What is the point of spoofing a series of movies that are effortlessly funnier than the offering you finish up with?

This dodgy vehicle for American Pie's Alyson Hannigan plucks memorable scenes from date movies such as Meet The Fokkers and My Best Friend's Wedding.

Then does nothing with them.

It's a risky strategy...particularly when dealing with genuine gag fests such as 40-year-old Virgin against which this looks decidedely thin gruel.

The always likeable Hannigan plays Julia Jones, a waitress in a Greek cafe who goes on the hunt for a man after having a particularly gruelling makeover at a, erm, car repair shop.

She finds him in the hilariously monikered Grant Funkyerdoder (geddit?), an English fop who introduces her to his parents - the Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand characters from Meet The Fokkers.

Along the way, Hitch, Shallow Hal, Wedding Crashers and even Napoleon Dynamite the get the ham-fisted skit treatment.

The trouble is directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer - a third of the Scary Movie writing team - couldn't tell the difference between parody and chiropody.

Brief bright spots include Jennifer Coolidge's take on Streisand's Jewish mother and a sequence involving Michael Jackson, a cuddly toy and a minor. Don't ask.

However, your condolences go out to the game Hannigan when she has to compete with a scene featuring a cat dry-humping a dessicated corpse.

The whole, woeful caboodle is a desperately limp attempt to try something that even French & Saunders achieve with comparatively effortless panache.

This is one date you'll want to stand up.

Tim Evans