Kissing a Fool (1998)

And you thought Ed scraped the bottom of the features-by-Friends-folks barrel. Wrong-o. Kissing a Fool is a coarse, tedious, unfunny, utterly disposable romantic comedy in which David Schwimmer showcases all of Ross Geller's worst traits — whining, noodginess, an addiction to hair goo — then adds braying, hamminess, and an addiction to barking ''f---'' to show he's free of TV's fusty language restrictions. Schwimmer plays Max, a smarmy, anti-intellectual, womanizing Chicago sportscaster who panics about his impending marriage to Samantha, a smart, pretty, pleasant book editor (Israeli film star Mili Avital). Wriggling for a way out of the engagement (because in a sitcom world, all young men are permanent adolescents), Max encourages his slightly more humanoid best friend, Jay (Chasing Amy's Jason Lee, demonstrating about as much character as a spiral notebook), to test Sam's faithfulness. Who will the young woman in the middle end up with? Who cares? Directed and cowritten like a failed TV pilot by Doug Ellin (who previously worked with Schwimmer on a couple of short films), the thing stumbles along in a procession of cliché setups, and only the occasional appearance of the crackling Bonnie Hunt, bless her, as Sam's boss, may keep you from emitting permanent-adolescent catcalls all your own. D-