I've seen a lot of bad movies that clearly borrowed from other, better movies. "She's Out of My League" is the first time I can recall it going the other way - it's a good movie that kept reminding me of other, lesser movies. Neat trick, that.
In the spirit of "There's Something About Mary," "American Pie" and the entire career output of Judd Apatow, "She's Out of My League" is a sex comedy that trades heavily in willfully profane dialogue, squirm-inducing social situations and I-love-you-man bromance sentimentality.
The quite pleasant surprise is that "League" proves to be much smarter and nimbler than its marketing campaign would suggest. Jay Baruchel, who has a long record of scene-stealing in previous films ("Knocked Up," "Tropic Thunder"), stars as Kirk, an underachieving 20-something TSA agent who spends his days cracking wise with his loser pals at the Pittsburgh airport.
One bright day, the impossibly hot Molly (British newcomer Alice Eve) accidentally leaves her cell phone at Kirk's security post. Being the decent fellow that he is, Kirk goes out of his way to return the phone, and an appreciative Molly invites him to a party.
It's around this point that the movie starts to resemble the long procession of odd couple rom-coms and teen sex comedies that have preceded it. Kirk's idiot buddies immediately start in on him, in the manner of idiot buddies everywhere, insisting that Kirk is a 5, Molly is a "hard 10," and one simply cannot leap that yawning chasm of hotness differential.
Meanwhile, Molly's BFF Patty (Krysten Ritter) disparages the geeky Kirk and accuses Molly of a kind of slumming. It seems Molly has been burned in the past by a procession of pedigreed studs. Molly is chasing Kirk, Patty contends, because it's safe, and he is unlikely to hurt her.
Just about every character or scene in "League" is vaguely reminiscent of someone or something else. Kirk, with his poor posture and twitchy likability, reminded me of a dozen similar characters, all the way back to Christian Slater in his late-'80s geeky/cool outsider roles. Molly has a Reese Witherspoon thing going, with a dash of Kathy Ireland.
Each of Kirk's buddies riffs on a classic sidekick template - the goody-goody, the loose cannon - and each of the film's showcase gags has precedent elsewhere in the gross-out comedy canon. If you are at all uncomfortable with semen jokes and manscaping specifics, you better stay clear.
Somehow, though, director Jim Field Smith cuts it all up into a fresh remix. Much of the credit has to go to the screenwriters Sean Anders and John Morris, who provide authentic-sounding dialogue, credible comic characters and an admirable volume of funny jokes and situations.
If the film can overcome its own condescending marketing strategy, "League" may well become the year's first big sleeper hit. This is a very funny comedy indeed and, if nothing else, earns huge points for having some fun at the expense of post-9/11 airport security and Hall & Oates cover bands. I mean, about time, right?
