On The Line MPAA Rating: PG Entertainment: +1 Content: +1

NSync band member James Lance Bass plays Kevin Gibbons, who works for an advertising agency in Chicago. Commuting on the El, he strikes up a conversation with an attractive young woman (Emmanuelle Chriqui), but fails to get her name. His lifelong friends and apartment mates, Rod, Eric and Randy (Joey Fatone, Gregory Qaiyum and James Bulliard) remind Kevin that he always lacks initiative in his dismal attempts to meet girls. Determined to find the girl of his dreams, Kevin plasters posters all over downtown asking her to call. To the delight of his friends, hundreds of calls come in, and the newspaper decides to do a feature story about Kevin. NSyncs members and music will attract teenage fans, but the sophomoric humor, unappealing characters and amateurish production should dash any hopes for a long line at the box office.

Kevin's friends make crude remarks about hygiene and bathroom habits and overweight Rod's flatulence problems are a source of much of ON THE LINE's humor. Under the pretense of being Kevin, his roommates screen Kevin's telephone messages and make dates with many of the callers. Some unattractive women, desperate to meet a man, become the brunt of the guys' cruel jokes. At work, Kevin spends time in the mailroom seeking advice from elderly Nathan (Jerry Stiller), who graphically describes his digestive problems. Some crude words, one mild obscenity and a slang word for sex slightly mar the dialogue. ON THE LINE avoids sex, nudity, profanities, and s- or f-words. But the men's mean-spirited remarks about women, and crude humor barely avoid crossing the line into objectionable territory.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Miramax Films (Disney), 375 Greenwich St., NY, NY 10013