Senseless

I suppose it's good to know that as long as Penelope Spheeris is around, David Spade will probably have a steady stream of pay-the-bills roles offered to him. Her comedies are always in need of someone who can essay a classic toadie character, and Spade, more than anyone else these days, can fit that bill. And with Chris Farley permanently out of the picture, it's unlikely that Spade will be moving on and up to, oh, Branagh-sized Shakespearean efforts anytime soon (although I still think he'd make a nifty Iago). That said, this newest laff-riot from the once and future director of The Decline of Western Civilization documentaries is a lamentable mess, chiefly made up of stale gags that went bad sometime during the Kennedy administration and a stunningly unengaging romance that has all the snap of a moist cotton swab. Wayans plays college student Darryl Witherspoon, a bright, clever guy whose one big dream is to secure a junior analyst position in Rip Torn's brokerage firm so he can support his poor mother. In an attempt to generate some quick cash and free up some study time, Darryl becomes a lab rat for mad professor Dr. Wheedon (Dourif, utterly insane, as always). Injected with a glowing green serum that looks suspiciously like the resurrecting agent from Re-Animator, Darryl's five senses are instantly heightened tenfold, giving him the ability to check out women's butts from a quarter-mile away, the power to eavesdrop on anyone, and a super-sensitive johnson. Now that's comedy! There are, of course, horrific side effects (though not nearly as horrific as you might have hoped) that pop up later, complicating Darryl's brokerage quest immeasurably; but for a while, these newfound abilities give him the edge over Spade's sniveling competition. In the meantime, Darryl strikes up a love jones with fellow student Taylor and convinces his roommate (Lillard) that he's a drug addict. Actually, it's Lillard who makes the only sense in Senseless; here he's a pierced and punctured punk rock hockey star, as spastic as ever, but always commanding attention. Lillard is in the process of becoming a sort of Steve Buscemi for the 13-25 set, appearing in everything from cult faves Hackers and Scream to Chris Roberts' upcoming Wing Commander film. Still, Senseless is essentially a weak mishmash of scatological humor and rubber-faced pratfalls (not surprisingly, it was penned by the same folks who brought us last fall's equally insipid Rocketman). Yet another case of an excessively accurate film titling.