Plenty of things in life are predictable. Try to get from Los Angeles to Orange County on a weekday at 5 p.m., for example, and the safe assumption is you will have memorized every face in the cars around you by the time you complete your 5-mile-per-hour journey. Go to "Monsters vs. Aliens" this afternoon at Glacier Cinemas and you should feel confident the theater will be packed with children.

Movies are often predictable, too. It's not a black and white issue, however. Predictability can be the downfall of a film, usually because there are enough other things wrong with it that its cookie-cutter plotline protrudes even more painfully into view. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" is an example of that scenario playing out in embarrassing fashion.

"I Love You, Man," the new comedy co-written and directed by John Hamburg, is predictable. And when I say "predictable" I mean I guarantee that if you go, you will hear more than once folks correctly calling out the next plot point.

What is beautiful about "I Love You, Man," however, and the reason it beats the hell out of Southern California rush hour traffic, matinees of kids' movies, and "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," is that its cast makes the plot's predictability moot.

Paul Rudd, who definitely has a femininity about him, plays Peter Klaven. Peter is a sweet guy, which is probably why he is kind of a lousy real estate agent. It is also why, on the other hand, he is engaged to so-cute-you-just-want-to-squeeze-her Karen. Oops! Sorry, I do that a lot. Not Karen, but Zooey (Rashida Jones). Yes sir, things are going well for the lovable Peter Klaven. He's got a beautiful fiancée, and he's got a fantastic exclusive listing with Lou Ferrigno's mansion. Yes, that Lou Ferrigno.

Can you predict what happens next? That's right, things start to go south for Peter. First and foremost, it becomes painfully clear that Peter has no friends. He can't think of a single guy, other than his gay - yet still way more manly than Peter - brother Robbie (Andy Samburg). Hmm, what to do for the next hour or so of the movie? Oh, I know! Send Peter on a series of disastrous and hilarious man-dates? Bingo!

Of course, predictably, Peter doesn't meet any dude he actually meshes with until he gives up on the man-dates and runs into Sydney Fife (Jason Segel) by chance. The drill once Peter and Sydney become pals is also familiar: perfect at first, then seemingly not so perfect, finished up by them both saying several times, "I love you, Man."

It all works wonderfully because Rudd, doing his best Ben Stiller from "Meet the Parents," is simultaneously awkward and charming. When Peter first calls Sydney and leaves a voice mail, the scene is only slightly less excruciating than the Jon Favreau version from "Swingers." Favreau, by the way, makes every second of his limited screen time count in "I Love You, Man." He's the jerky husband of Zooey's pal (Jaime Pressly), and as a couple they are a reoccurring treat.

Samburg, somewhat subdued compared to his "Saturday Night Live" characters, is on point. The always entertaining J.K. Simmons (Peter's father) is in good form. Even freaking Lou Ferrigno is funny when he is confronted by Sydney and forced to use his bulging biceps to put him into a sleeper hold.

Predictability can suck, except when you have a cast as good as this. Now, if I could just find a way to get Rudd, Segel, Favreau and Pressly to drive home with me during rush hour...

• Check out Carson's movie blog at www.juneaublogger.com/movies.