RUSH IS A BAND

Friday, March 20, 2009

I Love You Man release open thread

UPDATE - 3/21@8:00AM: RushFanForever alerts us about this clip where Paul Rudd and Jason Segal were interviewed back on March 5th to promote the film on MuchMusic and at the end of the interview a mystery caller by the name of Alex spoke with the guys. Yes - it was Lerxst. You can check out the video at this link.

Paul Rudd and Jason Segal continued to make the PR rounds this past week promoting their new film I Love You Man which is out today in theaters nationwide and had its red-carpet Hollywood premier on Tuesday where Geddy Lee and Neil Peart were in attendance. Here's a short video of the pair at the event along with a few images (see thumbnails):

Thanks to Sean for the video and images.

The movie is chock full of Rush references and music along with a cameo from the band, and has received rave reviews from critics. In just about every interview with the 2 co-stars the most talked about subject has been Rush; how they are both big fans and how it was to work with the band, as exemplified in this Austin American-Statesman article:

... Rudd and Segel were both somewhat nervous to work with other castmembers - namely, the gentlemen of the legendary prog-rock group Rush. "They're so mysterious," says Rudd, who was worried Geddy Lee and company would get tired of playing "Limelight" 40 takes in a row. If anyone knows what that was like, it was Rudd and Segel, who had to film their hysterical "Tom Sawyer' cover over two 14-hour days. "'Tom Sawyer' still haunts me a tiny bit," says Segel.

Most of the reviews have been very positive and never neglect to mention Rush as in this New York Times review (thanks naturalscience):

... Interest blooms into camaraderie when the men discover a mutual love of the band Rush, which, between this and its appearance last year on "The Colbert Report," is definitely riding a pop cultural wave. ...

Director John Hamburg also makes the following confession in this Toronto Sun article:

While on the surface, I Love You, Man is a comedy about the difficulty of finding male friends, writer-director John Hamburg confesses it's really just "a love letter" to legendary Canadian rock band Rush.

"Y'know, I'm not hiding anything with this," says Hamburg, who was in a Rush tribute band called Luv Rynos. "How many times do characters say 'Rush is the greatest band of all time!' or 'Can you believe that concert? They were amazing!' ...

Female co-star Rashida Jones even had something positive to say about Rush in this San Francisco Chronicle interview:

I had absolutely no experience or knowledge of Rush. I knew it existed - that was about it. That made it interesting for me. John Hamburg gave me a CD at the beginning of the movie. It was almost good, because I was supposed to be the outsider - and I was the outsider. I enjoyed the concert date. What do people call the band? Prog rock? The musicality seems pretty complicated, which makes it interesting listening in hour 11, listening to the same songs over and over again.

And in this audio interview at the Time Out Chicago blog (listen using the player below), Rudd and Segal gush over Rush for about 5 minutes.

The movie was even featured on VH1 Classic's That Metal Show last week as their movie pick of the week because of Rush's involvement. They interviewed the 2 co-stars and also showed a short clip from the movie where their characters are at a Rush show while the band jams out Limelight. You can check out the video here.

Geddy Lee also continued hitting the interview circuit this past week to promote Retrospective 3 as well as talk about Rush's involvement with the movie. You can check out a couple of radio interviews in this post and read his recent Entertainment Weekly feature interview here.

If you get a chance to see the movie, let us know what you think. I've also updated the site poll to ask you all what you think about Rush's involvement with the movie? Take the Poll and let us know. I'll have my regular Friday Updates and other random Rush stuff post up either later today or tomorrow morning.

Related Posts
[I Love You Man soundtrack to feature Rush]
[I Love You Man trailer available; movie features Rush cameo]