Christmas-Reviewer BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 300 HOLIDAY FILMS & SPECIALS. I HAVE NO AGENDA.This film doesn't know what it wants to be. Sweet or Raunchy. They should have gone for raunchy and played this a little meaner. Yes it is set at Christmas time and some people hate raunchy in Christmas films but by making this PG-13 this film loses too many laughs. There is one major set piece where someones Christmas lights get destroyed but other than that this film is forgettable because there is no stand out funny moments with the characters. What many people do not realize here is that Anna Faris is the stand out performer in this muddle mess. When she is on screen the film is funny. When she is not on screen the film becomes almost a HALLMARK Christmas MOVIE.What this story is about In this romantic comedy, a recording industry executive (Ryan Reynolds - National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Blade: Trinity) comes face to face with his old high school crush (Amy Smart - Starsky & Hutch, The Butterfly Effect)--a woman whose rejection of him turned him into a notorious womanizer. But now he realizes that she is his one true love, and he wants them to be more than Just Friends. A better writer would have given the comedy more "reality" then what is presented here. Because everything is "Over the Top" you don't care about anybody. Having everyone revert to how they were when they were in high school is an eye roller. Because you do not care about the people in this film the film itself becomes boring. You will keep checking your watch too see how much more time is left. I am giving this a 6 out of 10 because Anna Faris saves this from being a total waist of time.

maerrie1 With respect, I am puzzled by the positive reviews for this flick. Maybe it's just not my type of humour, but I found it lacking genuine wit and relying instead on the characters occasionally yelling and making strange noises, or acting completely out of character in some way. While I have no problem with suspension of disbelief, I do think a movie needs a reasonable premise to work with. And this is where the possible spoilers come in...I get that the main character, Chris, might feel just as insecure as he used to in high school when faced with his former unrequited crush. But to act like the last 10 years never happened, for basically the whole movie once he gets back home, is unrealistic. In LA he's an ace in the ice hockey rink, but back home he can't even stay upright (rental skates are inferior but not THAT bad - besides why didn't he just buy himself a new pair with a sliver of his handsome music exec salary??). Also, looking at the two of them - he's the successful, hardworking person with quite a glamorous career and financially very well off, while she's living with her parents and working in a bar. Yet somehow, she's Miss Confidence Incarnate and he's still the loser? Not convincing. Besides, if he really does revert to high school geek around Jamie, he wouldn't be such a jerk so often. Speaking of jerk - I know the wannabe singing sensation is clearly a crazy narcissist, but Chris treats her like dirt. His behaviour to her is so disrespectful, dragging her around by her arm all over the place, forcing plans on her that she openly objects to, exploiting her (deranged, but still genuine) attraction to him for financial gain, letting his gross in-heat brother loose on her, and generally deriding her every chance he gets. This is SO not OK. Neither is the sub-plot in which a group of kids relentlessly tease and bully Chris and nobody ever disciplines them.I do know it's meant to be just a bit of light entertainment, and I'm not incapable of enjoying slightly unrealistic films, but when the plot holes are big enough to fit a hundred high horses on a moral crusade through, it's not light entertainment anymore. It's giving credibility to culturally poisonous attitudes that shouldn't be implicitly propagated and normalised in film.

Prismark10 Just Friends stars Ryan Reynolds in a fat suit who plays Chris, the nice high school nerd who wants to declare his love for hot babe Jamie (Amy Smart) at the graduation party.Jamie likes Chris only as a friend which means platonic only relationship, no sex. Feeling humiliated Chris leaves his New Jersey town vowing never to return.Ten years later, Chris is a successful musical executive. He is thin, rich, handsome and a womaniser. However when he is sent to sign an emerging but spoilt pop star (Anne Faris) ends up in his home town with her when the plane is forced to make an emergency landing.Chris hooks up with his old friends, some are older, fatter and balding. He also sees Jamie and plans to impress her but it always ends up in disaster and humiliation for Chris.Just Friends is an easy going and charming comedy with a few good laughs. It is really a starring vehicle for Reynolds which did OK but not brilliantly in the box office.Reynolds hams it up in the fat suit, sings Backstreet Boys songs but even when thin, he cannot escape his past nerdiness which rather inverts this type of film where the geek becomes the Greek god.

mattkratz This basically serves as a vehicle for Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart, and as romantic comedies go, it's not too bad. Anna Ferris was terrific as a crazy pop star. Reynolds gets stranded in his New Jersey hometown during the holidays and runs into his old friends, including his high school crush, who spurned him right before they graduated high school. They start to reconnect.This has several laugh-out-loud scenes, including a bed scene, a great "he shoots, he scores" transition scene, a pickup hockey game, and a scene where they try to kiss on the ice. It's a pretty good "guilty pleasure" film with good chemistry between the stars.** 1/2 out of ****