No joke too obvious

A school geek (DJ Qualls, who resembles what a pointy-nosed Pinocchio would look like if he'd grown to adolescence and gone to college) gets himself expelled so that he can reinvent himself as a rebel-without-a-pause on a new Texas campus where his impersonation of General Patton in front of the Stars and Stripes peps up the football team, while his championing of unpopular kids teaches love and respect to the locker-room mob - for a bit.

No scene, shot or setpiece parody of US educationasshowbiz will tax the attention span of the dumb-and-dumber crowd for whom The New Guy was conceived.

Every gag begins with verbal abuse and ends with physical assault; every student's anatomy is abnormal, whether outsize, gawky, midget, obese or anorexic; every chance is taken for jokes about erections, testicles and bodily fluids, since director Ed Decter also scripted There's Something About Mary and tumescence goes a long way.

Lyle Lovett plays the hero's dad: money must be tight. DJ Qualls: aiming at the dumb and dumber crowd.

The New Guy
Cert: cert12A