I Love You Man (R16)

About to get married, real estate agent Peter (Paul Rudd) realises he has no male friends and needs to find one to be his best man.

He finds and bonds with Sydney (Jason Segel), a guy's guy with his own "man cave''; together they become a modern-day Odd Couple, with nice guy Peter as Felix and good-time slob Sydney as Oscar.

With its crass and raunchy humour (including projectile vomiting, fart jokes, dog poo and candid sex talk), this could be another Judd Apatow-inspired comedy, but it has two things going for it: Rudd and Segel. 

Rudd, often a rom-com sidekick, shows he can hold a story together, giving Peter a disarming sweetness with wry humour and being awkwardly funny, while Segal, in a role Vince Vaughn often plays, is likeable as an adult adolescent getting left behind and alone.

This comedy has been coined a "bromance'' because it acknowledges that two straight guys can "love'' one another in a platonic way and, golly, even say it aloud in public.

• Reviewed by David Manning, DVDs for review supplied by United Video, Nelson.

- © Fairfax NZ News