How to Lose Friends & Alienate People

Simon Pegg is funny when Edgar Wright is directing and Nick Frost is by his side, but he’s kind of annoying otherwise. Here, he plays an English journalist given a big shot with a gossip magazine in Manhattan headed by Jeff Bridges. While there, he falls for a movie starlet (Megan Fox) in a lustful way, while falling for a coworker (Kirsten Dunst) in a sensible way. The film has a few laughs, but the overall tone is inconsistent, and Pegg tends to strain and mug for laughs. Fox is actually quite funny as the ditzy actress, while Dunst is a drag as the “deep” coworker who scribbles her novel in a little diary thing and always looks morose. I’m supremely confident that Pegg will find his way (can’t wait to see him as Scotty in the next Star Trek), but this and Run, Fatboy, Run, don’t do much for his career.