''A Guy Thing'' is a 2003 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Chris Koch Christopher Koch is an American director of film and television. He is known for directing the films '' Snow Day'' (2000), his feature directorial debut, and ''A Guy Thing'' (2003). Koch's television credits include ''The Adventures of Pete & ...

and starring

Jason Lee Jason Lee may refer to: Entertainment *Jason Lee (actor) (born 1970), American film and TV actor and former professional skateboarder *Jason Scott Lee (born 1966), Asian American film actor * Jaxon Lee (Jason Christopher Lee, born 1968), American v ...

Julia Stiles Julia O'Hara Stiles (born March 28, 1981) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Stiles began acting at the age of 11 as part of New York's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. Her film debut was a small role in ''I'' ''Love Yo ...

and

Selma Blair Selma Blair Beitner (born June 23, 1972) is an American actress. She played a number of roles in films and on television before obtaining recognition for her leading role in the film '' Brown's Requiem'' (1998). Her breakthrough came when she s ...

Plot

Paul Morse (Lee) and Karen Cooper (Blair) are about to get married in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

. During his

bachelor party A bachelor party (in the United States and sometimes in Canada), also known as a stag weekend, stag do or stag party (in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries, and Ireland), or a buck's night (in Australia), is a party held/arranged by th ...

, Paul has a chat with one of the dancers at the party, Becky Jackson (Stiles), and they find that they have an affinity for each other. Paul wakes up the next morning and is terrified to see Becky in the bed next to him. Assuming they slept together, Paul rushes Becky out of his apartment and hopes never to see her again. He tries to cover up the connection for the few days before the wedding. Unfortunately, Becky unexpectedly shows up around town and turns out to be Karen's cousin. Even worse, Becky's malicious ex-boyfriend cop Ray Donovan (Munro) had Becky followed and photographed. Becky and Paul meet again to steal those pictures from Ray's apartment. Further problems arise with family and friends consistently showing up at the wrong times. Crabs, dirty underwear in the toilet tank, a horny best friend, and a best man/brother who is in love with the bride all provide for a week of wedding preparation hijinks. Through the snowballing of all his implausible lies and half-truths, Paul receives corroboration and support from an unexpected corner; what seems to be a coordinated network of other men, including friends, complete strangers and, to Paul's astonishment, Karen's own father; all who give the same explanation: "It's a guy thing".

Cast

as Paul Morse *

as Becky Jackson *

as Karen Cooper *

James Brolin James Brolin (, born Craig Kenneth Bruderlin; July 18, 1940) is an American actor. Brolin has won two Golden Globes and an Emmy. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 27, 1998. He is the father of actor Josh Brolin. He ...

as Ken Cooper *

Shawn Hatosy Shawn Wayne Hatosy is an American film and television actor and director. He is best known for his roles in the films '' In & Out'', ''The Faculty'', '' Outside Providence'', '' Anywhere but Here'', ''The Cooler'', and ''Alpha Dog''. He is also w ...

as Jim *

Lochlyn Munro Lochlyn Munro (born February 12, 1966) is a Canadian actor. His most notable film roles include ''A Night at the Roxbury'' (1998), ''Scary Movie'' (2000), ''Freddy vs. Jason'' (2003), ''White Chicks'' (2004), '' The Predator'' (2018) and ''Cosm ...

as Ray Donovan * Diana Scarwid as Sandra Cooper *

David Koechner David Michael Koechner ( ; born August 24, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing roles such as Champ Kind in the ''Anchorman'' films and Todd Packer on NBC's ''The Office''. Koechner first became involved in perf ...

as Buck Morse *

Julie Hagerty Julie Beth Hagerty (born June 15, 1955) is an American actress. She starred as Elaine in the films ''Airplane!'' (1980) and '' Airplane II: The Sequel'' (1982). Her other film roles include ''A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy'' (1982), ''Lost in Am ...

as Dorothy Morse *

Thomas Lennon Thomas Patrick Lennon (born August 9, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director, and novelist. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series ''Reno 911!'' Lennon is an accomplished screenwriter of several major st ...

as Pete Morse * Jackie Burroughs as Aunt Budge *

Jay Brazeau Jay Brazeau is a Canadian actor, best known for his role as Sam Fisher in ''Cold Squad'', as Harlan in ''Stargate SG-1'' (1997–2007), and for voicing Uncle Quigley in '' Sabrina: The Animated Series''. He is also known for his role as Bobby in ...

as Howard * Larry Miller as Minister Ferris * Matthew Walker as Minister Green * Dylan Winner as Moni Young *

Fred Ewanuick Fred Ewanuick ( /əˈwαnɪk/; born June 23, 1971) is a Canadian actor known for his roles in the television series ''Corner Gas'' as Hank Yarbo and as the title character in the CTV sitcom ''Dan for Mayor''. He was also a regular in a CTV anthol ...

as Jeff * Lisa Calder as Tonya * Victor Varnado as Hansberry

Production

Principal photography took place from November 2001 to February 2002, in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. The release date was originally slated for August 23, 2002 then September 20, 2002 hence having a copyright date of 2002 in the credits. Before finally being released January 17, 2003 in time for Valentine’s Day.

Release

The film debuted at #7 in the U.S. box office, taking

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

6,988,749 in its opening weekend, before falling to #11 the following week.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, it has a approval rating based on reviews, with an average score of and a consensus: "Wasting the talent of its leads, ''A Guy Thing'' is a predictable romantic comedy that relies on cheap laughs." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 27% based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F. Dennis Harvey of

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

said that the film "does get slightly better as it goes along" but suggested that the multiple rewrites polished any creativity or originality out of the script.

References

External links

* *
Filming Locations
at MoviePlaces.tv {{DEFAULTSORT:Guy Thing, A 2003 films 2003 romantic comedy films Films set in Seattle American romantic comedy films American sex comedy films Films scored by Mark Mothersbaugh Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 20th Century Fox films 2000s sex comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films