Friends With Benefits - 2 1/2 stars

This movie wants to be the Scream of romantic comedies. Remember how the characters in Scream pointed out all of the bad cliches used in horror movies, then turned around and used them anyway? In Scream, it was clever. In Friends With Benefits, it just becomes another predictable romantic comedy.

The idea of having sex without getting romantically involved isn't exactly new. Remember the Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Elaine have sex and set ground rules? Rule 1 - no calls the next day. Rule 2 - spending the night is optional.

We already had Love and Other Drugs last year, and No Strings Attached this year. The only difference here is that both characters have come out of bad relationships, and neither one wants to get romantically involved (really they just don't want to get hurt, but then who does?).

The first 15 minutes of the movie are really boring. Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis have no chemistry, and nothing funny happens. They have a 'meet cute' (as all romantic comedies must), but the movie is just tedious. Then Woody Harrelson shows up as a gay sports writer. And he is hilarious. I don't know if he is that funny, or the movie is just so bad that he looks so good by comparison, but the movie finally gets entertaining.

The problem is Harrelson isn't in the movie enough. But we get other entertaining side characters to help with the boredom. Patricia Clarkson is great as Mila Kunis's mother, and Richard Jenkins is also great as Timberlake's father. Jenna Elfman also shows up late in the movie and does a good job with limited screen time.

When the supporting characters are around, the movie isn't bad. As the movie goes along, I did start to care about the lead characters enough to enjoy the movie. It just took too much screen time to get there.

Another complaint I have is one that will make me sound like a pig - not enough nudity. This is an R-rated comedy about sex. There is a lot of sex in the movie. There should be nudity to go along with it. Every time the characters are in bed, Mila Kunis has the sheets pulled up to her neck. There is even a montage of sex scenes, and in every one, they are under the covers. Different positions, sheets very strategically arranged. There is one scene where she is actually laying on top of him without the sheets, but we only see a brief glimpse of side boob. Heaven forbid we get a glance at nipple.

I know, I know. You think I just want to see Mila Kunis naked. Well, you aren't wrong, but this script requires nudity. The sex scenes should have been more like the ones from Love and Other Drugs. If you're going to star in a movie like this, you can't be such a prude. We see more skin from Justin Timberlake than we do from Mila Kunis. So don't be fooled by the trailers and the rating. These are PG-13 sex scenes.

Anyway, the movie starts out really boring and gets better as it goes along. It is trying to point out ridiculous romatic comedy cliches, but it uses every one of them. It is so predictable that you will be able to predict the 3rd act long before it starts (hurt feelings, break up, overblown public proclamation of love, happy ending). If you really like that sort of movie, you will get what you want out of this. But I can't recommend it.