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Friday, January 17, 2003

By Ron Weiskind, Post-Gazette Movie Critic

Who writes this stuff? Four people get credit for "A Guy Thing," which consists entirely of its concept: Paul (Jason Lee) wakes up to find Becky (Julia Stiles) in his bed, only to learn she's the cousin of his fiancee, Karen (Selma Blair).

	'A GUY THING' RATING: PG-13 for language, crude humor, some sexual content and drug references.. STARRING: Jason Lee, Julia Stiles, Selma Blair. DIRECTOR: Chris Koch. CRITIC'S CALL: Check local movie showtimes

All the rest consists of gags scavenged from countless other witless comedies -- bodily dysfunctions, literal toilet humor, flaky families, psycho ex-boyfriend (and his growling guard dog), prudish neighbor, sloppy slapstick.

Director Chris Koch ("Snow Day") made a movie as disjointed as its leading man. Lee looks like he just woke up, found himself in this movie and wants out. Blair undergoes fewer comic indignities than usual. Stiles, at least, throws herself into the movie with the abandon it deserves, winning a few legitimate guffaws.

Koch gets into the spirit by movie's end -- maybe it was the marijuana-laced sauce at the rehearsal dinner -- but by then it's too little, too late.

And what exactly is the "guy thing"? It seems to involve lying to save your asparagus. It doesn't work -- just like this movie.