Wanderlust (2012)

My wife is a Jennifer Aniston fan, I guess. We seem to always go to the theaters to see her movies when they're released and they're usually pretty good. I wouldn't consider myself to be a fan of Paul Rudd, exactly, but I've seen him in enough Apatow comedies to watch a movie based on his inclusion. After watching "In the Bedroom", we were in the mood for something lighter and chose this.

George and Linda are a young couple in New York who are in  over their heads. Barely able to make ends meet, they decide to buy a studio apartment. George loses his job the very next day and they sell it at a loss. New York defeated them, so they drive to Atlanta to live with his obnoxious, shithead brother, Rick. Exhausted from the drive, they stop at a bed and breakfast located on a hippie commune, the Elysium, and after a night of partying with the nut-jobs who live there, they continue on the road to his brother's house. Quickly, they find him to be an insufferable prick, so at George's suggestion, the two of them ditch their modern lifestyle and head back to the commune to live there full time. Linda is reluctant at first, but is sucked into the lifestyle and feels at home even after George has had enough and wants to leave.

As a teenager in the 90s there were a shockingly large group of my classmates who smoked dope, wore tie-dye, listened to the Dead and played hackey sac in the parking lot before and after school. The pot smoking I could understand, but neo-hippie culture still confuses the fuck out of me. I got to know these people because I played in a band and they routinely came to our shows. Some I still consider to be friends of mine. I'm well versed in the lifestyle this movie pokes fun at and, trust me, there's plenty to ridicule. This movie was mostly stupid, but there were several genuinely funny moments throughout. More often, though, the scenes either weren't funny at all or dragged on for way too long. Let's face it - Aniston is slumming it in this movie, but did a decent job with what she had to work with and Rudd does a fairly good job as the straight man to the insanity that surrounds him (and there's plenty of it). There was a nice cameo by one of my favorite actors, too.

It certainly wasn't terrible or a complete waste of time, but calling this "good" would be stretching it. If you think Adam Sandler's movies are a laugh riot, this would be up your alley as it's similarly crude. I prefer my comedies to be a little less dumb, though.

Right in the middle, 3/5.