LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Along Came Polly: Ben Stiller
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Along Came Polly never quite registers as a genuine commentary in the mismatched world of unpredictable relationships. Hamburg tries his best to toss in arbitrary robust slapstick moments here and there and prays that his high-powered cast can ignite the frivolity with their mere presence. But the screenplay relies too much on the well-known cinematic reputation of its leading stars (Stiller as the flustered Nervous Nellie; Aniston as the free-wheeling sass). Thus, this ignores the inclination to provide something insightful and fresh about the madcap concept of two lost souls gradually finding each other despite the differences of their zany personal make ups. Conversely, Along Came Polly is a scattershot and tiring romantic ruse that depends on its notable players to sell the relentlessly lame, run-of-the-mill package of witless high jinks. This Polly doesn’t need a cracker but a crackerjack sense of carousing creativity to elevate it beyond its inherent mediocrity.
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Along Came Polly is the first major Hollywood film directed by John Hamburg, who wrote Meet the Parents and Zoolander. As would be expected, Hamburg really knows his comedy and humor. This being the third script he's written for Ben Stiller, they clearly work well together. Stiller perfectly plays the patsy to Hamburg's pranks, throwing every possible situation at Stiller that he can. While the resulting movie is not great, there are certainly a lot of good laughs and funny jokes.
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Screenwriter John Hamburg directs his second film (since his 1998 debut Safe Men) with the romantic comedy Along Came Polly. Ben Stiller plays Reuben Feffer, a professional risk assessor who never takes chances in any aspect of his life. When his new bride Lisa (Debra Messing) leaves him for a European scuba instructor named Claude (Hank Azaria), he finally decides to a risk of his own. At a party, he meets free-spirited Polly Prince (Jennifer Aniston), whom he remembers from his seventh-grade Model U.N. Unlike the control-freak Reuben, she's spent her life living on the edge. They reluctantly begin a romance and Polly introduces him to a new world of spicy food and suggestive dances.
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"Along Came Polly" is a good romantic comedy filled with slapstick laughs and one-liners. Ben Stiller plays an insurance risk assessor, Rueben Feffer, whose honeymoon with Debra Messing goes awry. Rueben tries to regain his life and connects with an old school friend, Polly Prince, played by Jennifer Aniston.
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Along Came Polly is an underwhelming romantic comedy about an obsessively cautious man who falls for the most unlikely girl in New York and has his world turned upside down in the process. I had the bonus of going to the premier of this film where the two stars, Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston greeted the audience and said how much they hoped we’d like their film but sadly that wasn’t enough for me (and I’m a sucker for celebrity endorsements).
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There are some fresh things in "Along Came Polly." Freshest is Hamburg's taste for casting actors in unusual roles. Hank Azaria plays a French scuba instructor. The ever-game Alec Baldwin shows up for a riotous turn as Stiller's crude boss. Philip Seymour Hoffman, of all people — was Jack Black busy? — has a ball playing Stiller's best friend, a corpulent loser still coasting on the one film he made as a teenager.
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Ben Stiller