It's been a strange journey for The Rock - from the rigged wrestling ring of the WWE to good-natured man-who-would-be-Schwarzenegger.

During the trip he's enjoyed stop-offs as The Scorpion King in The Mummy series, a gay Samoan bodyguard in Be Cool and an interstellar alien tracker in Doom.

(He also played someone but he's not sure exactly who in Richard "Donnie Darko" Kelly's barking Southland Tales.)

Now he faces one of his toughest challenges yet (yes, one even more intimidating than "The Brooklyn Brawler") as a kids' comedy lead that doesn't make you want to throw up.

Like the affable pro that he is, Dwayne Johnson (he's also undergone a name change) emerges unscathed from an ordeal which has not been so kind to others (cf Eddie Murphy in Daddy Day Care).

Johnson plays Joe Kingman, self-obsessed superstar quarterback of the Boston Rebels and narcissistic bachelor-about-town. A life unfettered by a wife and kids revolves around parties in his hi-tech apartment and swaggering about in a Mercedes sport.

Joe's kept in gadgets and designer threads by corporate gorgon Kyra Sedgwick, a public relations hag who negotiates his lucrative endorsements.

However, his world - as they say - turns upside down when eight-year-old Peyton (Pettis) turns up at the door of his luxury pad.

It turns out she's the daughter he never knew he had and has been dumped on him by her mum (and his ex) after she was called off to Africa on urgent de-salination plant business.

Rather than do the sensible thing and place her in an orphanage on a temporary basis, a reluctant Joe takes on the role of primary carer.

We've been here any number of times before - cue wrecked kitchen, overflowing bubble bath and tears before bedtime - but it's the strength of the playing that carries this through.

Johnson is a genuine star - an amiable yet charismatic lead seemingly unbuoyed by false ego and in possession of a ready line in self-deprecating wit.

It goes on a bit - the near two hours running time will have many kids squirming - and we could have done without a lecture on product placement from the likes of Disney.

Yet it charms - despite hitting the odd seam of schmaltz - and teenagers will find much to tempt them away from their X-Boxes and PSPs.

Game on.

Tim Evans