How to Lose Friends & Alienate People

Name: How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Released: October 3, 2008
Duration: 110 min
Rating: 35
Cast: Megan Fox, Simon Pegg

2008

METASCORE

Generally unfavorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 55 Ratings

See All

6.7

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6.7	Your Score
6.7	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 55 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

How To Lose Friends & Alienate People

Now Playing: How To Lose Friends & Alienate People

Movie Details & Credits

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: October 3, 2008 | R

Starring: Megan Fox, Simon Pegg

Summary: In this hilariously funny fish-out-of-water tale, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People tracks the outrageous escapades of Sidney Young, a smalltime, bumbling, British celebrity journalist who is hired by an upscale magazine in New York City. In spectacular fashion Sidney enters high society and burns bridges with bosses, peers andIn this hilariously funny fish-out-of-water tale, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People tracks the outrageous escapades of Sidney Young, a smalltime, bumbling, British celebrity journalist who is hired by an upscale magazine in New York City. In spectacular fashion Sidney enters high society and burns bridges with bosses, peers and superstars. The film is based on Toby Young's memoir of the same name. [MGM]… Expand

Director: Robert B. Weide

Genre(s): Comedy, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 110 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Buy on

Stream On

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Roger Ebert

Possibly the best movie that could be made about Toby Young that isn't rated NC-17. Read full review

James Berardinelli

Feels jumbled and disorganized. It's not altogether unpalatable, but that doesn't present it from being a mess. Read full review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Best in show is the divine Gillian Anderson as a powerful celebrity publicist, editing the image of her clients in much the same way this adaptation tames Young's much pricklier book. Read full review

Stina Chyn

Packs a full plate of gasps and giggles. Read full review

Steven Rea

An embarassingly unfunny, stumblebum adaptation of Toby Young's memoir. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

The movie based on Young's 2002 memoir is a good bit blunter. One early laugh comes at the expense of a pig urinating on a woman's feet at the BAFTA awards, the British equivalent of the Oscars. And it doesn't get much better, or much smarter, than that. Read full review

Manohla Dargis

The crushingly unfunny and slopped-together How to Lose Friends & Alienate People has neither the ambition nor the intelligence to do justice to its source material. Read full review

SEE ALL 25 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

TynchyTemper

Jun 23, 2019

Totally underrated. Saying that my rating is a protest vote. Megan Fox phwooar!

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

johndoe

Dec 29, 2008

Personally I loved this film and and some of these critics that rated this movie are not going to give it above 90 unless it's the best movie that ever happened to mankind and even then the new york times and time magazine would only give it a 50. I loved this movie and I would Personally I loved this film and and some of these critics that rated this movie are not going to give it above 90 unless it's the best movie that ever happened to mankind and even then the new york times and time magazine would only give it a 50. I loved this movie and I would reccomend everyone to buy it or at least rent it.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

RobertJ.

Nov 1, 2008

I loved this film! I was expecting bad things after reading teh Metacritic ratings but we had already booked our Goldclass tickets so had to go, Went in expecting to be able to go to sleep but no what an enjoyable film. It was funny, yes some slapstick but overall Simon Pegg was very I loved this film! I was expecting bad things after reading teh Metacritic ratings but we had already booked our Goldclass tickets so had to go, Went in expecting to be able to go to sleep but no what an enjoyable film. It was funny, yes some slapstick but overall Simon Pegg was very convincing. I haven't read the book but will get it now. I wonder if all the negative reviews were from US journalists who it hit a raw nerve with. It's basically about insincerity and does not put US journalists in a particularly good light. A telling scene at a party when Pegg's charachter says that in the UK they keep people out of these parties whereas in the US the celebs gush all over the journalists almost begging them to write a story on them. In the end he saw the light and got out. I would say go and see it and don't let these creepy journalists watching a film which exposes them for the hypocrites we despise and no them to be.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

PeterS.

Oct 5, 2008

The film isn't brilliant but the critics have been harsh on the film. There are a few problems (I don't know whether I'm meant to like/dislike Simon Pegg and I got bored in the first half) but I left the film feeling satisfied.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

Halfwelshman

Mar 26, 2012

For the most part, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People is a decent enough British comedy film. Based on journalist Toby Young's memoirs, we follow Sideny Young (Simon Pegg) attempting to make it as a big-name journalist for the massively popular Sharps magazine based in New York. TheFor the most part, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People is a decent enough British comedy film. Based on journalist Toby Young's memoirs, we follow Sideny Young (Simon Pegg) attempting to make it as a big-name journalist for the massively popular Sharps magazine based in New York. The casting is pretty inconsistent - Pegg makes for a thoroughly unlikeable protagonist (perhaps due to the man Sidney is not-so-loosely based on), but you do warm to him eventually, once you've had time to take some pleasure in some of Sidney's failures. Kirsten Dunst makes for a bit of a comedy revelation as Alison Olsen, Sidney's fellow Sharps journalist and love interest, and Gillian Anderson and Miriam Margolyes seem to be relishing their roles as powerful, media-savvy publicist Eleanor Johnson and Mrs Kowalski, Sidney's landlady respectively. Meagan Fox, surprisingly enough, also impresses, at least if, like me, you take her performance as Sophie Maes, a ditsy actress looking to be taken seriously as an aware jab at her own media image. Elsewhere the casting is rather less impressive. Jeff Bridges, playing Sharps editor Clayton Harding, does a rather fine impression of Jeff Bridges. Also, I am yet to see a film where Danny Huston, here playing Sidney's nemesis and immediate superior Lawrence Maddox, puts any effort into a role, but he's got the "skill" of talking a bit too loudly, then a bit too quietly mastered. The film has a few decent jokes, and makes a passing attempt to comment on the plasticity of celebrity and the vindictiveness of journalism, but it's too long, and somehow still manages a rushed, sloppy ending, and unfortunately for a romantic comedy, the romantic element doesn't really work. A few of the jokes miss their mark as well, and the film does resort to Farrelly-grade crudeness now and again. How to Lose Friends & Alienate People does work as a comedy, and actually tries to say something relevant about the modern world, but a few casting, writing and pacing missteps do threaten to ruin your enjoyment of the film. It's worth watching if you've got an evening to kill, and you want a bit of undemanding fun, but it's probably not worth going out of your way to see.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MichaelD

Mar 19, 2012

I expected too much from this movie. There was a few one-off gags but overall I was disappointed.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Hyperbole

Jan 17, 2012

Kills the thought process I had that Jeff Bridges can't be in a bad film. Hyper real, but in a bad bad way. It's not funny at all. I understand what its trying to do, but it just does it so awfully.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

SEE ALL 15 REVIEWS