AVClub: Telling a woman to “man up” doesn’t exactly count as progressive, but at least the British romcom Man Up reverses gender stereotypes less clumsily than Trainwreck did. Here, it’s Jack (Simon Pegg) who’s prone to public crying jags yet undeterred from seeking happiness, and it’s Nancy (Lake Bell, doing a passable English accent) who’s retreated from the world and prefers to sit around lip-syncing all the dialogue from The Silence Of The Lambs. That’s about as distinctive as the movie gets, though. Apart from a brief, glorious stretch during which Jack and Nancy actively despise each other, allowing Pegg and Bell to truly cut loose, Man Up mostly squanders a promising premise and hits a whole lot of familiar beats. Nancy’s “mantras,” written in a notebook, include “Put yourself out there” and “Take chances,” but she’s stuck in a movie that isn’t terribly interested in doing either. Rather than aim for uproarious, it constantly settles for amusing.
Joblo
You couldn’t really ask for a much better pairing in a romantic comedy than Lake Bell and Simon Pegg. The two are exceptionally good at being funny, especially when there is a slightly dark edge to it. In their latest, Man Up, there is something especially pleasing about their shouldn’t have been date come to life. Directed by Ben Palmer, with a script by Tess Morris, this seriocomic feature is a sweet yet bitter tale of finding romance. And one of the most refreshing things about it is that the characters have lived a life. Either in their mid-thirties or early-forties, this is an adult relationship that is mature, yet sparkling with laughs throughout. This is true even when the humor is far from lighthearted.
Love Lake Bell and Simon Pegg. A wonder a director wasn't privy to pairing them up sooner.
Sam Love- Granted, we CeX writers probably aren’t the target audience for films like this. This is a date movie through-and-through, not a film to be analysed or reviewed – especially by us. And I was expecting to write a rather hateful piece about this, just from looking at the poster. I love Simon Pegg but I was getting ready to aggressively question his career choices that led him to this, and lose a lot of respect for the man.
