Entertainment

10:40 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Date Movie

C-

Starring Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Eddie Griffin, Fred Willard, Jennifer Coolidge, Tony Cox and Sophie Monk. Directed by Aaron Seltzer. PG-13 (crude humor, sexuality, language). 85 min. $29.98.

DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN: Why waste time seeing the same romantic clichés in several movies when you can catch them all in Date Movie? Alyson Hannigan plays Julia Jones (with a Bridget Jones -like diary). After a nightmare in which she is rejected by Napoleon Dynamite (wearing a Don't Vote For Pedro shirt), the waitress falls for the Hugh Grant/Ben Stiller-ish Grant Funkyerdoder (Adam Campbell) over the objections of her family.

SCATTERSHOT: The execution gets bogged down in the parody cram of Meet the Fockers, The Wedding Planner, My Best Friend's Wedding, Kill Bill, Hitch, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, When Harry Met Sally and Wedding Crashers, just to name a few. But the real offense is trying to pass off cruelty and gross-out moments as humor. Fat jokes? Suicide jokes? Kicking passed-out drunks and stealing their money?

MAGIC MOMENTS: The final romantic exchange in which the leads swap lines from Pretty Woman, As Good As it Gets, Jerry Maguire and Notting Hill is worth waiting for.

BEST EXTRAS: Adam Campbell sending up Peter Jackson's King Kong diaries in Fox Movie Channel Presents "Making a Spoof."

BOTTOM LINE: There's gold for those with the patience to sift through the dreck. But we're talking LOTS of patience and LOTS of dreck.

Nancy Churnin