All Over the Guy (2001)

All Over the Guy: Directed by Julie Davis. With Dan Bucatinsky, Richard Ruccolo, Sasha Alexander, Adam Goldberg. “All Over The Guy” is a contemporary romantic comedy about the quest to find the “one” when “the one” doesn’t know he’s the “one.” It explores the unlikely pairing of two 20-somethings thrown together by their respective best friends in hopes of igniting their own romance. They do everything they can to NOT fall in love, but finally they overcome the dysfunction of their parents and surrender to their hearts.

“Very nice, easy-going and consistently charming. And still ,looking back, I find it hard to find that something special to remember from the movie. There is simply not very much to make it stand out from every other `romantic comedyu0026#39; except the fact that the story is about two men! The performances are nicely turned and Ruccolo is charming in his part, as is Doris Roberts, who ultimately makes the biggest impression even though she is only on-screen for about 15 minutes. For a gay-themed movie, there is quite a large budget at work here (at least it looks that way) and that certainly is a nice change from all the grainy, blown-up indy-movies that is too common when the subject is homosexuality. And it has a script that is witty and sympathetic towards its characters, gay or straight, with some hilarious comedy from Eliu0026#39;s psychologist parents as portrayed by Martin and Abatemarco. But nothing new is on display here. Eli, as portrayed by Dan Bucatinsky, comes over as somewhat annoying, even though he should be the most sympathetic of the two main protagonists, mainly because he is unnatural in his wittisisms and one-liners. These lines are penned by Bucatinsky himself, by the way, and while they often are very funny, sometimes they come over as too contrived. And I couldnu0026#39;t escape a certain feeling of shallowness. The movie constantly touches on an interesting issue or storyline, but chickens out before anything goes too far away from the mainstream (as in the story about Tomu0026#39;s parents and his sister, alcoholism). And the biggest damage is done from the fact that nothing very special happens. The plot must have been written on the back of a stamp because basically Tom meet Eli, walks out of Eli, comes back to Eli and so on. But what am I complaining of? It still is nice to see a movie with gay characters acting as normal people. It is sweet, good-natured and watchable. Just not very memorable.”