[7]

I don’t like the vast majority of comedies. So why I fancy this one is beyond me, but there you have it. Granted, I do often find Ashton Kutcher and Sean William Scott adorable. Here they play pot-smokers who wake one morning to discover their car is missing. The car quest is just a plot McGuffin, of course, because this is really a story about the two guys making amends to their girlfriends (Jennifer Garner and Marla Sokoloff), whose house was demolished through a party the guys threw the night before.

Along the path to redemption, the guys have a series of serendipitous adventures involving but not limited to a wild ostrich assault, being kidnapped by a whacko religious cult, aliens, an angry transexual stripper, and a poolside attack by a 30-foot woman. A movie like this would normally collapse under the weight of its own whackiness, but screenwriter Philip Stark (staff writer for South Park and That ’70s Show) keeps everything surprisingly grounded through the guys’ sweet, well-meaning, naivety. It’s a movie full of zany highlights, but my favorite two scenes involve a tenacious Chinese food drive-thru attendant and the guys’ attempts to read each others’ mysterious new back tattoos to each other. With Kristy Swanson, Hal Sparks, Andy Dick, and Brent Spiner.