Seen on: September 21, 2008

The players: Director: Howard Deutch, Writer: Jordan Cahan, Cast: Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, Alec Baldwin, Jason Biggs, Lizzy Caplan

Facts of interest: None at all.

The plot: Tank (Cook) takes women on horrible dates to make them appreciate good guys and run back to their ex-boyfriends. He meets his biggest challenge yet when his best friend (Biggs) asks him to take out his love interest (Hudson).

Our quick thoughts: Howard Deutch’s “My Best Friend’s Girl” is a tough comedy to sit through. First and foremost, it’s not funny. Second, it’s incredibly boring. Third, it runs for 101 long minutes. And fourth, it tells a story that’s as monotonous as these stories can get. In other words, it’s a disaster.

Dane Cook stars as Tank, who earns some extra cash by taking out women on horrible dates so they learn to appreciate good guys and crawl back to their ex-boyfriends. It’s a fun hobby for Tank - as long as he succeeds. But when his best friend Dustin (Jason Biggs) hires him to take out his love interest Alexis (Kate Hudson), Tank meets the challenge of his lifetime.

That’s the story you get for your money, and whether you’ve seen the trailer, it’s pretty easy to guess what happens next. Alexis is not like most women, and she’s not at all falling for Tank’s vicious tricks to make her hate him and run into Dustin’s arms. On the contrary, she finds Tank intriguing and stops at nothing to seduce him. And in case you were wondering, Tank obviously doesn’t resist.

I wish he did though, because what follows is an embarrassingly shallow comedy that is neither romantic nor hilarious. The plot of this stinker is utterly pointless, with Dustin wandering around like a naïve boy who won’t accept a rejection and Tank having a great time with Alexis until he realizes that what he’s doing is disrespectful to his friend. Whatever happens in “Best Friend’s Girl,” it only gets worse as the film approaches the finish line.

Besides a decent supporting role in “Dan in Real Life,” Dane Cook is not exactly what I would call a talented big-screen comedian. After all, he’s the guy who failed to generate laughs in “Employee of the Month” and later delivered a disastrous performance in “Good Luck Chuck.” Here, the only thing he succeeds in is showing audiences that he had a great time making this film. Too bad we don’t get a piece of the fun.

Freaky quote: “You're not attractive. There, I said it!" – Dane Cook

The final word: In my personal opinion, even Hudson hasn’t done a single passable film since “Le Divorce” in 2003, and I really hope she’ll pick a better script in the near future. Unfortunately, her presence adds very little to “My Best Friend’s Girl,” a comedy so weak and unnecessary, it just made me wish I had stayed at home. Glad this weekend is over

Article by Franck Tabouring