Like weaker Happy Madison fare – with an excessively-lengthy runtime to boot – the humor of Ken Marino’s How to Be A Latin Lover is not rooted in the characters, who’re treated as mere pawns to facilitate stale gags.

Again and again the movie falls prey to the easiest way not to be funny: by looking like it’s trying too hard to be funny. The same can be said for the saccharine emotions these types of flicks forcibly stretch to induce.

It’s surprising box office cume thankfully proves that anyone – regardless of what they look like – can and should lead a movie nowadays. But they should and hopefully will be held to the same critical standards, especially when the material is so old hat, regardless of how fresh the face underneath.

The only way How to Be A Latin Lover should be celebrated is if its grosses convince studios to fund more multicultural comedies in the future. Chances are, they’ll be better than this…