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In two years time, British writer Toby Young was fired from Vanity Fair, banned from the most important club in New York City, and despised by the vast majority of the upper crust whom he was supposed to be profiling - and that was all before he wrote a scathing, tell-all memoir. "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" is a hilarious indictment of America's celebrity-obsessed culture and the film adaptation of the same name follows the British journalist as he pisses off everyone on his way to the top. Or at least, that's what the film tries to do. Anyone who reads about Toby's exploits as summarized in the opening sentence will be disappointed to find that most of the conflict and indictments of celebrity culture have been stripped away to accommodate a straight-forward fish out of water film. This simplified adaptation of Young's memoirs will more than likely provide a few chuckles along the way, but mostly suffers from predictable jokes and a dull blade when it comes to poking fun at the haves that we have-nots love so much.

Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) is not your typical journalist: he'll pull insane stunts to try and sneak into awards parties (like trying to convince a "clipboard Nazi" that the pig with him is the star of Babe 3), sees Con Air as the greatest movie ever made, and takes no mercy when it comes to mocking America's upper crust in his British magazine, Post Modern Review. When Sidney's bumbling antics get noticed by Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges), editor of New York City's upscale magazine, Sharps, he's offered a job. Sidney soon learns that his cynical views about America's upper class and his refusal to write puff pieces segregate him from the posh crowd constantly flowing in and out of his office. The snooty publicist, Eleanor Johnson (Gillian Anderson), won't let Sidney's buffoonery anywhere near her superstar clients and Sidney's ass-kissing boss, Lawrence Maddox (Danny Huston), claims any of Sidney's bright ideas as his own. The only soul the Brit can relate to is Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst), a co-worker who harbors ambitions of being a novelist.

Sidney's antics, which include hiring a transvestite stripper for Maddox and questioning the sexuality of a major star during an interview, push him one step away from getting the boot. After he drunkenly embarrasses himself during a July 4th party, he attracts the attention of Eleanor's ultra hot client, Sophie Maes (Megan Fox) and vows he'd do anything to sleep with her. There's just one problem with that: if he wants to get close to Sophie, he'll have to get on Eleanor's good side and that means writing puff pieces and pandering to the stars like he's always refused to do.

Lambasting New York City's upper class is nothing new. Both films and books have added their own fuel for the fire, most notably American Psycho (book and film) citing the shallowness and interchangeability of the suits and "Bonfire of the Vanities" making note of Wall Street's obnoxious excess. Toby's published memoirs accent the divide between Britain's cynical approach to the culture of celebrity (his magazine is described as "dumb content for smart people") and America's worship of it and provide valuable insight into the contrast between New York City's machine-like approach to journalism and the glamorized, Jimmy-Stewart-in-The-Philadelphia-Story world that Sidney expected. Unfortunately, the film suffers the same fate as Bonfire's in the sense that it looses mostly all its teeth and tension once adapted. This is due in no small part to a script from Peter Straughn that dumbs down any of the clever commentary for the sake of predictable jokes - Sidney becomes less an outsider and more a loveable buffoon - and that fumbles what should be the emotional core of the film with the love story between Sidney and Allison.

One would expect that the shaky story could be salvaged by director Robert Weide, an alum of the consistently hilarious Curb Your Enthusiasm. Surprisingly, and unfortunately, Weide takes many missteps in the comedic timing, often allowing scenes to drag on for too long and stripping the supporting cast of interesting attributes. What ends up on display is a marginally funny world in which there's very little to care about.

The film does have a few bright spots in Simon Pegg and Gillian Anderson. Fans of Pegg know what to expect and he delivers as he always does, often saving scenes with his endearing wit and sharp delivery. Anderson, most commonly known for her role as Dana Scully on The X-Files, proves (as though she needed to) that she's seriously talented by turning in a simultaneously ice cold and alluring performance. To his credit, Jeff Bridges manages to bring a loaded world-weariness to Clayton despite very few scenes, but his character could've used a bit more beefing up to fully convey the nostalgia of his rebellious days that initially draws him to Sidney. As it stands, Clayton just seems baffling in his motivations; a sometimes hot, sometimes cold boss that fails to stand as a testament to what the rat race can do to the rebels.

In the end, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People suffers from all the things it could've done, but didn't. It could've employed dark humor to express its point like American Psycho, but it didn't. It could've shown the perils of excess like "Bonfire of the Vanities," but it didn't. At the very least, it could've drawn more from the exceptional source material that it came from, but it didn't do that either.

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-Official website for How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

-Interview from Collider with star of the film, Simon Pegg

-Interview with Toby Young about the changes from the book to the film