Tomcats

Directed by Gregory Poirier, Tomcats follows a group of friends, including Jerry O’Connell’s Michael, Jake Busey’s Kyle, and Horatio Sanz’s Steve, as they agree to participate in a bet designed to see which of them remains a bachelor the longest. Filmmaker Poirier, armed with his own screenplay, delivers a periodically amusing yet mostly tedious comedy that fares best in its relatively watchable opening stretch, as the movie benefits from its appealing performances and small assortment of genuinely funny jokes and gags – with the latter represented most keenly by a laugh-out-loud funny moment wherein Sanz’s Steve declares he’ll never get married and, in a perfectly-placed Gilligan cut, says his vows a second later. And although O’Connell and Shannon Elizabeth, cast as Michael’s love interest, are charming and engaging together, Tomcats progresses into a midsection that’s been suffused with one ill-conceived, less-than-hilarious set-piece after another (eg Kyle’s unwitting encounter with a dominatrix, Michael’s efforts at capturing a wayward testicle, etc) – which, when coupled with a far-from-satisfying closing stretch, cements the picture’s place as a distressing lowest-common-denominator endeavor that squanders its agreeable, talented cast.

*1/2 out of ****