Paul Hogan isn't fooling anyone.

In Lightning Jack, his newest film, Hogan plays the same nice guy Australian character that he made famous in the "Crocodile" Dundee movies. In fact, the characters are so similar that this movie could have just as easily been called Crocodile Dundee Goes West.

It's as if Hogan's idea was to take the "Crocodile" out of his character's name and substitute "Lightning" in hopes of fooling audiences into thinking they were getting something new. They're not.

"Lightning" Jack Kane, named for his speed with a pistol, is an Australian outlaw who has come to America's Old West to further his bank-robbing career. The reasoning for his move is that since Australia was a colony, if you robbed a bank in one part, you'd be wanted throughout the land.

But in America, once you hit the state line, you're a free man. Although this is a rational explanation, it just came off as a method of explaining away Hogan's Aussie accent.

All that said, the movie actually is kind of funny. Jack, it seems, can't get a break. His gang is arrested in the first job they pull, and Jack only gets away by taking as hostage mute clerk Ben Doyle, who instead of being scared, wants to join Jack's gang.

Played admirably by Cuba Gooding Jr., Ben has the distinction of having no lines. But his facial expressions are highly expressive, and many of the movie's jokes stem from that one plot device.

When Ben asks to join Jack's gang, Jack laughs, "What are you going to do? Walk into a bank and write them a note?" But to show that Jack is really a nice guy, he later confides that although he'll make lots of jokes at Ben's expense, no one else will be allowed to if Ben rides with him. Awww.

But the movie's real problem lies with the script. The friendship of Jack and Ben, which should have progressed as a natural extension of the plot, actually becomes the plot. The movie meanders from one topic to another, from Ben's bungled robbery attempt to Jack's capture to the introduction of Jack's love interest Lana (an underwritten role that wastes Beverly D'Angelo's talents.)

In addition, the running gag of Jack's supernatural charms, which is funny at first, becomes so overused that it eventually becomes annoying.

Instead of choosing a plot and running with it, the film is more a series of episodes strung together as in a sketch comedy show. Hogan, who wrote the film, got his start as a comedian on just that type of program, and the lack of a cohesive plot shows it.

But the film is saved by a few noteworthy scenes. A spooky chase scene (or retreat, actually, from a tribe of Comanches) through echoey tunnels summons visions of a ride at Disney World. And watch for a cameo appearance by former Who member Roger Daltrey, who plays a bad-guy gunslinger. Daltrey is so bad he's hysterical.

Lightning Jack is basically just more of the same from Paul Hogan. It's up to you to decide whether or not that's a bad thing.