What do you get when you cross Dude, Where's My Car? with Home Alone? A movie that would still be better than Saving Silverman.

To its credit, the 92-minute boys-play-cupid, slap-stick comedys groans eventually drown out any laughter from the audience.

Our hero, Darren Silverman, (Jason Biggs) joins his lifelong best friends, J.D. (Jack Black) and Wayne (Steve Zahn) in a band devoted to Neil Diamond covers. This aspect of the movie is actually one of its perks — for those who listened to Neil Diamond on family trips, the soundtrack is pure nostalgia.

We meet our heroine, Judith (Amanda Peet), at a bar where J.D. and Wayne wipe the drool off their chins before setting her up with Darren. "Whipped" only begins to describe the lovesick Darren in their ensuing relationship.

Judith is overly controlling, so J.D. and Wayne kidnap her and convince Darren she's been killed.

They set him up again, this time with Sandy (Amanda Detmer), Darren's old high school crush. An ex-circus performer and now an aspiring nun (groan), Sandy's role in the plan becomes apparent: keep Judith chained up in the basement long enough for Darren to fall in love with Sandy.

Enter plot conflict. In a Home Alone-esque escape scene, Judith breaks out of her captive state to find Darren falling in love with Sandy -- turns out she's passionate about Neil Diamond, too (Groan).

The tension is at an all-time clichéd high when Judith is "resurrected" and Darren finds himself in the ever-difficult love triangle. The movie grinds to a halt in a wedding scene with multiple plot twists.

Rescuing the movie from complete disaster is a certain celebrity cameo (if you can't figure out who I'm hinting at, this might just be your type of movie) as well as the performance of Jack Black as J.D. In a movie better suited to his talents, Black's comedic performance could really shine.

Short of Black and the occasional clever line, Saving Silverman should be saved from itself. Dude, where's the plot?

— Reviewed by Rennie Dyball