Review: 'Big Trouble' worth a few laughs

But comedy pales in comparison to previous film

(CNN) -- The new film "Big Trouble" is an ensemble comedy, just like "Get Shorty" (1995). It stars Rene Russo and Dennis Farina, just like "Get Shorty." It features a rogue's gallery of characters whose lives become hopelessly intertwined while caught up in a criminal scam, just like "Get Shorty."

Seeing a pattern here?

Oh, and they're both directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.

But there's a big, and ultimately important, difference. "Get Shorty" was based on a Elmore Leonard novel, while "Big Trouble" is based on a book by Dave Barry. Not that Barry isn't a great humorist; he and Leonard share a dark quirkiness. But the difference between Leonard and Barry is the same as the difference between a feature film and a made-for-TV-movie.

"Big Trouble" is amusing -- at times, laugh-out-loud funny -- but it's such an obvious attempt to recreate the magic that made "Get Shorty" such a wonderful film that you can't help but feel you've been to this fair before. Screenwriters Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone surely helped contribute to the overall deja vu you'll feel while watching this homage to another film made just seven years ago.

Losers and killers

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This time around, Tim Allen is the film's protagonist and narrator, Eliot Arnold, a freshly divorced dad of a teenage son, Matt (Ben Foster). Due to the marital breakup -- and losing his job as a columnist for the Miami Herald (Barry's real-life job) -- Eliot is forced to downsize his life.

So he buys a Yugo. This act gives Matt final proof that his father is officially a loser.

Matt is involved in a game of Killer, in which kids run around "killing" each other with squirt guns. While attempting to "kill" his friend Jenny (Zooey Deschanel), Matt gets in the way of real killers who are after Jenny's stepfather, Arthur, a self-involved, arrogant jerk who's embezzled money from the wrong people. He's played to perfection by Stanley Tucci. Arthur's fed-up wife, Anna, is played by Russo, who displays her usual flair for comedic timing while looking drop-dead gorgeous.

The hit men (Jack Kehler and Dennis Farina) are funny, but predictable in their vain attempts to hit their mark. Also thrown into this eclectic mix are a couple of Miami cops -- played by Janeane Garofalo and Patrick Warburton -- and a couple of cons, Snake and Eddie, portrayed by Tom Sizemore and Johnny Knoxville.

Garofalo and Warburton deliver some hilarious moments, despite their poorly developed characters. Sizemore and Knoxville don't fare as well. Their characters are total cartoons: buffoons whose stupidity is taken to a ridiculously exaggerated level.

It works -- some of the time

Jason Lee and Stanley Tucci in "Big Trouble."

Throw in a couple of Russian lowlifes, an atomic bomb in a suitcase, a demented dog and a toad from hell and you have the recipe for a fast-paced farce. Which it is -- sometimes.

On its own, "Big Trouble" could be considered a funny little film. It works more than it doesn't, and it's worth seeing. But its similarities to "Get Shorty" make comparisons hard to avoid, and there it doesn't fare well. This comedic stew is neither as rich nor as thick as that tasty dish Sonnenfeld served up in '95.

It will also be interesting to see how people react to a "funny" scene about airport security in which the aforementioned bomb gets past the guards and onto a plane. Now, that's comedy.

"Big Trouble" opens nationwide on Friday, April 5, and is rated PG-13.