Perhaps I was the only person on Earth who was excited to see the buddy comedy That Awkward Moment. I know from American Pie to 21 Jump Street to American Reunion that while the bromance idea has been done very well multiple times in the past, it has also been done to death through the years. While I almost gave up hope that there was anything new to come from a film about bromance....the trailer for That Awkward Moment gave me hope that perhaps the bromance film is just starting to blossom. The keyword there is perhaps.
This is a film with nothing new on its agenda and so many attempts at gross, dated jokes that it gives January 2013's awful gross out comedy Movie 43 a run for its money. Perhaps it's only appropriate when one considers the fact that the writer-director of That Awkward Moment, Tom Gormican had a huge part in getting Movie 43 off the ground. The most baffling part of this film, however, is that as with Movie 43....Gormican has once again gotten extremely talented actors to star in this film. By now...everyone knws how Gormican managed that with Movie 43 but why would any of the major talents in this film sign on to this excruciating mess? From Miles Teller, the strongest aspect of 2011's Footloose remake to Michael B Jordan, fresh off of his excellent, Oscar worthy performance in March 2013's Fruitvale Station to Zac Efron who proved twice last year with At Any Price and Parkland that he is an actor of genuine talent....this is a baffling project with a lot of talent behind it. Perhaps it's so baffling because of all the talent and not in spite of it. Any three of the male leads should easily be able to save an entire film on their own. Here, however, all of them can barely get past a line without cringing at how truly unfunny the material is. The fact that a consistent punchline is one of them calling the other two idiots...a thought that the audience has already had from the opening credits does not help.
The film follows Mikey (Michael B Jordan) and his buddies Daniel (Miles Teller) and Jason (Zac Efron.) Mikey has just gotten the divorce papers from his wife who is leaving him for a man who looks like Morris Chestnut (and yes....Mikey does mention how the guy she's leaving him for looks like Morris Chestnut about 50 times in the film's 90 minute run time.) Upon finding out about this...Daniel and Jason promise to stay single with Mikey and then inexplicably go out to a club to look for one night stands. Jason ends up sleeping with Ellie (Imogen Poots) who makes it very clear that she's in love with him. Unfortunately, since everyone's an idiot in this film....Jason is too stupid to pick up on her very obvious signals and continues to sleep around while Ellie is too stupid to pick up on his very obvious signals that he doesn't want a relationship. All the while...Mikey tries to see if there's any way to win his wife back and Daniel goes to bars with his very attractive friend Chelsea (MacKenzie Davis) acting as his wingman or wingwoman...I'm not sure. Soon...Daniel...well...you already know where that's going and they all end up being in what the woman perceive as relationships and the guys perceive as simply having a good time.
If all of this sounds like a sitcom episode that ends with the words To Be Continued... at the bottom of your screen and then gets nicely wrapped up in the next episode....that's exactly what it is. However, you somehow get tricked into paying 10 dollars to watch it in a multiplex and it's not 40 minutes...it's 90. The film tries desperately to get laughs and yet is the most laugh free film in recent memory. Then, after confirming to the audience that every character in this film is an idiot, a prick or both...the film tries to get sweet and convince the audience that there's some deeper meaning that we, the audience did not see. The audience then gets treated to the most hackneyed joke anyone could possibly think of in which Jason dresses up for a different kind of costume party. Oh....and I still haven't mentioned the moment in which Jason and Daniel try to find out how to pee with an erection over the phone. Never mind...I'll spare my reader and just tell you to avoid this film at all costs.
(1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for sexual content and language throughout)
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