Daft doesn't quite do it. Preposterous is getting there...and ludicrous isn't far off the mark either.

No, the word is risible.

This thriller-without-thrills takes the concept of "so-bad-it's-good" and propels it at Mach 2 to a firmament only dreamt about by connoisseurs of the truly dodgy.

Cole Hauser is Bo Laramie (where do they get these names?) a good ole' Montana boy catapulted onto the Hollywood A-list by dint of action movies such as Adrenaline Rush 2.

However, the price of fame is an unwarranted invasion of privacy...and king of the invaders is paparazzi supremo Rex Harper (Sizemore), a tabloid sleazeball who will stop at nothing to get the shot he wants.

He leads a band of snappers - including cocky cockney sparra Tom Hollander and greaser Daniel Baldwin - who tout telephoto lenses like sniper's rifles and refer to themselves as "the last of the real hunters".

It's not nice...and then things nastier when Bo bops Rex for taking sneaky snaps of his six-year-old son only for the sleazy lowlife to sue Bo for half a million dollars and vow to - nice touch this - "destroy your life and eat your soul".

Soon the lovable Laramies are stalked by prying lenses until a car chase where Rex and his cohorts shunt Bo's saloon results in Mrs Laramie having a spleen removed and little Zack in a coma.

Bo's not happy. You can tell he's not happy because he broods in Zach's bedroom while sunlight streams in through the blinds onto the youngster's toys. Enough morbid introspection - it's payback time.

Some insight into this banquet of wafer-thin characterisation, worn-out cliches and dumb dialogue could be drawn from the fact the debut director Paul Abascal began his Hollywood career as a hair stylist on the The Osterman Weekend.

Little Mel Gibson's also in on the act - as a producer - and the whole thing reeks of that celebrity paranoia and uppity cockiness the Lethal Weapon star has made his own in a series of revenge fantasies.

It's one of those horribly self-conscious Hollywood films about Hollywood: can you really feel any pity for a beachfront-dwelling movie star whose happy to trouser the moulah but gets cross when a supermarket magazine runs a few grainy pictures of him National Inquirer-style.

However, despite all that, it's a scream. Snort as names like Nicole Kidman and George Clooney are casually dropped into the script to buy credibility.

Laugh at cop Dennis Farina's shambling imitation of Columbo. Hoot as the bad guys go down when Bo refuses to play by the rules.

Pararazzi is a picture worth a thousand words. Most of them rude.

Tim Evans