Almost Heroes

You might be tempted to sneak a peek at Almost Heroes for any number of reasons. After all, this was the late Chris Farley's last leading role, the premise--a pair of inept explorers racing Lewis and Clark across the American West in 1804--seems promising, and the director is the usually reliable Christopher Guest (Waiting for Guffman, This is Spinal Tap). Avoid such temptation, brothers and sisters, because Almost Heroes is the kind of comedy you couldn't pull a laugh out of with both hands and the Jaws of Life. The script offers little more than a monotonous and predictable mix of slapstick and scatology, without any of the sniggering sophomoric enthusiasm that made films like There's Something About Mary more than the sum of their parts. Farley has to carry almost all the comic weight for co-star Matthew Perry's comic black hole of a role, but all he can do is fall down a lot and scream in a sad spectacle of a big screen farewell. Not recommended. (S. Renshaw)