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Now I imagine Ben Stiller could get really tiresome if you see him often, but if you're like me and only get him in small doses I think you'll like his shtick in this movie. Granted, you can't be offended by references to pee and poo, and an appreciation of the 3 Stooges and Seinfeld would be of some help in understanding the mentality to which this film appeals. I kept waiting for Stiller's real father, Jerry Stiller, to appear and do his Frank Costanza bit from the Seinfeld series.

Jerry Stiller is not exactly Oscar material, and Jennifer Anniston is pleasant enough, but it's the writing that makes this film. And if you thought you already knew what "schwartz" (shvarts) means you're in for an eye-opener! The supporting players are good, too. I have to admit that I had never heard of half of them, but Philip Seymour Hoffman, Hank Azaria, Alec Baldwin were fine. I never knew that Baldwin could do comedy. I was especially happy to see the Aussie Bryan Brown in another Hollywood production. Maybe he'll be able to take some of our greenbacks home and use them to make some more great Aussie independent films.

Along Came Polly is a movie without any pretentions, which makes it pretty enjoyable for those of us who are only looking for laughs, even of the bathroom variety.

The Last Samurai is a unique movie if for no other reason than that it gives foreign audiences of all stripes another opportunity to despise Americans. On one side (equivalent to today's neo-conservative right) we have loathsome American diplomats and careerist officers of the U.S. Army pressuring - er, make that "assisting" - a foreign government to purchase U.S. goods and services - sound familiar? While on the other side we have another American officer (equivalent to today's stereotypical leftist) who thinks he's absorbing Samurai culture but in reality is reflecting the mindset that white men - or at least Americans - know what's best for everyone. Unfortunately, it's mostly the Japanese, Samurai and non-Samurai, that eventually wind up littering the battlefield.

What really comes out of this film is that American movie producers still regard war as a kind of Texas high school football game. They seem never to have seen the real human meat of dead and maimed bodies. (They only need go to any Chechen web site to view the real thing.) And if there is one message that might come out of this film it's that maybe the world would be an infinitely better place - for the US and for the rest of the world - if Americans would just stay at home.

The 12-year old next to me thought this movie was funny, and perhaps for a pre-teen it was. This movie might appeal to those who think that Adam Sandler is funny. However, for some of us the film was not just bad - it was boring. For the performers, though, this movie should be a source of chronic embarrassment. Rowan Atkinson's role as an Italian-accented Mr. Bean-type character was abysmal. Atkinson is getting worse as he gets older. It's a shame that he seems to have peaked as a comedian in his 20's and to now be on the long, slippery slope to obscurity. Such a shame. The same might be said of John Cleese, except that it's hard to imagine him actually getting any worse. How can he have allowed himself to have reached such a low ebb that absolutely nothing he says is even remotely humorous? Both Cleese and Atkinson would have been better off had they stayed in England, but apparently the lure of Hollywood greenbacks was sufficient to overwhelm any remaining artistic ambitions they may have had. They're now like punch-drunk fighters who used to be contenders, but who now keep climbing into the ring for another paycheck - and another beating. I hope the pay is good.

None of the other performances are worth noting either, though Jon Lovitz does at least give us the very occasional chuckle. It's too bad he wasn't around to work for Mel Brooks, who could have made something of Lovitz' latent talents. I don't know what Whoopi Goldberg is supposed to have contributed to this film. She certainly isn't the least bit funny, and the same can be said of Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s performance. I guess the movie's makers just "showed him the money." The remaining cast members are lesser-known obscuranties whose careers will certainly not be helped by appearing in this kind of drivel. "Rat Race" is a slapstick B-movie made by people who think they are A-movie performers. Unfortunately, they're not even close.