Despite the fact I liked just about everyone in the cast of this flick, I watched it with little enthusiasm and few laughs. In fact, the only time I ever thought, “hey, that worked” was in the last thirty seconds. Which isn’t to say I think the movie’s bad. It’s a perfectly decent and, given the other romantic flicks for Valentine’s Day, one of the most traditional rom-coms I’ve seen in awhile.

I Want You Back stars Charlie Day, Jenny Slate, Gina Rodriguez, and Scott Eastwood (somehow still being Clint’s son). Day and Slate’s characters break up with their significant others (Rodriguez and Eastwood). They have a meet cute and grieve over their heartache when they hatch a plan to break up each other’s new boyfriends/girlfriends.

Hey, it’s Strangers on a Train for the romantic in us all. Instead of trading murders, they trade attempts to breakup romances. That’s a decent plot for this kind of movie and if you think there’s ever a point where Day and Slate don’t wind up together, you probably haven’t been experiencing enough rom-coms. Or movies. Or fiction.

And the movie is well acted and the characters are mostly likable… often bringing forth their traditional, likeable persona. Yet I didn’t find the script particularly funny. I went through the motions watching it, having a decent enough time, but came away with a kind of shrug. And I really did want to like it.

I’d recommend the flick though – it’s certainly good enough and other folk (and critics) seem to enjoy it. It just didn’t mesh with my sense of humor (being a professional curmudgeon, I suppose). But it’s worth a look, especially since it’s low hanging and inoffensive fruit on Amazon Video.

Score: 79