What’s Aged the Worst?
The drag in the middle, about 15 minutes; the Jack McBrayer plotline
In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:41:31Read transcript
- The movie drags in the middle and is about 15 minutes fat, most obviously the McBrayer plotline: funny, but by the end you wonder why it was in the movie, a roughly 20-minute detour; the hosts would rather have had more Hader, more hotel staff or ten more minutes of Jonah Hill than graphic sex five times and instructional material that has no bearing on Peter.
- From around 2003 to 2004 through the rest of the decade R rated comedies felt obliged to get their bang for the buck, which this film handled in the first ten minutes; the better decision would have been to cut that material and use the five-minute Kristen Wiig yoga instructor deleted scene instead.
- In the context of Apatow comedies it feels pretty lean, since the standing criticism is that they run 20 to 40 minutes too long; this one is under two hours even in the extended unrated version, about 118 minutes plus credits, so it is a little fat but not that bad.
- Siding with the drag complaint, one host would break up the middle with one more FaceTime scene with Hater, since there are about 15 minutes of waiting for her to break up with Russell Brand and have the come-to-Jesus moment with Segel; otherwise nothing has aged badly and the film could be released now largely unchanged.