Where movies are concerned, there are guilty pleasures and then there are really guilty pleasures, for which there is no reasonable explanation. "Saving Silverman" is such a film.
OK, that's not completely true. This would-be screwball comedy does feature two of the funniest men working in movies today — Steve Zahn and Jack Black — who help the film overcome what should be an almost crippling level of filmmaking incompetence and a fairly serious case of miscasting.
In fact, thanks to the two comic actors, who can make almost anything funny, "Saving Silverman" comes off as a cross between the sweet-spirited "The Wedding Singer" and the mean-spirited "Ruthless People" — with a mocking, yet still loving tribute to the music of Neil Diamond thrown in for good measure.
The results certainly aren't perfect, and there are at least as many moments that will make you wince as there are those that will make you laugh.
The film's title refers to Darren Silverman (Jason Biggs), a twentysomething Neil Diamond enthusiast who has little luck with the ladies. So he's thrilled when he meets a woman he believes is perfect for him, Judith (Amanda Peet, from TV's "Jack and Jill"). She's a bit overbearing, perhaps too controlling, but it doesn't take long before the two are engaged.
You'd think Darren's best friends, Wayne (Zahn) and J.D. (Black), would be thrilled by this development. But instead, they're horrified to see their pal wind up so henpecked. (The fact that she disapproves of Darren's friendship with Wayne and J.D. doesn't help.)
In desperation, Wayne and J.D. decide to kidnap Judith and fake her death, and then try to set up Darren with his "one and only," his unrequited high school crush Sandy (Amanda Detmer).
The catch is, she's set to take her vows as a nun in less than a week, and there are some serious doubts whether these two incompetent kidnappers can hold onto their captive long enough for their plan to work.
Admittedly, that's a fairly complex plot to unravel in a little more than 90 minutes, but somehow director Dennis Dugan ("Big Daddy") manages to get sidetracked with some stupid sidegags and subplots that go nowhere.
There's also at least one character too many (in this case, it's R. Lee Ermey's unfunny stereotypical high school football coach), as well as a certain level of misogyny — and even a slightly racist gag that taints the film even in its most comical moments.
Yet Zahn and Black make the film entertaining simply by being in it, with an easy comic chemistry together that suggests someone else needs to pair them again, with a better script.
And even though Biggs looks far too young to be their childhood pal, he's passable as their pushover friend, while the two Amandas have their moments.
"Saving Silverman" is rated PG-13 for slapstick violence (mostly combat between Peet and both Zahn and Black), extremely crude sexual jokes and some potty humor, male nudity (as well as Peet's extremely revealing outfits), scattered profanity and drug use (tranquilizer darts, done for laughs). Running time: 91 minutes.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com