Bridesmaids (Paul Feig, 2011)

What is it about? Annie (Kristen Wiig) is a down-on-her-luck single thirtysomething who is asked by her best friend to be maid of honour at her forthcoming wedding. When Annie meets the other bridesmaids, though, she finds herself competing to impress, leading to one embarrassing situation after another. Will it all turn out okay in the end? Take a wild guess.

Is it any good? There's a moment near the start of Bridesmaids where Wiig does a funny impression of a penis during a heart-to-heart chat with her friend when I thought this might actually be alright. Sadly, the penis impressions soon dry up, and it drifts into not-very-funny territory involving one or more of (a) women being bitchy to each other (b) cringeworthy moments (c) women saying bad words (d) shit, none of which are likely to raise more than a half-hearted chuckle and all of which overstay their welcome. It's not offensively bad like Sex & the City, it's just, well, rather forgettable. Wiig, who also co-wrote, is a likeable enough lead and Ricky Gervais gets some laughs as the fat chick. At least I think it was him. Ironically, though, it's two men who come out of it best; Jon Hamm, who has fun sending up his sex symbol image, and Chris O'Dowd, who invests Annie's thinly drawn love interest with a considerable amount of charm. And rather than it being an empowering film for females, surely there must be women out there who feel slightly insulted that 'sorting out your life' means baking a cake, asking men to fix things for you and singing along to Wilson Phillips? I mean Wilson Phillips are good, but they're no Bananarama.

I don't trust you. What do others think? Ah, look, there was a whole pile of people clamouring to suggest this film was a noble strike for sisterhood, proving that women too can be funny. I'd say that was more a damning indictment of how people's standards have lowered, both in terms of their expectations of films and of funny women. If it was so fresh and fearless, why was it marketed as the female Hangover and why shoehorn in moments of laddish toilet humour from producer Judd Apatow's previous films? It's all been done before, and it wasn't that funny the first time, so changing the gender isn't the solution - writing better jokes is. Wiig seems game for a laugh, though, and deserves better material to work with - she should have a word with the writers. Oh, wait.

What does the Fonz think? Thumb down. If you're female, feel free to invert it. You'll be wrong, but feel free anyway.

Buy it on Amazon