When a bridegroom wakes up in bed with a party girl after his bachelor night the groans of recognition will be only slightly louder than the grinding of plot machinations.

It's an obvious device that's been used in countless feeble romantic comedies - so why should this be any different?

Well, the difference is scriptwriter Greg Glienna, who penned the comedy Meet The Parents, a rare collision of box office success and genuine laughs.

Handed a decent script, Lee shows he is a comic actor of some ability and is well cast as Paul, the slightly nerdish groom whose life is oh-so-tidily mapped out for him.

It transpires the girl in his bed - Becky (Stiles) - is none other than the cousin of his girl-next-door bride-to- be Karen (Blair).

Apart from having to face her during his wedding celebrations, he also finds himself face-to-face with her violently possessive ex-boyfriend.

There's a lot of stock scenarios - the embarrassing visit to the chemists, the culture clash between the prospective parents-in-law - but they're given a fresh comedy coat.

Director Chris Koch and Glienna appear all to aware of the formulaic pitfalls of this sort of thing and they are skilfully avoided.

Lee has an impressive repertoire of comic tics and timing while Stiles does kooky without the emotionally contrived wackiness of a Bullock.

You don't have to wait long before a decent line - check out Paul's defence against accusations his priest and neighbour was giving his crotch lingering looks.

"He's a man of the cloth," he insists. "Let's not accuse him of being some sort of weird pecker-peeper."

There's some really quite clever stuff going on here - a plot aware of its limitations (and willing to mock them) and a likeable cast thankfully never subjected to any gross-out cop-outs.

A pleasant surprise.

Tim Evans