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We’ve been revisiting a lot of movies this year. The nature of 2020 kind of necessitated it. But not all of them have stood the test of time. Enter Just Friends, which is still one of the funniest movies ever. It gets overlooked because Ryan Reynolds was just transitioning out of his Van Wilder years. It was a weird time filled with raunchy sex comedies and Just Friends gets unfairly lumped in with them.
Sure, it’s sorta dumb. It doesn’t have the same smarts as something like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but it doesn’t need it. It has a really big heart and is some of the most densely packed humor you could hope to find. And I’d say it has probably one of the highest amounts of successful jokes per capita. It’s rare that a joke doesn’t land, and we can say a lot of that has to do with the cast.
Not enough has been said about Anna Faris in Just Friends. Ryan Reynolds was the name on the poster, and Amy Smart was still banking on her early 00s success, but Anna steals the show. She could have so easily been just the dumb dumb idiot that’s just there as a distraction. And she wasn’t not that, but she also did so much with the role. No one could have pulled off the physical comedy she did, and her LA fried and comically deep voice is so funny on its own that when she really turns it on it becomes comedy gold.
Two more big scene stealers are Julie Haggerty and Chris Marquette as Reynold’s mom and brother respectively. Mom is just an over the top, over-loving mom who misses her son. And with Julie Haggerty pulling the strings it’s both wildly funny and so endearing. You love her immediately and wish she was your mom. The relationship between the brothers is some of the best stuff in the movie. It really feels like they’re brothers. They smack the shit out of each other then say ‘I love you’ and mean it just moments later. On the other hand Chris and Anna’s relationship is extremely elevated and amazing too. No stone is left unturned in Just Friends.
So how do you like Just Friends? We think it holds up better than a LOT of movies from this era. Let us know what you think over on Twitter or in the YouTube comments! Your engagement in the comments really helps us out with the YouTube algorithm so chat us up! For now though grab some massage oil and a taser, and settle in for today’s fun-filled episode of So…I’m Watching This Show!
