“Scott, I seem to have wet my pants.”

What can be said about one of the new strain of generic Will Ferrell comedies? I truly thought that this would be the one where I broke and finally found him not only unfunny but intolerably lazy, but in the end it just works and I was laughing my head off just about every time I chose to dip in (that’s right, it’s the kind of movie that makes perfect background to just about anything).

Both Jon Heder and Will Ferrell do just about the exact thing they’ve done before but somehow they get away with it yet again. I thought Heder was surprisingly good in School for Scoundrels and his Napoleon Dynamite voice was perfect for his character in Surf’s Up too – here, for the first half-hour I found it a little niggling but ultimately it’s the visual humour that takes over – I think when Heder slides across a room belly down on ice is where I finally caved in and stopped looking for problems. But I do hope he does something a little different after this, if he’s even able.

The ending (which I won’t even begin to describe except it bears a resemblance to that ending to Grease I’ve always hated) actually almost places it instantaneously into my special cheesy faves collection – it’s certainly a possible destiny for the movie if I watch it again. For now, even hours after watching it I can’t really remember exactly why I was laughing so much and so frequently – it’s a very disposable movie – but I do know I liked it.