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When Chris, a likable, high-school loser, finally gathers the courage to reveal his love to Jamie -- the girl of his dreams and a super cool cheerleader -- she rejects him, saying she just wants to be friends. So, he moves across the country and transforms himself into a selfish, womanizing and successful music executive. But, 10 years later, circumstances bring him back to his home town and fate reconnects him with the "just friends" girl of his dreams. Suddenly, Chris has the chance to undo the past, but unbelievably, he finds it more difficult to romance Jamie than it was 10 years ago. Can one escape the clutches of the "friend zone?" Is it possible to go from "just friend" to boyfriend? Chris is about to find out the hard way.

I don't recall laughing once throughout this "seen it before" dumb teen comedy. In fact, most of its attempts to produce a giggle are just annoyingly unfunny.

There is a severe lack of any sustainable plot and the entire film feels like it is just a case of delaying the inevitable happy ending. Instantly forgettable and tiresome to watch.

Manic energy and an agreeable level of comic insanity turn Just Friends into the kind of brainless comedy you can enjoy as a modest guilty pleasure. If you liked director Roger Kumble's previous comedy The Sweetest Thing (and let's face it, that movie had some really funny moments), chances are you'll get at least a few solid belly-laughs from this not-so-high-concept premise, in which a formerly fat high-schooler named Chris (Ryan Reynolds) is transformed, ten years later, into a womanizing music executive with a high-profile client (Anna Faris) in the Britney Spears/Christina Aguilera mold.

As it zips along with some broad-stroked slapstick and snappy one-liners, the screenplay by Adam Tex Davis contrives to reunite Chris with Jamie (Amy Smart), the former cheerleader who was the great, unrequited love of Chris' miserable high-school life. By his narcissistic logic, he'll seduce her by treating her badly (i.e. she'll want what she thinks she can't have), but he gets unexpected competition in the form of a "Mr. Sensitive" type (Chris Klein, from American Pie), and it's pretty much Hollywood formula from there on, as Just Friends loses momentum without losing its basic appeal. And while Reynolds invests his character with an unexpected degree of emotional nuance, Faris (Scary Movie 3) pulls out all the stops, going deliriously over-the-top to maintain her reputation as a rising comedy starlet with a (hopefully) promising future. We're not talking rocket science here, folks... just sit back, take off your thinking cap, and have some fun. --Jeff Shannon

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