This beat-by-beat spoof of contemporary romantic comedies is a testament to the power of having famous, funny friends. Director David Wain, who wrote the script with regular collaborator Michael Showalter, has a flair for the absurd, but mostly here he pushes the cliches of the genre one step beyond their usual inanity. And so it helps to have the likes of Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Christopher Meloni, Bill Hader, Ed Helms and Michael Ian Black in front of the camera. Throw these folks together onscreen in an environment friendly to improvisation and you get something of a Scene Stealer Competition. The surprising winner? Meloni, whose bit at a costume party is well worth the price of admission.
