The success of a film like this depends on the strength of the lead character, in this case Rob Schneider.

He's a veteran of Saturday Night Live and also starred in and co-wrote Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo as well as appearing in The Waterboy and Big Daddy.

Schneider looks like a hybrid of a young Ken Dodd (except he's not so funny), Friends' David Schwimmer and the loser to be found in every American screwball comedy.

Here he plays police evidence clerk Marvin Mange, who has dreams of becoming a proper police officer like his late father.

Following a terrible road accident his mangled body is spirited off by a mad professor (Michael Caton) and he is rebuilt using animal parts (the plot goes slightly awry here).

His new body makeup gives him the strength of a mountain lion, the agility of a chimpanzee and, er, the sex drive of a goat.

Equipped with his new powers he immediately tracks down a drugs courier at the local airport and is quickly recruited into the police ranks proper.

However, his animal urges are beginning to take over; cue a rather unpleasant scene involving a goat and a gag which owes more to An American Werewolf in London than Deuce Bigalow.

Eventually, Marvin finds himself the hunted and it looks like his love interest Colleen Haskell as an animal rights campaigner is the only one who can save him.

Schneider is an engaging enough lead but the comedy continually leans towards the puerile when there's scope for far more sophisticated fare.

There's a lot of entertainment value in the supports with Ed Asner as the slightly strange Chief Wilson a particular pleasure.

However, this is really more of the same with no risks being taken save how far down the tasteless trail the writers can take us.