Enemies of Laughter Movie Review

Yet another entry into a genre popularized in the late-1990s: The Hollywood romantic comedy about the successful man who just can't make romance work. (Later this would evolve into the woman who just can't make romance work genre, followed by the lesbian who just can't make romance work genre).

Saddled with the worst title you could give to a comedy, Enemies of Laughter gives us David Paymer as Paul, a semi-failed sitcom writer whose experiences in Hollywood are echoed in his love life. He ends up on dozens of dates with your typical collection of L.A. airheads, but it isn't until he meets Carla (Rosalind Chao) that Paul figures he's met his match. Too bad he ruins their date with paranoid crazy-talk, sending Carla running for the hills.

If Paymer and Chao had any chemistry together we might be more interested in their budding romance, but as it stands, things never get hotter than a mild flirtation. The rest of the movie -- which wraps this story with characters like a long-haired Judge Reinhold and the double-shot of Bea Arthur and Peter Falk as Paul's parents -- never makes for much comedy aside from cameo-watching. Director Joey Travolta (John's brother) turns in another workmanlike piece in a career that now spans 13 movies you have never heard of.

Enemies of innovation.