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Male-bonding is the term du jour in pop culture. The word "bromance" even entered our lexicon. For the uninitiated, bromance pertains to the intense brotherly bond between two males. There's even an MTV reality show called "Bromance" starring "The Hills'" hunk Brody Jenner picking his male best friend among the contestants.

The new comedy "I Love You, Man" has the same premise as "Bromance." Paul Rudd ("Role Models") and Jason Segel ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall") shamelessly display male bonding on the big screen. And dare I say, the movie is pretty funny.

Rudd stars as Peter Klaven, a successful young L.A. real estate agent who proposes to his girlfriend, Zooey Rice ("The Office's" Rashida Jones). Peter realizes that unlike his fiancee, who immediately calls her closest gal pals to share the news, he has no close buds.

We learn that Peter spends most of his years being a "girlfriend guy" who is so committed with his romantic relationships, he fails to build a dynamic male friendship. And this worries Zooey, so Peter embarks on a hilarious journey to make a male friend who can also serve as Best Man at his wedding.

Helping Peter in his quest is his gay brother Robbie ("Saturday Night Live's" Andy Samberg) who, the film tells you, knows a thing or two about guys. After a series of failed "man-dates," Peter accidentally meets Sydney Fife (Segel), a charming bachelor who crashes open-houses for free food and lonely divorcees.

"I Love You, Man" has the classic romantic comedy plot line of "boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back" just substitute the word girl with boy. In fact, the film is full of romantic constructs we've seen before, just switch the gender.

For example, Peter and Sydney are direct opposite of each other (opposites attract), or the way they meet (love at first sight), or how one learns from the other about the true meaning of life.
In "I Love You, Man," Peter learns the true value of male bonding from Sydney.

Co-written and directed by John Hamburg ("Along Came Polly"), "I Love You, Man" can be mistaken for a Judd Apatow ("Knocked Up," "Superbad," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall")) film. It's raunchy and dirty, but it has equal amounts of heart that you will not hate yourself for laughing at the jokes. And there are jokes aplenty.

Many of the funny scenes worked, but some didn't. Like an Apatow film, "I Love You, Man" feels overstretched but it still delivers the funny. The great chemistry between Rudd and Segel elevates this film. If you have seen "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," then you've seen a glimpse of these exemplary comedic actors working together.

Most romantic comedies fail to establish character developments beyond the two leads. Same thing can be said with "I Love You, Man," but this time, the female characters, while not completely relegated to the background, were not given the opportunity to shine. But I did like the appearance of "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau, heck even the group Rush joins in on the action, making their feature film debut.

"I Love You, Man" is great at exploring and poking fun at the challenges and difficulties of finding and maintaining male bonding relationships. Rudd and Segel join the likes of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and George Clooney and Brad Pitt, albeit on screen, in displaying their male affection for each other.

Yes, "I Love You, Man" is a perfect movie to take your best bud to. And for that, "I Love You, Man" gets 3 Dudes in Love kisses

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