February 23, 2012 Movies » Movie Reviews

        
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Wanderlust
- Rated R (MPAA) - Comedy

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Wanderlust doesn't go anywhere

Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston unfunny urbanites in a hippie commune

by Molly Segal

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Manhattanites George (Paul Rudd) and Linda (Jennifer Aniston), unemployed, flee the city for a commune. The entire movie feels a bit lazy, like director David Wain is relying on star power (Rudd and Aniston) and his past hits, Role Models (2008) and Wet Hot American Summer (2011) (both of which Rudd was in), instead of creating something consistently funny. The uptight city-dwellers-meeting-free-loving-hippies joke gets old quickly. Sure, we get a laugh from a surprise encounter with a nudist, but it keeps happening again, and again---though, Alan Alda is a good fit as the commune’s aging founder. We could really do without George’s obnoxious brother, Rick (Ken Marino), the suburbanite whose tasteless jokes aren’t made funnier by the fact we know they’re bad. Unfortunately, Wanderlust is tiresome well before George and Linda resolve their midlife crisis experiment with communal living.