883. They Came Together (2014)

Starring: Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bill Hader

Director: David Wain

Running Time: 83 mins

They Came Together is an American film about the story of how a couple first met, and overcame their many differences to fall madly in love.

The whole premise of this film is that it’s just a stupid parody of the clichés of the rom-com genre, and it pulls it off pretty well, with a hilariously cheesy story, a lot of entertaining jokes, and a pair of great performances by Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd, and although the whole thing is a bit fluffy, it’s a nice bit of silly fun for once.

Basically, if you look at the majority of the reviews for this film, they’re not that great, but that’s mainly down to how people viewed the story, seeing as too clichéd even for a parody. I think that this film hits the balance almost perfectly. There are still points where it’s a little bit too cheesy and not so funny in terms of the romance, but the way it takes the mick out of the formulaic genre was a hell of a lot of fun to watch for me.

If you’re looking for a good romance, this is one of the more unorthodox ones, basically because it’s trying to be so generic. But don’t worry rom-com fans, you won’t be offended with this poking fun at your favourite genre, because you’ll love all of the in-jokes of the clichés that this film is absolutely jam-packed with, and the romance is also relatively entertaining (but that’s not the point).

In terms of the comedy, it could be better, but it’s light and consistent enough to be simply entertaining. There are some gags that go on for way too long and have a really unsatisfying punchline, whilst others are just blunt and a bit annoying, however the majority of the humour here is very satirical of the genre and quite quirky and original, which just gave it that extra edge to keep me interested and laughing the whole way through.

Yes, this film is extremely fluffy, and I’ll admit that it (quite hypocritically) does get bogged down in the romance story, and that some jokes don’t work, but for the most part, it’s a good bit of light, silly fun taking the mick out of a generic genre that will have you smiling and laughing all the way through, so that’s why it gets a 7.2 from me.