Home Fries MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 Content: -1

The talents of two appealing actors, perky Drew Barrymore and clean-cut Luke Wilson, are wasted on this tiresome romantic comedy. Sally (Barrymore) works at the drive-through window of a small town Burger-Matic. Sally is about eight months pregnant, and the father of her unborn child, Henry Lever (Chris Ellis), has been found dead. His grieving wife (Catharine O'Hara) knows Henry was cheating on her, and has plotted revenge. Sally just recently learned that Henry was married and refused to continue seeing him. Suddenly handsome Dorian (Wilson) starts working at the Burger-Matic, but Sally doesn't know he is the stepson of her ex-lover and Dorian doesn't know she was his stepfather's mistress. We know that Dorian and his fiendish brother, Angus (Jake Busey), have been coerced by their mother to find her husband's lover. And we know they had terrorized her husband the night he died. But Dorian and Sally don't know what we know and they fall in love. Teenagers will probably be Home Fries' primary audience, but it's not really funny and only mildly romantic.

Sally has a drunk father who interrupts his five-year-old son's birthday party pointing a rifle at the guests. Certainly Dorian's home life leaves much to be desired as well. His mother and brother feel murder of a cheating husband and his girlfriend is justified and they force Dorian to participate in dastardly deeds. The brothers terrorize Henry by chasing him with a helicopter on a lonely road, forcing him out of his car and firing at him. Later Angus uses the helicopter to terrorize Sally and her family, then chases her and Dorian as they escape in a pickup truck. Four s words, a few regular profanities and many crudities clutter the dialogue. When Sally asks Dorian to attend Lamaze classes with her to help her prepare for labor, he agrees even though they have just met. The experience sparks the beginning of their relationship, but is not sensual. His mother and Angus both pay dearly for their criminal behavior. The violence seems contrived, as though it's thrown in just to hold the attention of teenage boys. HOME FRIES may not seriously harm young minds, but it certainly has some offensive language and little nourishment for the soul.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Warner Bros., 4000 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA 91522