Previous crimes against humanity have included I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (torture), Click (causing serious injury to health) and Mr Deeds (inhumane treatment of civilians).

Apparently this latest direct flouting of the Geneva Convention would not have got off the ground without a leg-up from Sandler's production company Happy Madison.

Despite a co-writing and directing credit for Saturday Night Live, writer Fred Wolf is guilty as charged of all the usual Sandler offences - dim-witted, women-hating, gross-out and - most grievous of all, your honour - not in the slightest bit funny.

Steve Zahn - who really should know better - plays Peter Caulke, the son of a legendary wildlife presenter, who never allows his lack of talent to prevent him making his own appalling shows.

However, with the ratings for his 3am slot on the slide, the blissfully unaware Caulke lucks out when he gets his hands on a map showing the whereabouts of the legendary Bigfoot's cave.

Recruiting the usual mob of misfits - stoner production assistant (Justin Long), alcoholic crew hand (Kevin Heffernan) and babelicious travel co-ordinator (Ashley Scott) they set off in their RV for the Central American jungle.

Pratfalls along the way include driver Danny (Peter Dante) getting savaged by a shark (a scene that wouldn't have passed muster on Crackerjack) and Peter and his assistant getting their teeth knocked out by a pair of Latino heavies (not funny… just rather sad).

However, the set piece by which the film hopes it will become notorious is one in where Zahn gets his pecker pecked by an amorous turkey. Mere words cannot convey how mind-sappingly dull this is.

The only bright spots are the occasional wrong-headed observations by Caulke like "80% of monkeys make up the whole of the world's monkey population."

Elsewhere, it's a comedy wilderness.

Tim Evans