Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
Paul Morse is a good guy. When his friends throw him a wild bachelor party, he just wants to keep his conscience clean -- which is why he's shocked when he wakes up in bed with a beautiful girl named Becky and can't remember the night before. Desperate to keep his fiancée, Karen, from finding out what may or may not be the truth, he tells her a teensy lie. Soon his lies are spiraling out of control and his life is a series of comical misunderstandings.
A Guy Thing is a thoroughly formulaic early-2000s romcom that hits every predictable beat of the genre without distinction. The plot is a recycled comedy-of-errors built on escalating lies and misunderstandings — a premise executed more memorably in countless predecessors. Jason Lee and Julia Stiles bring some charm but are constrained by thin material, and Selma Blair's fiancée role is written as a one-dimensional obstacle. The cinematography is flat and functional, indistinguishable from any TV-movie of the era. Novelty is genuinely low — this is one of the most by-the-numbers examples of the genre, recycling the 'wrong girl at bachelor party' setup without a distinctive voice or comic sensibility. The ending resolves exactly as expected with no surprises. Competent but deeply generic.