Apatow wannabes ‘Miss’ mark in ‘March’

What a mess “Miss March” is. And I’m not just talking about the repeated involuntary bowel-evacuation moments.

A cut-rate Apatow-ish raunch comedy by a bargain-bin Paul Rudd (Zach Cregger) and a Jason Segal/Seann William Scott wannabe (Trevor Moore), this Playboy fantasy farce is one of those painful comedies in which the strain to be funny shows – always.

The stars of fringe cable TV’s “The Whitest Kids U Know” co-star, co-wrote and co-directed this comedy about two mismatched pals who take a road trip to see the ex-girlfriend who became a Playboy playmate.

Eugene (Cregger) is the nerdy guy who co-hosts abstinence lectures in middle schools with his chaste girlfriend, Cindi (Raquel Alessi). They’re saving themselves for marriage. Or at least prom night.

But on his way to a reluctant coupling, Eugene gets drunk, falls, bonks his head and slips into a four-year coma. Best-bud Tucker (Moore), the guy who got him drunk, revives him with a whack on the head with a baseball bat and takes his atrophied pal on a road trip to the Playboy Mansion, where Cindi has gone from Miss Purity to Miss March.

The abstinence lectures, complete with VD photo illustrations, are worth a giggle. But the road trip that is the heart of the movie is as dull as the real drive from mid-America to L.A.

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