SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE

“SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE” (Jay Baruchel & Alice Eve)
I didn’t have high expectations of being entertained by this film so I was pleasantly surprised when I was. (Hot Tub Time Machine also falls into this category)
From the trailer, ‘She’s Out Of My League’ appeared to be just another geeky guy gets gorgeous girl ‘fantasy’ flick aimed at teenage boys, and though it has it’s juvenile moments, it succeeds because behind the gross humor & some extremely gay scenes involving supposedly heterosexual men, the film has a sweetness about it that I found appealing; not to mention the very delectable Alice Eve – who is quickly becoming a Scarlett Johanson who can act. Alice is English, but there isn’t a trace of an accent as she plays Molly, a one-time lawyer who gives up her career in law to become a party planner. Molly loses her cell phone at the airport & so her friend Patty calls her number & reaches TSA employee Kirk (Jay Baruchel) who promises to bring the phone to Molly’s next ‘party’. Kirk is a skinny, plain looking dude with a dead end job & not much of a personality, though he does display a wry sense of humor at times. Molly just sees a nice guy who did her a favor & decides to throw him a bone & ask him out on a date. Things go well until their first make-out session is interrupted by the appearance of Molly’s parents. Kirk has had a premature accident in his pants with evidence of the culprit of the stain still noticeable, so he refuses to rise to shake Molly’s father’s hand. So Kirk is back in Loserville until he figures ‘what do I have to lose by telling her the truth?’... Does it work? Well, of course it does, I’m not spoiling anything with that revelation - this is a romantic comedy after all.
The hit & miss portions of the film come from Kirk’s inner circle of unrealistic friends & his bordering on ‘trailer trash’ family members & ex-girlfriend, Marnie.
I call his buddies unrealistic because although these 3 guys might be friends with someone like Kirk (A very tolerant soul) they would never hang with one another.
A scene where the only married member of the group (& the gayest by far) helps Kirk to... ummm... prune his trouser plums was humorous, but, I’m sorry, no straight dude would ever shave another guy’s dangling participles.
Yes, there is a lot of the typical ‘low brow’ comedy you’d expect to find in a ‘B’ comedy about classless guys & bitchy gals, but this movie worked for me because even though you KNOW there’s no way a girl that looks like Molly is going to give a guy that looks like Kirk a chance, let alone a second chance, they succeed by making those two characters believably human. And when Kirk’s closest pal, Stainer (T.J. Miller) comes to a realization at the end of the film, even his disgusting character becomes a decent guy. Plus, it made me laugh (A 25 on my laugh-o-meter)
Maybe it is due to the fact that I haven’t seen a decent comedy since ‘The Hangover’ & I’m starved to find something worth laughing at, but I liked “She’s Out Of My League” & “Hot Tub Time Machine” while disliking the more anticipated ‘Date Night’ & ‘Death At A Funeral’ remake.
Since we’ve reached the Quarter Pole here in 2010 – here are my Top 5 films so far;
1) SHUTTER ISLAND
2) The GHOST WRITER
3) EDGE OF DARKNESS
4) GREEN ZONE
5) HOT TUB TIME MACHINE