Thankfully the book and the movie share a short journey together, 25 minutes in and the Toby Young portrayal of Sidney Young (the character based upon himself) flits off into the ether, occasionally popping up to add some similarities. For the most part like so many others the movie bears little resemblance to the book, and for once this is welcomed with open arms. Even literary critics that Shunned Young's book seem to quite enjoy the movie version, mostly because it's easy to disassociate it from the obnoxious author.

To an author the opportunity to write for a lavish publication like Vanity Fair would be a dream come true (here renamed as Sharpes in order to keep the movies expenditure low). This was just the opportunity given to the character Sidney, who packs his bags and closes the door on his London life heading to New York to work for the legend that is Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges). Rather like the book the reason for this appointment is elusive to say the least; it's later fobbed off in the movie as being a nostalgia trip for Harding. Young is not a good writer, so to appoint him a role in one of the world's most revered magazines is like giving a homeless person a mansion. The movie follows the travels of Young as he moves through America's A-List social circles, while blundering as often as he can.

The book was a curious product, its purpose a simple vanity product for Toby Young; in the novel Young never gets anywhere, he never achieves anything, from his arrival in America to his departure ignored but greeted with some happiness. In this depiction, Young annoys but somehow manages to elevate himself to a position of notoriety and for surprisingly for the right reasons.

What in my heart annoyed me most about the movie is that I really rather enjoyed it, it was amusing and at the same time had a silly Hollywood style sentimental heart, in the same vein as movies like Four Weddings And A Funeral and Notting Hill. It stumbles around for a portion as Young makes the disastrous mistakes we as humans often do, as the movie progresses it drops off the comedy aspects of the movie and begins focusing on a love story, it becomes a real tug of love movie with Young falling for the woman that he initially loathed. It's hard not to enjoy this movie as it picks all the most successful aspects of big movies and conglomerates them into one film.

Pegg plays the fool as he does in most of his movies, although I'm sure Star Trek will be an exception, yes Pegg when Star Trek arrives you will have officially hit the big time, until then you're a little person like all of us. Why so scathing I hear you ask? Pegg is not the character you see on movies and television shows, there is little laughter in the actors life, but rather a lot of ego, rather a lot like Toby Young, was the casting ironic?

On the other far more noteworthy cast you have the lovely Gillian Anderson, who you'll note is carefully filmed to cover her bump, the actress was heavily pregnant during much of the filming, and the odd full screen shots see her covering her stomach with a handbag or other inanimate object. Anderson must be so pleased to be in something worthwhile after the awful X-Files sequel and here she offers a good solid performance as the hardened publicist who has a general control over Sharpes magazine. Danny Huston possibly now best known as the vicious head vampire in 30 Days Of Night, acts as the movies villain Lawrence Maddox, stealing ideas, seducing women with his vile charm, Huston the son of legendary actor/director John Huston does a really good job of playing the bad guy so well, he oozes a sickening bile you can sense before he even opens his mouth. Jeff Bridges plays the Editor of the magazine Clayton Harding, here heavily wigged having had to cut all his hair off for Iron Man the role he was starring in when this movie came up, allowing him to venture into two roles consecutively. While Kristen Dunst and Megan Fox play potential love interests, both excelling at their roles well; Dunst is rather cutting, while Fox does her best to play a pretty terrible actress who succeeds on the back of a number of media hungry publicity stunts.

The amount of blue screen effects in the movie are really annoying, no window view is real, a park scene is half computer generated and in both cases obviously so. Even a few innocent scenes in a large country estate are not safe from a little editing. Since the dawn of cinema backdrops have been faked, but I cannot remember a time in recent cinema history a movie where these effects have been so obvious.
You can never escape the obvious fact that this is a British movie trying to look like a American one, it's obvious in almost everything you see; even the majority of the cast look British with far too many council estate jaws for you to count, and pasty pale skin that could only be achieved here in the UK.
How To Lose Friends And Alienate People is one of those movies best suited to a cosy night in at home, it's a warm vibrant movie with lots of emotional depths, you'll laugh, you may well cry, and you will certainly be picking your jaw of the floor as Young does his best to make a complete arse of himself; it's one of the best comedy offerings of 2008 by far.

This is a fantastic movie for men age 13 to 50. Women will probably find it ok. Cool cars, hot women, guns, planes, trucks, explosions, monster robots, I can't figure out why I was so sure this movie would flop. There are plot devises, like a secret map etched into old glasses, which might have been used to make the movie more suspenseful and dynamic but the editors made the call to minimize such things to keep the fast, adventure pacing.

What about the “PG-13” Rating?

There are several strong innuendos and it would be tempting to judge a couple scenes of Megan Fox looking hot in tight clothes as pure objectification but for two things. First is that the perspective is clearly not between us and the actress, but between an unpopular teen boy and a popular teen girl. The flirtation, etc. makes sense in context. The second factor is the conversation they have about being superficial and seeing deeper into who she is. It's very redeeming.

The larger story

This is a movie about honor and sacrifice. See if this sounds familiar there's a war between good and evil somewhere in the stars and the great evil comes to earth seeking power, and the hero of the good guys comes to save the day even if it means giving his life.

What this movie shows, that many films don't, is the role humans play in all this, and the care and concern these powerful beings have for them. It's a very inspiring thing.