Mickster Movie Review - "Drinking Buddies" (2013) *1/2

     Well, that was a letdown. Drinking Buddies is a small, independent film that I had heard some positive things about on a movie podcast I listen too. That, plus it's 82% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes, compelled me to give this little picture a try when it showed up on Netflix instant streaming. I was expecting a lighthearted comedy romp about two friends, one a man the other a woman, who work together and enjoy each others company while drinking beers outside of the workplace. It sounded fun.....That's not what I got. What I witnessed was a much less entertaining story about two people that I really didn't care about. And that's a shame because the actors for the most part do a decent job here, but the story they were given to navigate is very dull.

     Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson are the two main stars of the film. They play Kate and Luke, two co-workers at a beer production plant. The two get along very well and are close friends, but there is definite flirtation going on between them. The problem is, both are already in committed relationships; Kate to Chris (Ron Livingston) and Luke to Jill (the always beautiful Anna Kendrick). Drinking Buddies examines these relationships and how the lines are blurred once "friendship" isn't enough. That's really all there is to it. It's a real simple premise and the film does a good job of keeping things moving foward as it checks in at just an hour and thirty minutes, I just wish more would have happened. You keep waiting for there to be a conflict, anything exciting to happen, and by the time it comes it's way too late and I just didn't care anymore. Drinking Buddies isn't a bad film necessarily, it's just boring and easily forgettable, and that's a shame. It could have been so much more. The one main positive for me was Anna Kendrick. She brightens up any scene she is in, as she usually does in whatever movie she stars in.