Weapons of Mass Distraction

"Bottom line: Everybody's done it with everybody...and everybody who hasn't most surely will." This, in essence, is the worldview of this on-target satire by Larry Gelbart (whose estimable credits include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Tootsie, TV's M*A*S*H and Mastergate). Gabriel Byrne and Ben Kingsley give bravura performances as dueling media moguls vying to buy a football franchise ("Who controls sports, controls all," Kingsley proclaims). Dumb and dumber is not Gelbart's style; substance and sex is. This is the type of adult comedy that rarely makes it to the multiplex, and that no commercial network would dare produce, let alone broadcast. For those who missed it on HBO, this will have mass appeal. Recommended. (K. Lee Benson)