Cinematical

There are some actors who need to stick to playing supporting roles. Paul Rudd is not one of them -- he is good-looking and perfectly capable of being a lead -- but that doesn't mean I can't prefer him as the leading man's buddy, or as the romantic opposition, or as a member of an hilarious ensemble. But as goofy as the guy is, we have to remember that he was once just that love interest/step-brother for Alicia Silverstone in Clueless. Fortunately, as Rudd appears to grow in Hollywood status, starring in his own vehicles, he seems to be choosing movies that relate more to his work with Judd Apatow, Adam McKay and the Stella guys than to run of the mill romantic comedies.

His latest to be announced is called I Love You, Man, which makes one think of the joke in Wayne's World about platonic love between two grown men (" I LOVE you, man"). And, what do you know? I Love You, Man is in fact about platonic love between two grown men. According to Variety, the movie is about a guy (Rudd), who is about to get married, but who doesn't have a male friend who can serve as his best man. So, he seeks one out and eventually finds gangly Jason Segal of TV's How I Met Your Mother (and Knocked Up, which co-starred Rudd).

Wait, haven't we seen this movie before? Or was it a TV episode? Maybe it's just that so many movies these days are into that edge-of-the-line male bonding stuff that it sounds so familiar. Of course, with two guys as entertaining as Rudd and Segal, it doesn't really matter if we've seen it all before. Segal is one of the more underrated cast members from Apatow's Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, which were both also the start for Knocked Up's Seth Rogen. He also has a leading role coming up in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which he also wrote and which features Rudd. I Love You, Man was written and will be directed by John Hamburg, who is unfortunately best known for Along Came Polly and the Meet the Parents and Fockers scripts, though he also helmed episodes of Undeclared and Stella.