Movie Review: They Came Together

They Came Together is the latest collaboration written by former members of The State and Stella, Michael Showalter and David Wain, who last wrote the cult classic Wet Hot American Summer together.  David Wain, who also directed the movie, made his directorial debut with Wet Hot American Summer and then followed that up with The Ten, Role Models, and Wanderlust.  The movie stars previous Wain/Showalter actors, Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler, who both worked together in Wet Hot American Summer. Rudd went on to star in all of Wain's other movies. The movie also features Cobie Smulders, Christopher Meloni, Bill Hader, Ellie Kemper, Max Greenfield, Ed Helms, and loads of other funny people.

While many will immediately compare this to Wet Hot American Summer, and rightfully so since the humor is very outlandish, silly, and light-hearted, I think it better compares in structure to Showalter's movie The Baxter, which was also a parody on the romantic comedy genre.  While The Baxter focused more on what happens to the schmuck who gets left at the alter in romantic comedy movies, this is obviously more along the lines of a traditional rom-com.  The humor works well and while really off the wall in parts, the movie has a really funny center to it that most will enjoy.  However, there are some moments that depending upon your sense of humor may not translate well but for long-time fans, these are the moments they cherish.

Joel (Paul Rudd) and Molly (Amy Poehler) play a couple that are fresh out of their previous relationships and run into each other (literally) on their way to the same party where they are meant to be set-up to date each other.  They blame the other for the run-in and hate each other because of it.  On top of that Joel works for a giant candy store conglomerate that is set to put Molly's small candy shop out of business.  All that being said, the two eventually fall for each other, break-up, and if you've seen romantic comedy movies you can figure out where it goes from there.

I really enjoyed watching this movie and as a fan of Wain/Showalter, I thought a lot of it was really hilarious.  I wish our society leaned towards this type of parody of a genre like the Airplane and Naked Guns, rather than the Scary Movies and A Haunted Houses style where they pull specific scenes, ideas, characters from other movies.   The movie only clocks in at 83 minutes and that seems like the right amount of time as ultimately there really isn't a whole lot of original story being told here.  While comedy bits from the movie will stick with you long after, the movie itself doesn't do much to be remembered.  At the end of the day, that's not really why you watch a movie like They Came Together, it's about the laughs and many of those are simply excellent.

Rating: 4 out of 5