Buying the Cow

This generic sex comedy--about a guy who can't decide whether or not to marry his girlfriend because he's still obsessed with a girl he saw in an airport when he was a teenager--really has only one thing to recommend it: Ryan Reynolds (Coming Soon, Van Wilder). Reynolds plays the main character's horndog friend who becomes convinced he's gay, and while much of his material is of dubious taste and quality, Reynolds has a mixture of ironic detachment and actor commitment that makes the most of his role. Everyone else--Jerry O'Connell (as the obsessed guy), Bridgette L. Wilson (as his understandably frustrated girlfriend), Ron Livingston, Bill Bellamy, and Alyssa Milano--have their moments, but the script doesn't offer them much to work with. When it isn't drowning in clichés about men and women, it's trying way too hard to be "over the top." --Bret Fetzer