verbs. Horse is a noun. We don’t say ‘drink and car’. If the word ride didn’t exist and or share similar phones I wouldn’t mind. Now whether it never occurred to them or they thought of it and dismissed it, possibly for being too easy, I don’t know. This was the only joke that didn’t land for me though.. the rest of the jokes were well done and delivered perfectly.

The cast was nicely utilized. Even the cameos were elegant.

The thing that sets this apart from other recent male-humor driven movies (Neighbors) was the tone. Where Neighbors tried a little too hard to be more than just a funny movie this movie embraced its identity. It didn’t take itself seriously. It didn’t drag things out. It was focused on its theme and was really able to explore a lot of facets through its farcical lens.

A nice thing about this movie is that the bits given to us in the trailer were even better in context. This isn’t a movie that puts its best, and sometimes only, foot forward and falls short on the big screen.

At some points I was a little grossed out. It might just be my feminine sensibilities. But it is nothing worse than the trailer.

What was refreshing was that it was honest with its characters. Bad guys were bad. Most people were useless, pointless, blah creatures with little to add to society except as cogs keeping the wheels turning. Some people were wimps, some were liars, love between people often is a terrible mistake, lots of people are fickle, shallow, materialistic, self-interested disappointments. And most important, a hero is rarely a human with powers outside the normal scope who is just a better person than the rest of us but rather a person who uses what they already have, gets lucky, and doesn’t have to save the day twice.

There was one scene I particularly enjoyed. They discuss mutual hatred and how it forms much stronger ties than love. I fully agree with this sentiment. The couple does bond over the hate of things. The west, formal wear, etc. It’s nice to know that I am not the only person that loves to hate sometimes.

Verdict: I kind of want to see it again right now. I definitely want to share it with my friends (friends…ha! but really I do have some). It was worth the money, darn tootin.

Social Cues: Go see it/take someone if you think you/they would enjoy a live action version of Family Guy. Expect the same humor, the same visuals, the same line crossing.