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Lewd, crude and gross-out comedy seems to be the soup of the day in theaters of late. Since writer/director Judd Apatow and his associates arrived on the scene with films like The 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, everyone’s been angling to make the next big hit that will click with audiences. I’m reminded of the time in the immediate aftermath of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction where everyone was grinding out hip, self-referential shoot-‘em-ups with sharp dialogue in the Tarantino mold. Like the vast majority of those, the latest crop of Apatow-wannabes tends to pale in comparison with the real deal. Despite a few bright spots — the recent Role Models and Forgetting Sarah Marshall immediately come to mind — they all seem to have identical ingredients but they fail to find that magic combination to make it all click into place. As a result, they end up being just a string of four-letter words and scatological jokes that get nastier and more repugnant as time goes on. (Not that I’m a prude, but it seems anything will get an R rating these days as long as it doesn’t show explicit sexual acts. But apparently you can describe these acts in elaborate detail without having a censor blink an eye.)

But I digress. The latest offering in the never-ending stream of Apatow-inspired comedies is titled I Love You, Man and it stars, not surprisingly, frequent Apatow collaborator Paul Rudd and the writer-star of the aforementioned Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jason Segel. I’m sure their casting was no coincidence here as the film is a blatant attempt to capture lightning in a bottle with Rudd playing another of his affable but somewhat dorky characters and Segel perfectly slipping into the rough-around-the-edges role that he’s thus far built a career on. While audiences and critics really seemed bowled over by this reheated concoction, for me the results were decidedly mixed, and I felt there were far too many sequences that tried a bit too hard to either shock me, make me laugh, or tug at my heartstrings. Don’t get me wrong, I laughed at a couple of the well-executed reaction shots — most of which were provided courtesy of Paul Rudd, who with this film and Role Models has now proven himself worthy to step out from the shadows of playing the “scene-stealing supporting comedic actor” — but in the end this wasn’t anything we haven’t seen a million times before and the contrived conclusion was not only predictable but helped stopped the movie dead in its tracks before the closing credits.

The promising premise begins when good-natured Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) proposes to his longtime girlfriend Zooey (Rashida Jones). As a successful real estate agent, Peter is confident he can give Zooey everything she would ever want. But Zooey becomes a little concerned when they start planning the actual wedding and discover that Peter has no close male friends he can rely on to stand up for him as best man. In fact, Peter really only seems to relate to women — even while at his real estate office. After overhearing Zooey and her bevy of bridesmaids-to-be discussing this odd predicament, Peter sets out to find himself a new best buddy. This leads to one of the film’s clunky montages wherein Peter goes out on a series of “man dates” to try to ignite a bromance with another guy. All of these end in bitter disappointment, with Peter alternately finding himself either annoyed by the prospects or becoming an annoyance himself. But one day he happens to run into a regular guy named Sydney Fife (Jason Segel) while hosting an open house for actor Lou Ferrigno (who plays himself). Sydney is down-to-earth and likeable — someone Peter senses he could really get to know and connect with. Confessing that he’s an investor just there to hit on widowed and divorced women, Sydney comes across as refreshingly blunt and honest … which is something Peter really respects.

Although initially reluctant to strike up a friendship with this relative stranger, Zooey encourages Peter to pursue Sydney. After leaving a rather embarrassing message on Sydney’s answering machine, Peter is surprised when he calls back to invite him out for a few beers. The two really hit it off and begin sharing intimate details with each other about sex, meeting women, drinking and rock-and-roll. The latter obsession is realized in the form of Rush, and the two new best buds jam out to tunes by the Canadian power trio inside Sydney’s private “bat cave” — a converted garage behind his house. Of course, soon Zooey starts to worry that Peter and Sydney are spending too much time together and maybe are getting a bit too close. The new platonic relationship is seriously cutting into the time the newly-engaged couple once shared together, like watching HBO on Sunday nights. But Peter likes his new man-pal and he soon pops the question: will Sydney be his best man? Honored, Sydney accepts. But things start to go south when Sydney hits Peter up for an ill-timed $8,000 “investment” loan and he refuses to let Peter in on the action.

They say never let money come between friends, and the mysterious loan immediately creates a divide between the once-candid friends and also causes friction between Zooey and Peter, since money is understandably tight as the wedding approaches. Hurt and disappointed, Peter no longer wants Sydney to even attend the wedding, let alone be his best man. But what Peter doesn’t know is Sydney actually used the $8,000 to buy a series of slick billboard ads placed all over Los Angeles promoting Peter’s real estate business. The money does turn out to be a very wise investment, after all, as it not only helps Peter close the Lou Ferrigno house sale but also brings in plenty of new business as well. With a crew of makeshift groomsmen flanking him at the wedding — including his father (the great J.K. Simmons), gay brother Robbie (SNL’s Andy Samberg) and non other than the “Incredible Hulk” himself, Lou Ferrigno — it’s obvious that Peter is feeling the absence of Sydney in the lineup. Sensing this, Zooey decides to make a quick call to Sydney … who’s already on his way to the reception anyway. The two best buds reunite just before the ceremony is about to begin and everyone rocks out to the incongruous sounds of Rush at the wedding reception.

While I can’t fault either Paul Rudd or Jason Segel for essentially playing roles they’ve done in their sleep, I Love You, Man just doesn’t gel as a whip-smart, razor-sharp comedy. It takes an awful long time to get going — we don’t even meet Sydney’s character until almost 25 minutes into the film — and then instead of allowing a genuine, organic relationship to develop between the two leads through dialogue and situations, director John Hamburg (Along Came Polly) falls back on the overused “episodic montage” to show how they bond. As if that weren’t enough, we also get the even more clichéd “music montage” — not once, but twice — showing again how Sydney and Peter bond over Rush. What’s more frustrating for me is I really wanted to like this movie. Paul Rudd is an affable guy and I’m glad he’s getting the long overdue attention he deserves. Jason Segel, likewise, showed a lot of promise in writing and starring in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and he does a nice job here modulating between the calm and assertive Sydney and the sometimes vile, animalistic Sydney who burrows up from his id like Mr. Hyde. But the movie itself depends too much on tired masturbation jokes, gross-out vomit gags, and even several pointless dog poop bits. Talk about high art. And I haven’t even mentioned the presence of talented people like Jon Favreau, Jamie Pressly, or Jane Curtin — all of whom are given thankless roles with very little to do.

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