Let's be realistic.

Good movie but grossly overrated

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This is not supposed to be Citizen Kane. It's a fluff piece. If you're locked up on a rainy day--or better yet, in a cabin during a winter snowstorm--with a couple of friends, some rum & a board game, it doesn't hurt to toss this on in the background, if for no other reason than to watch RDJ's fine derrière, easily the best part of this whole thing.Having said that, the one thing, if nothing else (and seriously, I'm not doing that much of a review here anyway...), that needs to be pointed out to the several people who have commented on RDJ's "bad" German accent--it's intentional. His accent is supposed to be cheesy like that because he's from New Jersey, not Germany. If that accent was supposed to be spoken by a genuine German character, bet your rear that Downey would have nailed it. It's a silly little bit of comedy that's not intended to be Shakespeare, and if you can just look at it that way, and try to enjoy the scenery, i.e. RDJ's man-tastic buns and the mountains, it's not a bad little flick, and it's mildly entertaining.

I have to admit I actually liked this movie. Once I got pass the very pathetic first 10 minutes or so, the sometimes extremely banal dialogues and jokes and the painfully predictable and stereotypical everybody-gets-what-they-wanted ending, "Friends And Lovers" comes out as a fairly decent movie about, well friendship. Plus I enjoyed Robert Downey's character a lot and got to see Suzanne Cryer's right boobie. Besides being very sexy and attractive she also delivered the best performance in the movie(the weeping scene).It is sort of weird to write yourself a scene to show your penis, but hey, whatever rocks Neill Barry's boat. I wondered how they chose the actor(is there an audition for these things), it turned out he was dying to show his pride. If you watch it on TV you just might get pass the bad points and enjoy the movie for what it has to offer; some funny and touching moments, full frontal male nudity, some female nudity, Claudia Schiffer almost nude(not my type, but still) and a decent list of celebrity names you thought you'd never see in this type of movie. 6/10

This movie was different, which is why a lot of people probably didn't like it. It seemed a lot more personal, or natural, than most 'movies'. Friends talking about friend things. It didn't seem over produced and over scripted. I doubt if it was ever meant to be a block-buster movie, just a good, different perspective on the subject of "Friends & Lovers". I really think that the Jane character was played and developed very well for a controversial character. Single, pregnant women aren't usually portrayed as normal people in movies. Jane was completely normal, fun and had a personality that was likable. Overall, a good, fun flick, just don't expect to find revealing life lessons within the plot.

There are three kinds of bad movies: movies that defy reality but still entertain, movies that so bad that they're funny, and unforgivable pieces of cow dung that you watch in disbelief as it approaches badness from all directions. "Friends & Lovers" fits the last category like a wedding dress. It is one of the most jaw-droppingly bad movies I have ever seen. This film has, virtually, no redeeming qualities. The acting is wooden and unrealistic, notably by Claudia Schiffer and, surprisingly, Robert Downey Jr. One person I did like and care for was Danny Nucci's character, but he couldn't have save this film if his life depended on it. The characters carry on, endlessly, in boring, silly and uninvolving conversations. This cast could have had a lot of potential had they had a script that wasn't found in a garbage dump. I was never really fond of Stephen Baldwin, the only role I accepted him in was "The Usual Suspects." There was a moment in the film where is a graphic close-up shot of a man's genitals that is, not only gratuitous, but it ruined what could have been a semi-chuckle on my part. I don't know. All was lost on this film. "Friends & Lovers" ranks in the same field as 1997's worst film, "Gone Fishin'."